Jak’s Pub & Eatery

Basic Information:

Location: 410 4th Ave, Jessup, PA, 18434
Phone Number: (570) 489-1600
Normal Wing Price: $8.95 for 10
Wing Night: Wednesday
Wing Night Price: 45 cents
Wing Flavors:

Classic Buffalo, Garlic*, Garlic Parm*, Garlic Honey*, Caesar*, Caesar Parm, Caesar Garlic Parm, Butter & Garlic, Bellucci, Jak-Off*, Porketta, Buffalo Porketta*, Carolina, Carolina Blue, Honey Blue, Honey BBQ*, Honey Mustard*, Hot Honet, Sesame Teriyaki, Tangy Teriyaki, Boom Boom, Ghost Pepper, BBQ Bourbon

Links: Facebook
Notes:

*- Available in hot or mild

  • Third Time’s a Charm to Jak’s - 02/22/17

    Overall Rating: 78

    Lynch Serniak

    Lynch's Rating: 41 out of 50

    Environment: 10

    Jak’s Pub & Eatery is a favorite bar of ours located right off of Church Street in Jessup. We’ve been to Jak’s a number of times in the past, even when it was known as Johhny D’s under previous ownership. With the new owner came a remodeled bar with new food options, including some delicious wings. They also offer some pretty good craft beer options on draft if you’re into that sort of thing. The interior itself is a bit on the smaller side, which is usually full on our visits, but never too packed. The service has always been great and this visit was no different. Our waitress was very friendly and the food was extremely fast. In fact, I’d be surprised if the wings took even 10 minutes to arrive. It was awesome. On top of that, the food came out very warm and well cooked. You couldn’t beat it. Oh, and not to mention that they give you moist towelettes with your wings. Do we, perhaps unnecessarily, make a big deal about moist towelettes? Yeah, but it’s a nice little touch that is perfect when you finish your wings.


    Wing Size: 8

    On their Wednesday Wing Night, Jak’s offers wings at 45 cents each, which is slowly becoming harder and harder to find in the area. The wings are pretty large and in charge while managing to be crispy at the same time. A large and crispy wing is a rare thing in the wing world, but Jak’s pulls it off nicely. They also offer orders of five on their wing night. We are big fans of the smaller orders because it gives us an opportunity to try as many flavors as possible.


    Wing Flavors: 7

    Jak’s Pub & Eatery doesn’t offer the biggest selection of wings, but they do provide you with some pretty interesting options. In addition to the classic flavors like Buffalo, Honey Mustard, and Butter & Garlic, Jak’s spruces up a couple flavors to give you something unique and even offers some sauces you probably have never seen before. For example, the Bellucci is an awesome combination of spices, including Butter, Garlic, Old Bay, and Parmesan Cheese. The Jak-Off kicks it up a notch by adding some Buffalo sauce to the mix. The Carolina Blue is an interesting mixture of BBQ, Honey Mustard and Blue cheese. It’s these subtle changes to already delicious flavors that make the options at Jak’s stand out.


    Wing Taste (x2): 8

    As I mentioned earlier, the wings at Jak’s are cooked to perfection by combining a big, meaty wing with a great level of crispiness. On top of the well-made wings, the sauces are all delicious. The Hot Honey Garlic is a very tasty wing that takes a great Buffalo sauce base, adds a hint of sweetness with the honey, and increases flavors with tiny pieces of garlic. I think my wings could have used a bit more garlic, but I was still very happy with it overall. The Hot Caesar is a classic combination that I always enjoy. At Jak’s, that amazing Buffalo base is balanced perfectly with the Caesar to make a well-rounded and fantastic wing. The Buffalo Porketta was an interesting take on the traditional dry rub porketta that you see at other places. Jak’s allows you to mix the buffalo sauce, either hot or mild, with Porketta seasoning to give you a wet sauce that is truly unique. The sauce looked like it contained slightly different seasonings than a traditional porketta rub with some chunks of garlic mixed in. I really liked the flavor, but wish the sauce upped the amount of that delicious spice mixture just a little. Finally, I ordered one of my favorite wings from this place – the Jak-Off. For those familiar with Aww Shucks corn from Dorney Park and other Allentown places, this wing has a very similar combination of seasonings with buffalo wing sauce added. I love the mixture of the parmesan cheese, old bay, hot sauce, garlic and butter; It just works really well together. Unlike past visits, I felt like the Jak-off sauce lacked a tiny bit with the Old Bay, which is the spice I look forward to the most on these wings. I still took the wings down without a second thought, though.

    Serniak's Rating: 37 out of 50

    Environment: 8

    Jaks is the epitome of your classic corner bar because it has that welcoming vibe you’d expect out of your grandmother’s house if your grandmother was in the business of pouring you a shot of Jack(you like that). And Jaks is located on a corner so it all comes together to make for a relaxing experience. Not the biggest place in the world but they’ve recentlyish have added a backroom. It has a real secret room feel to it. The kind of place that you need to pull a book on a bookshelf or hit a particular note on a piano to gain access too. I only hope that’s the case. The place is very clean and has a decent selection of brew to order. Our waitress was extremely nice. She answered all of our questions we had, was diligent about refilling our drinks and went along with our banter. It’s always cool when our server can chime in with a couple lines to add to our conversation. Nothing like a 3rd voice to get to the bottom of things. Something that Jaks had that I don’t think I saw anywhere else was that they had paper towel rolls on each of the tables. Genius move. Hope that idea takes off all over the area.


    Wing Size: 7

    Coming in at 45 cents a wing, which seems like that puts them under the average of 50 cents a wing for most wing nights, is always a good thing. Can’t say it enough, but the days of 10 cent and even 25 cent wing nights are but a distant memory. Love hearing stories of simpler times when people would go for wings with 4 dollars and eat and drink like kings. If I could time travel, I’d go back and hit up one of those 10 cent wing joints. #Goals


    Wing Flavors: 8

    Since the last time we did a WRITE-UP on Jaks, a lot of work,thought and creativity has been put into their flavors list. I think the first time we ever went there was less than 7. Feel free to fact check me on that. Now, Jaks is up to 22 flavors. Some of them are natural offshoots of each other like caesar to caesar parm to caesar garlic parm. Nothing wrong with that. Like I said, that’s natural. If you’re going to have caesar as a flavor, it just makes sense to add garlic and parm to to it. But then, they have unique flavors such as Bellucci, which is interesting because he always seemed like a burger guy, that consists of butter/garlic mixed with secret spices and parmesan cheese. Another flavor called their Jak-Off, which can only be a reference to the creature the Jakovasaur from Southpark, that consists of secret spices, parmesan and their hot or mild sauce. I’m sure wings like that exist elsewhere. But when you give a flavor a name, and here’s a pro-tip, it makes it special and interesting. Interesting enough for me to try it. Other not oftenly seen flavors are Carolina Blue, honey blue, buffalo porketta, tangy teriyaki and boom boom lead me to believe that the creativity is flowing well at Jaks. I’m hoping it continues.


    Wing Taste (x2): 7

    Solid work all the around with everything I ordered. First up, there’s the tangy teriyaki. This sauce is exactly that. You pretty much know what you’re getting when you get teriyaki. Not exactly sure what makes them tangy other than teriyaki sauce being naturally tangy, to me at least. Next I had Carolina, which is a BBQ and mustard mix. Always a big fan of this flavor when I get it and this was no different. The smokiness of the BBQ added with the twang of the mustard is always a positive thing. Moving on to the boom boom, a flavor I feel that is on the rise, was very good. Tons of different spices are at play here ranging from paprika and garlic to cayenne and shallots. All that comes full circle to make a creamy orange sauce that will really get your engine going. Finally, I got the Bellucci. Tons of different flavors showing up together, partying and swinging with each other. The butter/garlic and parm are heavily caked on this wing. Always the way to go. Then you have the different spices, which is probably pepper, chili powder and a host of others. An excellent blend indeed.


  • Jak’s Podcast - 03/23/16

    We’ve made a return visit to Jak’s. And you know what: we recorded a Podcast about it. Why don’t you check it out at the bottom of this post?

    Jak’s completely fell off our radar, but once we received a message from the new cook telling us they added a whole slew of new flavors, we needed to check it out again. We are definitely happy we did. Jak’s completely expanded on the number of wing flavors and the wings are some of the most unique and delicious around.

    If you want to read about our first visit to Jak’s, head over to the Jak’s Review Page. But, if you want to hear all about the new wing flavors, listen to that Wingcast!


    Jak’s Pub & Eatery - 03/23/16

  • First Visit to Jak’s - 06/10/15

    Overall Rating: 60

    Lynch Serniak

    Lynch's Rating: 31 out of 50

    Environment: 8

    I only heard of Johhny D’s closing recently. I wasn’t aware there was a new place that filled its spot until Serniak suggested it for one of our visits. In fact, I doubted he even knew what he was talking about. Sorry about that, buddy. Either way, Jak’s is very reminiscent of Johnny D’s. The setup, bar, and seating are very similar. It’s not a huge place, but there is ample room for sitting and drinking, if you’re into that sort of thing. People slowly started to pile in as we were enjoying our wings, but it never got overly crowded. The bartender was very laid back and amicable, talking with the patrons with ease and friendliness. He was always on top of his game with getting us our drinks and food. I assumed he was the owner, although there was no real talk of that. They do allow orders of 5, so that’s a plus. It’s a cash only joint, but they do have an ATM on the premises.


    Wing Size: 7

    I’d have to go back over all our wing places, but I think the average wing price is slowly creeping up as time goes on. I wonder if there’s some sort of wing index that measures the state of the economy based on the price of the wing. Either way, $0.45 on wing night is becoming the norm, and Jak’s is right along for the ride. Their wings are pretty meaty, so you won’t be disappointed.


    Wing Flavors: 4

    Even though it’s not the biggest selection in the world, Jak’s does offer some interesting choices with their Sweet & Tangy and Porketta. I have to say that I’m always a sucker when there is something Porketta on the menu.


    Wing Taste (x2): 6

    We ordered the Hot, Garlic Parm, Sweet & Tangy, and Porketta. The Hot reminds me of that NEPA Valley Hot that you find at places like Windsor. It has like an orange hue to it. I enjoyed the Hot from Jak’s. The Garlic Parm took the hot sauce and added some garlic and parmesan cheese to it. These were decent, but nothing mind blowing. The Sweet & Tangy were a thicker, stickier sauce. It definitely lived up to it’s name, although I feel like it could use a bit more kick to it. The Porketta was probably my favorite of the bunch. The mixture of seasoning was right. I think they just need to up the amount of the seasoning to really make this flavor stand out. You definitely can’t go wrong with this wing, but I think a bit more of the spices would help enhance it a lot.

    Serniak's Rating: 29 out of 50

    Environment: 7

    Jak’s, formerly called Jonny D’s, is a little corner bar located in Jessup. It’s a place that’s perfect if you’re group is only a few of you but any more and you might have a seating problem. This place is just a straight up bar and eatery, meaning there aren’t many things besides the TVs to distract you from interacting with people. No pool table, no darts, no shuffle board and I’ fine with at. At times I like a place that is just about getting some drinks and a bite to eat and that’s it. The place also had a classy décor but it wasn’t pretentious in any way. All walks of life are welcome and will be treated great. Our server, who was also the bartender gave me the feeling he was the owner. He was behind the bar the whole time so we had to order from the bar. Again this is something I’m fine with because it gives the opportunity to leave when I want to, not wait for someone to notice that I’m ready to go.


    Wing Size: 5

    I’m giving it a classic 5 because the wings were around the average size that we encounter and they were the average price that we see, which is 45 cents each.


    Wing Flavors: 5

    There were about 6-7 flavors to choose from, if memory serves and they were all the usual suspects, mild, hot, garlic parm, sweet and spicy. But they also had a porketta dry rub to choose from, which you don’t see all that often.


    Wing Taste (x2): 6

    I ordered the hot, garlic parm, sweet and spicy and the porketta. The hot, in my opinion was just Frank’s Red Hot mixed with butter and that was about it. The garlic parm were fine although I wished they used real garlic instead of garlic powder but that happens. The sweet and spicy were exactly that. You had your heat and you had the sweetness backing it up. Finally, the porketta were good, they really were, I just wish they had more porketta seasoning on them, including the backside of the wing. This is an extremely common thing that I see. Only the top half gets the blunt of the seasoning, while the backside doesn’t.