Critic's Review
Duffy's snagged yet another Roadhouse Grill to create this enormous sports bar on the corner of Linton and US1 in Delray Beach. They don't have a lot of outside space; just some tables on the porch, and there are limited TVs outside. To watch all of the games, you'll need to go inside.
Every Duffy's other than Fort Lauderdale seems to disappoint me; maybe its the green walls. In Fort Lauderdale they have brick so it doesn't remind me of Fenway Park as much. The layout of this one is very open. There's a raised bar with lots of really big TVs, and 4 big projection TVs at the center of each wall. Below there's a dining room with lots of seats and lots of big sets to watch from anywhere you're sitting.
I was surprised by the lack of crowd here at 3pm on an NFL Sunday; you can barely find a parking spot and you have no chance of getting a seat in Fort Lauderdale. This place was pretty empty; lots of seats in the restaurant while all of the seats at the bar were taken before 4pm. The pictures here were taken after 4pm so most of the early crowd had already left.
The people here are very laid back. All of the hooligans seem to be at Bru's Room in this town. This crowd was decidedly older and mellow. This is were the 50yo men go to watch their teams and flirt with the waitresses; and groups of younger people who want to focus on the games and not the scene.
I came in for a late lunch after a failed attempt to check out the Grand Tavern; they have 40% off all food from 2pm to 4pm during the week. I know better than to order a steak at duffys, but it was my cheat day so I had to pig out. I decided to try the chili and get some wings. I was curious about the wings; the first wings I had in Plantation were excellent, but Fort Lauderdale weren't as good.
Service here was odd at best. I ordered some iced tea, which is a big glass served with a mini-strip of lemon. I asked for more and a glass of mini-strips were delivered. The chili came out fast; it came with a spoon but I had no napkins or a roll-up.
It seemed a bit heavy on the onions and short on cheese, but mixing it all up made it moot. The chili was decent if not a bit under-seasoned. The piece of bread they gave me was clearly ripped from a loaf rather than a measured cut. It's a bit sloppy eating chili with a big spoon, so I had to grab some cocktail napkins to keep clean. While I was eating the chili my server dropped off a basket for the wing bones with a wet nap; but no paper napkins.
Before I finished the soup, the wings came out; another unique presentation at another Duffy's.
These wings were cooked to a deeper brown than others I've had at Duffy's, and just look at the proportion of wings to blue cheese. This was the smallest thimble of blue cheese I've gotten. The first wings I'd gotten in Plantation came with 3 times as much blue cheese and I was impressed. I don't know if it's a per-store issue or if they're cutting back.
At this point I'm sitting with a big plate of messy wings and I have no napkins, and I have an empty glass of iced tea. The servers here don't scan the bar; you have to flag them down. I asked for napkins; but Duffy's no longer has paper napkins I was told. She then offered me a roll up which has a linen napkin. While I prefer paper napkins, I should have been offered some sort of napkins with wings other than just a wet nap; which are strictly post-meal. I'll assume that it's cheaper to wash napkins than to buy paper napkins, because it makes no sense for a place that serves a lot of messy finger food to offer only linen napkins. I grabbed a stack of cocktail napkins and used those.
These wings were a but messy (notice how nicely stacked and dry the Plantation Wings are in the gallery below). I also had to ration the blue cheese so I didn't run out. Why give 40% off and then cheap out on the blue cheese?
Getting them to take my CC was a task also; again I had to flag someone down. It wasn't that crowded; I shouldn't have to work so hard to get service.
Photo Gallery
