Quarry House Tavern

8401 Georgia Ave, Silver Spring, MD

During the off season of kickball with the Wackos the team has weekly happy hours around the DC metropolitan area. Kaitlyn D has been trying to get people out to Silver Spring for the longest time and this was the final off season to do before she moved to Virginia (I still hate Virginia, no matter how many friends live there, they have just gone temporarily insane!). The Quarry House Tavern is a basement dive bar in Silver Spring that has an extensive beer list that people flock to. I on the other hand flocked to this place to try some wings. When we first looked at the menu we decided we wanted to order the spectrum of flavors in regards to heat level. We told the server we wanted to order Old Bay, Hot BBQ and 4 Alarm. He then said to us, “okay but he 4 Alarm is spicy.” We proceeded with, “well that is okay we like spicy food I am sure it is okay.” Later into dinner we also ordered Honey BBQ.


1. Old Bay- These wings were pretty good. All of the wings sizes at the Quarry House Tavern were a decent size and meaty. These wings were heavily salted. I understand that Old Bay is a salt mix but that doesn’t mean that the wings have to taste like a salt lick. These wings made me overly thirsty. The best way to have an Old Bay wings is to fry them in butter and then shake some Old Bay seasoning on top but not cake them in the seasoning since it can overpower the wing and make them too salty. FAIR/ GOOD

2. Hot BBQ- These wings were my personal favorite at the Quarry House but no way would I eat an entire order by myself. These wings were very flavorful with a smoky, chipotle type BBQ sauce that definitely had a kick to it. I would eat one maybe two and then would have to take a little breather to make sure my lips didn’t get too numb from the spices and stinging. Scott G decided to order himself an entire order of this flavor and by the time he was ½ to ¾ way through his basket his eyes were watering. These wings are very true to their name, HOT and BBQ! GOOD/EXCELLENT

3. 4 Alarm- When the waiter first said they were spicy he should have rephrased his words and said, “Oh you want the 4Alarm, would you like to order a stomach and new esophagus with that too, since it will rip your throat out with spice and leave you with an ulcer?” When we said we liked spicy food it usually means we like heat but we also like flavor and to feel out face as we eat. When these wings came out Andrea W was the first one to eat them. She grabbed the wing, I don’t think she put any dressing on it, and ate the entire wing at once (mind you eating the entire wing is huge in this case). Almost instantaneously her face and neck turned red and she said, “oh my God this is so fucking hot,” or something similar to that extent. I watched as her eyes watered and was very nervous her throat might close up and pretty scared myself to try the wings. Later Kaitlyn and I decided we would wipe off the sauce on the wings and try them. I took one bite and it was freakin HOT!!!! I couldn’t taste anything or feel my lips for the next 15 minutes. Kaitlyn did the same, wiped off the sauce and took a bite of the wing, she instantaneously started crying from the spice. We decided these wings were a bad idea to order and asked the waiter what kind of voodoo he was putting on us. Our waiter proceeded to say, “oh I said they were hot… they make a habanera paste that sits and then covers the wings in them.” At that point I wanted to jump across the table and smack some sense into him. Seriously that shit was HOT and he could have warned us a little better, he totally gets a thrill out of people ordering those wings and crying their faces off. NEVER AGAIN

4. Honey BBQ- I believe we first tried these wings because Ben got an order of them. We all tried one and the majority of the table said these were their favorite wings. I am not sure if that is the best assessment. I think Andrea, Tammy, Scott, Ben and Kaitlyn would agree that they seemed to be the best wings only because they were the only wings on the menu that didn’t make at least one person at the table cry and were not overly salty. So odds are people may have liked these wings the best through default. The wings themselves were very sweet and almost too sweet for my taste, however it was nice to have a flavorful wing that was hot and meaty that didn’t taste like acid burning your mouth and throat after the 4Alarm. GOOD

Overall the Quarry House Tavern is a pretty chill place to go with a great drink menu. You have to look for the stairwell which is now slightly marked by some signs pointing you down into the cavernous basement bar. Make sure to get there early if you have a group of people with you because the tables fill up fast. If you want to play a prank on a friend and also give them an ulcer then order them an order of the 4Alarm wings. If you would like to enjoy your food and still feel your mouth at the end of the meal then a combination of the other flavors would be okay just don’t eat too many Hot BBQ in a row.