Prepare To Burn At Angelina’s Fireshack and Pizzeria

There’s a place in New Hyde Park that offers chicken wings so hot, if they aren’t made with goggles and a gas mask, they can singe the nostril and eyebrow hairs right off the chef's face.

Would you dare to try them?

Out of all the customers to come into Angelina’s Fireshack and Pizzeria, 35 people have tried the “Insanity” chicken wing sauce, and only one has met the challenge.

Owner Shai Eapen wanted to take a creative approach in using peppers to “Bring the Heat” to his restaurant and did so by using peppers influenced by his Indian culture.

“We use many different types of peppers and I thought I would start introducing some of those types of peppers,” Eapen said. “One of the most popular and commercial, as well as the hottest pepper right now, is the Ghost Chili, and that is what we use in our Insanity Sauce.”

The heat of peppers are measured in Scoville Units; the Jalapeno is about 30,000 Scoville Units, a Habaenro pepper is about 300,000 Scoville Units, and the Ghost Chili comes in at one million Scoville Units.

“When we took a look at our sauces, the first thing we wanted to do was, say when we go from our hot to our super hot to our crazy hot to our ridiculously hot, we just didn’t want to go up incrementally, we wanted to go up exponentially,” Eapen said.

Executive Chef Arthur “Artie” Ruvinsky, a “mad scientist” as Eapen called him, makes this insane hot sauce, but said he would never try it.

“I have to wear goggles and a mask, but sometimes the sauce will drip on my arm,” Ruvinsky said, showing off some of his small burn marks. “I come home and take a shower and I’m screaming to my girl that I’m burning up and she just doesn’t get it.”

Eapen, however, has tried this skin singeing sauce and said, “To be as PC as possible, it’s not what happens when it goes in, it’s what happens when it comes out.”

To even try the Insanity Sauce, patrons must sign a waiver first because of the health risks

“We have had several people…bring back up what they just ate within moments of actually taking it down,” Eapen said. “And you have to have pretty much a steel stomach in order to handle it.”

At this point you are probably thinking, “Who in their right mind would try such a thing?” But many people — mostly men — want to prove their heroism.

“One person I want to say completed [the challenge] but they completed it in a way where they ripped it off with a fork,” Eapen said and explained you are actually supposed to eat the wings by hand. “Part of the heat will be the first layer of epidermis skin burning as you’re eating this, so you can say he cheated, but we’ll give him the benefit of the doubt.”

Angelina’s wings aren’t your ordinary sized wings either; you are given the actual big, elbow-sized wing. And to complete the challenge, six of these must be eaten. To top it off, there is no milk to be found in the restaurant, so no one can even think about washing down that scorching feeling.

If the challenge is completed, the champ receives an apron that says you’ve conquered the heat at Angelina’s, and your picture goes up on the TV screen for everyone to see (your picture goes up there whether or not you win, actually).

Angelina’s wing sauces come in a variety of flavors and ranges of hotness. Mild sauces include Buttermilk Ranch, Honey Mustard, BBQ and Sweet Ginger. Medium sauces include Buffalo, Papaya Pear Chipotle, Garlic Chili Pepper and Passion Fruit Habanero. Smoking sauces include Hot, Super Hot, Crazy Hot and Ridiculously Hot; and then of course there Insanity.

All of the sauces are made by scratch by Ruvinsky, who said he really puts a lot of love and effort into what he does to give customers the best food possible.

“Our tag-line here is ‘This is Man Food,’” Eapen said. “This is a way to show your inner self, your cave-person. We bring the heat.”

This Patch reporter wouldn’t dare take the hot wings challenge, but Angelina’s is always looking for new contenders.  To learn more, visit http://angelinasfireshackpizzeria.com/.