So Good: How Good Company Elevates Wings, Burgers and Fries

Good Company’s 72-hour chicken wings are life-changing, attests Akron location sous chef Tony Kettel.

“There’s life before and there’s life after eating our chicken wings,” he says. “It’s the perfect encapsulation of what a chicken wing should be. It’s unlike any one that you’ve had in the past, and it’s probably different than any one they’ll have in the future.”

Cooks start by curing jumbo wings in a mixture of spices overnight, packing in the seasoning. The next day, they put the wings in the oven, so the rendering cooks down, confiting them. The following day, they cool them, trapping the fat, so that the meat is fall-off-the-bone tender. To season the pecorino garlic ($13 for six) variety, for example, cooks infuse the restaurant’s salad oil with pecorino overnight and strain the oil, using it to make an aioli that smothers the wings, along with cheese and herbs.

“We’ve infused it with not only the little bits of density from the cheese and all that extra fat but also all that flavor,” says Akron location chef Tommy Kettel, Tony’s cousin. “[It] makes a nice, fluffy really thick, dense lap-on aioli.”

The second location of a Cleveland restaurant, Good Company opened in 2024 in a 105-year-old former West Hill firehouse. With green velvet booths, a Murano glass chandelier, 16-foot ceilings and a botanical mural by Cleveland artist Dana Oldfather spanning the bar wall, it’s a sumptuous environment that sets the bar for high-quality, scratch-made dishes.

“So many different things hit that next level, hit the next echelon of food,” says Tony.

The Good One signature burger ($15) is topped with griddled onions, malted pickles, shredded lettuce, American cheese and bright mustard caper company aioli and is served on a house-made spongy, dense poppyseed Japanese-style milk bun. The two custom Angus beef sirloin blend smash patties shine.

“It’s a very unique form of smash patty using belly fat, and it creates a different … level of paper thin, crispy, lattice-y on the outside of the patty,” says Tommy. “You have that crispy lattice-y but also fatty patty mixed with those bright flavors.”

Featured on the Food Network’s “Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives,” the Gabagool ($16) is served on a house-made poppyseed hoagie with house-cured capicola pork collar with an anise rub — which adds a salty, floral taste — Italian-dressed lettuce, pickled banana peppers, company aioli and house-made Japanese-inspired kewpie aioli.

“You’re using so much oil in such a small amount of egg to get that recipe done, that little bit of Dijon helps it bind properly and makes us able to make a really big batch of very fluffy kewpie mayo,” says Tommy. “It’s the type of thing you want to be wiping off your face and have a big smile because your bite is so good.”

The fries that accompany the sandwiches go through an in-depth process that starts with blanching.

“When you blanch the fries, they kind of break open, you get that fluffy inside … and you get those crispy bits,” says Tommy.

The Good Company pastry team makes all the ice cream for its shakes, and it shows. The strawberry ice cream uses buttermilk, lemon juice and strawberry puree for a bright, lemony flavor that gets paired with Bacardi rum, Ohio maple syrup and a streusel topping reminiscent of the Good Humor strawberry shortcake frozen bars for the strawberry short stack hard shake ($13).

It all makes for delicious diner fare that’s prepared with far more depth, detail and care than you’ll find at most other burgers-and-fries joints.

“It’s all about the process we do that is the difference,” Tony says. “You taste all the time, taste all the effort that goes into it. You taste the hard work. That’s what encapsulates Good Company.”

60 S. Maple St., Akron, 330-252-9099, goodcompanyakron.com