Happy Accidents and Bold Bets: How Flavor Experiments Rewrote Our Pub Menu

There's a running joke in the McCoy's kitchen that the best ideas are born somewhere between the second pour and the third round of taste-testing. It sounds like a punch line, but honestly? It's not far from the truth. Some of the most beloved items on our current menu didn't come from a culinary textbook or a trend-chasing brainstorm session. They came from curiosity, a little stubbornness, and a whole lot of willingness to try something that probably shouldn't work — until it does.

We sat down with Head Chef Danny Ruiz and lead bartender Sasha Kowalski to get the full story on how McCoy's went from a solid, dependable pub menu to one that regulars genuinely can't stop talking about.

The Night It All Started

Chef Danny traces the whole shift back to one slow Tuesday in late winter a few years ago. The dinner rush had tapered off early, and he and Sasha found themselves doing what they often do when the crowd thins — experimenting.

"Sasha had this small-batch rye whiskey from a distillery out of Kentucky that she'd been wanting to feature," Danny recalls, leaning against the prep counter. "And I had these smoked chicken wings sitting there, just finished. I don't even remember who suggested dipping one in the whiskey reduction we had going. But we did. And it was — honestly, it was kind of a revelation."

That accidental combination — smoky, charred chicken against the caramel-and-pepper backbone of aged rye — became the foundation for what is now one of McCoy's most-ordered appetizers: the Bourbon Smoke Wings. They're finished with a whiskey-brown butter glaze and served with a blue cheese drizzle that cuts through the richness in exactly the right way.

"People think it's a gimmick at first," Sasha says with a grin. "Then they order them, and suddenly they're asking if we can bottle the sauce."

Thinking Like a Bartender in the Kitchen

One of the more unconventional decisions Danny made early on was to invite Sasha into the menu development process on a regular basis. In most restaurants, the bar and the kitchen operate as separate universes. At McCoy's, that wall came down pretty quickly.

"Bartenders think about flavor differently," Danny explains. "Sasha will talk about how a bitter IPA cuts through fat the same way a squeeze of lemon does. Or how a smoky mezcal can do the same job as a chipotle rub. Once I started hearing the menu through her ears, everything opened up."

The result of that collaboration shows up across the board. The Stout-Braised Short Rib Sandwich — slow-cooked in a local dark ale from a regional Ohio brewery — came directly from a conversation about how malt-forward beers behave when reduced. The bitterness mellows, the roasted notes deepen, and what you're left with is something that tastes like a Sunday pot roast crossed with a really good pint. It's now one of the top sellers on the lunch menu.

When "That Sounds Terrible" Becomes "Never Take It Off the Menu"

Not every experiment has been a smooth ride. Sasha laughs remembering the ill-fated gin-and-pickle flatbread that made it exactly one week before both of them quietly agreed to retire it.

"We were chasing something botanical," she admits. "The juniper in the gin, the dill in the pickles — on paper it made sense. In practice, it tasted like something you'd find at a very adventurous farmer's market and immediately put back down."

But the misses have been just as instructive as the wins. The gin flatbread experiment led to a more restrained approach: the Herb & Lemon Ricotta Flatbread, which uses a gin-infused honey drizzle as a finishing touch rather than a dominant flavor. Subtle. Unexpected. Wildly popular.

"The lesson was: let one thing be the surprise," Danny says. "You don't need to blow every note at once. One unexpected element in a familiar dish is enough to make people lean in."

Local Ingredients, Local Inspiration

A lot of what drives the experimentation at McCoy's isn't just creativity for creativity's sake — it's a genuine commitment to working with what's nearby. Danny has built relationships with regional farms, local dairies, and small-batch producers across the Midwest. When a new ingredient lands in the kitchen, it becomes a starting point for a new conversation.

"We got in this incredible local honey last spring," he says. "Wildflower, really complex. I didn't want to just put it on a cheese board. So Sasha and I started thinking about where honey shows up in cocktails — in a bee's knees, in a whiskey sour — and we worked backward from there into the kitchen."

That honey now shows up in the glaze on the McCoy's Pork Belly Bites, paired with a sriracha crema and served on a bed of pickled slaw. It's the kind of dish that makes people pause mid-bite and say, "Wait, what is that?"

That pause is exactly what they're going for.

The Philosophy Behind the Food

At its core, the approach Danny and Sasha have built together isn't really about being edgy or trendy. It's about respect — for the ingredients, for the classics, and for the people sitting at the tables.

"Pub food has this reputation for being lazy," Danny says. "And I get it — there's a lot of mediocre bar food out there. But there's no reason a good wing or a great sandwich can't also be something that surprises you. Something that makes you want to come back and figure out what you're tasting."

Sasha puts it even more simply: "We want people to feel like they're in on something. Like they found a place that's doing something real."

Judging by the number of regulars who have been ordering the Bourbon Smoke Wings every single week for two years running, it seems like the message is getting through loud and clear.