First Look: Boozy Bird Brings Beer Pong, Wings and Bird Puns

What once held the Carrollton ChopShop Sports Garage is now the new home of Boozy Bird. It’s a more or less even swap of  burgers, bar grub and automotive puns for wings, tenders and bird puns. There are also video games, a pool table, a ping pong table and not one but two dedicated beer-pong tables resting upon astroturf. It all really lets you forget you’re inside a chicken-themed bar in a strip mall in Carrollton. Well, that’s probably the goal, anyway.

Boozy Bird has several beverage options, and they seem especially proud of the selection of over 40 local and Texas canned beers, ranging from $3.75 to $5 each and including Altstadt Heffe, Lakewood Temptress, Four Corners Local Buzz and Karbach Hopadillo.

There are also Clucktails (bird puns, remember) with such choices as a Sassy Hen, Trippy Chick and Feathered Fury for $8. If you want to go smaller, they have Chicken Littles (see?) for $5 that are little tiny cocktails such as the Royal Cluck, Flip the Bird or Cluck Norris (get it?).

We split the difference, ordering a cheeky chick-tini and a Mexican roosterada. The chick-tini was prepared with Astral reposado tequila, pineapple, lemon and roasted serrano. The roosterada was a take on a Michelada: Texican lager with Zing Zang bloody mary mix, chile con limon and tajin seasoning. Both were just fine, especially at $8 a pop; the ‘tini was a bit spicy, the rooster cool and refreshing with the remaining half-can of beer on the side.

For a starter, we went with Boozy’s take on the Scotch egg, called Great Balls of Fire on the menu (for some reason, this egg dish inexplicably didn’t get the avian pun treatment. Odd.). Two whole hard-boiled eggs have been given a spicy Italian sausage and Flamin’ Hot Cheetos crust treatment, accompanied by some honey mustard. The crust didn’t really taste Flamin’ Hot, but the Cheetos did impart a slight orange hue to the crust.

Typical of chicken wing places, Boozy Bird offers sizes and varieties of wings and tenders, with several sauce and rub options such as Boozy BBQ, Jamaican jerk, General Tao, Sichuan and Buffalo. Rubs let you pick from salt and vinegar, Italian Parmesan, pink peppercorn and lemon, chimichurri and Old Bay among others. Sizes range from a sample (1 wing) for $3 and multiples of 10 up to a bucket (50 wings and five flavors) for $70.

We tried three samples with two sauces and a rub: KFC (Korean fried chicken) and spicy apricot glaze sauce and the black truffle sriracha rub. We were hoping for a mixture of wingettes and drumettes, but alas were given only wingettes. After this initial crushing disappointment, we rallied and decided to soldier on. All three were good, but the favorite was the truffle sriracha-rubbed wingette; it was also a lot less messy than the two sauced pieces. The apricot was a good combo of sweet, tang and spice, and the KFC was fine but not memorable.

For our sandwich, we went with the Crazy Hot Asian. (Movie puns now?) It’s chicken tenders, Sichuan pepper, green curry ranch, pickle chips and lettuce on a bun, served with fries. It was good, but does it make up for having to say “I’ll have the Crazy Hot Asian” to the server? You’ll have to make your own decision, Dear Reader.

Dessert options include a milkshake and freshly baked cookies, and there are some extras like onion rings, slaw and extra carrots and celery ($3) for the health nuts. However, don’t worry about counting calories; just work off your lunch with a couple of rousing games of beer pong in the back. Flock it.

2661 Midway Road, No. 109, Carrollton. Daily, 11 a.m. – 2 a.m.