Jumbo wings at The Nicollet Diner

Wings are honest food. They are not trying to be a brand. They are trying to be hot, sauced, and gone.

We do jumbo whole wings and boneless. Ranch or blue cheese. There is a homemade peanut sauce in the mix if you want to wander off the usual path. I am not going to write a poem about crispiness. You know it when the first one holds and the second one makes you reach for a napkin you will not use correctly.

On the Rox runs a Wing Fling on Wednesdays — five for five, 7 to 9 p.m. — because sometimes downtown needs a midweek reason that is not another meeting. The diner will still send wings at hours when the patio is closed and the only view is the ticket printer. That is the point of a 24-hour kitchen. The craving does not wait for a daypart.

I have strong feelings about boneless versus whole, and I keep them in the family. Whole wings are a project. Boneless are a strategy. Both belong on a late night table next to a stack of napkins and someone saying "we should probably go" while ordering another round.

Wings also travel well with the rest of the building. People eat them before a Friday show at Roxy's. People eat them on the rooftop patio when the weather pretends to be decent. People eat them at the diner counter after they have already had a burger and decided discipline is a daytime activity. We are not the food police.

If you are the guest who wants a tidy downtown dinner — cloth napkin, quiet room, a wine list that takes itself seriously — we can point you at a dozen excellent places. If you want jumbo wings in a diner that is still awake when the rest of Nicollet Mall has gone home, you know where the door is.

— Sam