Turkey Joe's: more than wings

An unbroken line of TV screens glowed on every wall, flashing action-packed images of basketball, baseball, hockey and golf.

It turns out that Turkey Joe's isn't run by an immigrant from Istanbul. It's an east Louisville sports bar. I tend to be skeptical about dining in sports bars. It's rare to find one that puts interesting food on the table. And I tend to be skeptical about restaurants situated on the clean-scrubbed, impersonal stretches of Hurstbourne Parkway that seem utterly unconnected to any sort of real neighborhood.

And finally, I tend to be skeptical about restaurants like Turkey Joe's that make such a big deal of their chicken wings that they offer a full dozen sauce options, gilding the lily of Buffalo heat levels with such inventive riffs as sesame-hoisin, sweet chili, honey chipotle, garlic Parmesan and spicy peanut. Call me old-fashioned, but I reckon once a kitchen crosses the five-sauce barrier, it's just showing off.