The Hofbrau — Restaurant in Canonsburg

Do you long for the days when you were a child and you ate mom's home-cooked meals while fighting back a flood of tears as your parents argued violently in the other room? If so, you'll love the ambiance at New Hofbrau. My colleagues and I arrived at this fine establishment for lunch this morning, and found we were the first patrons to arrive for the day. As we entered, we found ourselves steeped in an atmosphere that had the subtle charm and elegant decor of the back office in a trailer park strip club. In fact, they may have broken some major law of physics with the sheer amount of garbage they managed to stuff on the walls - even the flags hanging on the windows seem to have impossibly started growing rust. And while someone had the eloquent idea of framing a coffee-stained photo, the true highlight of the decor is easily the 16-inch CRT television from 1992 hanging on the wall - because when I go to the bar I want to watch the big game on the smallest possible screen at the lowest possible resolution. Now that's nostalgia. After being wowed by the decorative mastermind behind the interior design, it was finally time to try out what could only be the delicate cookings of a five-star chef. Everyone in our group ordered the wings, and they were, somewhat surprisingly, pretty delicious: they were as crispy as the fall air, as juicy as the freshest pear, and covered in more sauce than a couple of drunken mud wrestlers. As I pleasantly devoured the quality meal presented to me, I didn't think things could get much better. And then it was revealed that every order of wings comes with a free side of domestic violence, and things took a turn for the entertaining. From the kitchen we heard the shouts of a raging mad man, screams filled with bouts of profanity so intense they made Martin Scorsese look like Kermit the Frog, as the manager and his cook crescendoed into an argument that lasted for over 25 minutes. We could hear things being thrown and smashed in the back as the manager berated his female cook in more demeaning ways than I could count. While a little disconcerting, this whole episode was mostly pure entertainment, and, just when I didn't think things could get better still, it happened: the manager came storming out of the kitchen into the dining area and revealed himself to be a Danny DeVito lookalike wearing an overly tight T-shirt and the world's ugliest wool, knitted tossle cap - complete with fuzzy ball on top. This is when it hit me - only the man who would wear such a ridiculous item on his head indoors could be the genius who spearheaded the interior design. It had all come full circle. This 5-star dining experience was complete. In fact, everyone's dining experience was complete, as the verbally-abused cook apparently stormed out in a fit of rage, and it was announced that no further food would be served. All in all, I would give the food 3 stars, but the entertainment and completely indiscriminate environment make this place a 5-star establishment. I will definitely be returning. New Hofbrau: come for the food, stay for the live entertainment. Because who cares if the TV is only 16-inches when the manager will completely trash his own kitchen and berate his employees in front of you for the price...

Neighborhood location with no website, but a presence on facebook. Friends of ours are always on the hunt for places that have decent chicken wings with good sauces and we were told that this place offers that. Tuesday and Thursday nights have Wing Specials (95 cents per wing for as many as you want) so we came to try it out.

The place is "unprepossessing" to say the least. It's dated and looks like what it is - a dive bar. Not much in the way of beer selection and a menu limited to burgers, fries, and sandwiches. We came for the wings though, and they offer more than a dozen sauces in both wet and dry types and various heat levels. So, we tried eight different ones amongst the four of us. One of us got the chicken tenders as we did not all want to deal with the bones. The waitress told us that for tenders, you only get about four, so we ordered two portions. Oops! What we got was enough for four people!

The sauces went the gamut from a lemon pepper dry rub to their hottest sauce which was habanero based and consequently packed a nice punch. Service was quick although the tenders did come out quite a few minutes after all the orders of the Wings, which was odd. Side salads were pretty standard.

Not expensive and definitely...

Stopped down last night and had a great time! Had the "wet" Cajun, hot garlic parm, honey garlic and lemon pepper and I can honestly say, those wings were second only to Drovers. Wing sizes were perfect, came out piping hot and they had they exact crispness that I love. The waitress/bartender (who's name I didn't get) was the perfect combo of attentive but didn't hover and was extremely friendly. She did point out that wing nights (Tuesday and Thursday) can get really hectic and most times there's a line of people out the door.

I'm assuming the handful of people who gave this place a bad review are Southpointe, yuppie jagoffs. Look, its a bar in Canonsburg that serves incredible wings; if you want a fine dining experience, go somewhere else. If you wanna eat great wings, drink cold beer and watch a Pens/Steelers game, go here.

We will...