$10 or less: Pluckers has 16 sauces, lots of flavor and jumbo-size wings

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By Stephanie De Pasquale | Wednesday, July 9, 2008 10:11 PM CDT | () comments

Plucker's Grill and Bar, 1720 E. Kimberly Road, Davenport has 45-cent boned wings on Tuesday. (John Schultz/Quad-City Times) Buy this Photo

Plucker's Grill and Bar, 1720 E. Kimberly Road, Davenport. (John Schultz/Quad-City Times) Buy this Photo

VIDEO: $10 or less: Pluckers
Pluckers specializes in wing sauce for the brave and the chicken.…
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It took Rich Yeargle, the owner of Pluckers Grill and Bar in Davenport, more than a year to develop the 12 original sauces used on his signature chicken wings.

Yeargle was living in St. Louis at the time and began to create sweeter sauces first.

“I would eat chicken wings almost once a week, and I would create these sauces and I would get to a point where I thought it was decent enough where I could share with my friends and family,” he said. “So, I would come back here to the Quad-Cities, where I have lots of friends and I’d invite them all over to the house and we’d try these wings.”

About once a month, Yeargle would return to the Quad-Cities, after tweaking his recipes in the meantime. One recipe that his friends didn’t like at first was his Caribbean Jerk sauce. The end result is a mild flavor with a slight heat, but getting there was a process.

“The Caribbean Jerk was one of the hardest ones,” he said. “There’s 15 different seasonings in it, and it was very hard to come up with that. I think a little luck fell into place there, too.”

Since opening Pluckers with 12 wing sauces in 2005, Yeargle has added four more to the menu and will add an additional two within the next three to four months.

One of the new sauces has a parmesan taste, which Yeargle also plans to use in salads, and the second is a honey chipotle sauce.

“With the honey, it’s very sweet and then turns spicy,” he said. “It’s very similar to a barbecue sauce if folks have had barbecue before. But the chipotle has a smoked jalapeno flavor, which, adding the honey and the chipotle together, it creates a unique taste.”

Yeargle’s wing sauces range from very mild to hot and spicy. He created the sweeter sauces to cater to those who like wings but not spicy food.

Mary Rickertsen appreciates the variety of sauce choices for wings. She normally orders an Italian beef sandwich and a side order of spicy garlic wings.

“There’s been a few places that I’ve had wings that are pretty good, but they don’t have choices of sauces like here, and that’s what I like about this place,” said Rickertsen, who is more than filled up by eating her regular order. “I haven’t had breakfast, I haven’t had lunch, so this is the perfect place to eat dinner. It don’t get no better than this.”

The chicken wings come in a jumbo size and are $6.99 for a basket of six boneless wings and fries.

On Tuesdays, boned wings are 45 cents each with a minimum order of three, and boneless wings are 50 cents each on Thursdays with a minimum order of three.

While Pluckers focuses on chicken, it also serves several sandwiches, wraps and burgers that all come to $10 or less with a drink and a tip.

The restaurant also offers a two-for-one drink special on any beverage, except top-shelf liquors, from 4 to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday and sells $1.25 drafts during televised Chicago Cubs games.

What: Pluckers Grill and Bar

Hours: 11 a.m. to midnight every day

Where: 1720 E. Kimberly Road, Davenport

Specialties: Wings with your choice of 16 sauces ranging from sweet to very spicy

Where’s your favorite spot?: Do you know of a Quad-City area restaurant, bar or entertainment venue where a meal or a night out costs $10 or less per person? Give your ideas to entertainment reporter Stephanie De Pasquale.

More online: At Pluckers Grill and Bar, chicken wings don’t necessarily mean spicy. There are 16 flavors of sauce to chose from, all the way from very mild to hot and spicy. Watch the video on qctimes.tv.

Stephanie De Pasquale can be contacted at (563) 333-2639 or sdepasquale@qctimes.com. Comment on this story at qctimes.com.