As the credits for “Friends” begin to roll, you click off your television and realize the dull rumble you thought was coming from your roommate’s subwoofer is actually your stomach growling. After debating your options you and your roommates decide to go for some cheese steaks and wings. You dial up Mr. Spot’s, and as the employee curtly takes your order, you are satisfied that your hunger will soon be satiated. Little did you know that the $15 order would become an hour-long ordeal as Mr. Spot’s once again fell through on the delivery front.
Moral of the story: Good wings don’t guarantee good delivery.
Located on South State Street by the corner of Hill Street, Mr. Spots has one of the best locations on campus – they are close to everyone. With delivery service available at most competing food providers, it is no wonder that Mr. Spot’s feels compelled to deliver to remain competitive in the late night drunk/stoned munchy department that characterizes the life of so many college students.
But there comes a point where one must say enough is enough, and to Spot’s I must say, “If you hate delivery so much, don’t do it.”
Though Mr. Spot’s is the hands down undisputed champion of the chicken wing, the perennial winner of Best of Ann Arbor’s best wings award is no one trick pony. Mr. Spot’s offers a wide variety of food, including some of the best cheese steaks this side of Philly. While the rest of the food deserves its due, people stop in Spot’s for one thing – wings. These infamous nuggets of saucy goodness have netted Spot’s the award for best wings since 1989, a tradition that is older than some of those skateboard punks in the Diag.
The wings come in three flavors: suicide, original buffalo and Spot’s own, or as normal people call it, barbecue – that crafty cat. They come in orders of a half dozen, dozen, two dozen or the bucket of 50.
Dine-in or carry-out, you would be hard pressed to find a better combination of ambience, service and cuisine. The dorm room-sized dining area possesses a homey quality with its Formica tables and counter tops that is as much a hot meal in your kitchen as a five-star dining experience.
It is a shame that a restaurant that excels in almost every other facet of the business would be so marred by a thing such as delivery, an optional service meant to entice more customers. With a well established niche Spot’s needn’t pander to the masses by motoring around the pedestrian-packed streets of Ann Arbor to deliver the city’s finest wings.
But subtracting the two minutes of travel time plus the seven minutes of preparation time, Spot’s delivery generally finds ways to waste at least 50-plus minutes of its standard allotted “hour” of delivery time. If you are thinking about calling on a big gameday such as the Ohio State football game don’t even bother, the chances of them picking up the phone or completing your order in less than a couple hours is about as good as one of the delivery guys misreading an address and bringing food to your house by mistake.
All in all Spot’s is one of Ann Arbor’s finest restaurants. Its delivery service could use a change, but hey, nobody is perfect.