The Buffalo Wing & It's Rise to the Ultimate Sports Food .

[T&C]

1 hour ago, Charles Romes said:

I want to give John Young all the credit for being the primary wing inventor based on his naming his restaurant “Wings and Things” highlighting wings as the featured dish. But I can’t find any photo evidence or menu evidence that his restaurant was actually named that. One John Young site shows a photo of the restaurant but the photo is actually of a San Diego restaurant in the 80s. 

 

Maybe the show/episode was a half truth, idk. My favorite wings were from a bar at the corner of rt.77 and broadway in the mid 70's. Doubt it's there anymore, I haven't been through that intersection in many years.. it was on the NE corner. Darien or Darien Center... one of the two.

[Ridgewaycynic2013]

https://buffalobiketours.com/mumbo-wings/
 

A write up on John Young and his contributions to chicken wing lore and history.

[djp14150]

On 3/20/2023 at 6:10 PM, T master said:

Last night as i sit thumbing through the channels I saw a listing on the History channel the name of the show was The Foods That Built America so i went there to see what it was about i got up went to the kitchen & when i came back the show that had just come on was about the Buffalo wing & how it started to be .

 

In 1963/64 there was a black restauranteur by the name of John Young that had a restaurant near the old rock pile i didn't happen to catch the name of it but he had been ordering wings & frying them then adding what looked to be a barbecue sauce on them & they sold very well among the community but this was during the time of much distress in Buffalo due to the civil rights movement .

 

John Young fell upon hard times & wound up moving to Illinois so only those that came into his restaurant new about the chicken wings in the sauce which after he left no one was making them & the chicken wing was considered a throw away item so not many other restaurants would buy them until one day a restaurant about a mile away named the Anchor Bar got a shipment of chicken wings by mistake .

 

The original Anchor bar which was a Italian restaurant owned by Frank & Theresa Velisimo which Theresa was the main cook took the mistaken order of chicken wings & she wondered why they got delivered there & just exactly what she would do with them until i believe it was her son asked if they had anything mom could cook up for him & a couple of his friends so instead of leaving the wings hole she cut of the tip & cut the 2 remaining pieces into the the drumstick & the flat .

 

She fried them but when she took a bight they didn't have much of any flavor so she added some butter & a spicy sauce that she had for a different recipe & covered them in the sauce . Her son & his friends thought it was much to spicey all by them selves so she thought how can i take the heat down a bit so she added blue cheese as the dip & then she wanted to add something more after she put them on the menu because they started out as free in baskets on the bar kind of like they do with peanuts .

 

But soon everyone in Buffalo was coming in to eat them so that's when she put them on the menu & added celery with them & the original sauce to cover the wings is now known as Franks Red Hot which i'm not sure about this if any of you do know please elaborate on this but but i'm thinking that seeing as the owner of the Anchor bars name was Frank that could be where the red hot sauce got it's name & i wonder if they were the originators of it .

 

Of course the show goes on to tell how 2 brothers from Ohio that had visited Buffalo  & went back home & while sitting at a bar ordered some wings to which no one knew about them so they decided to try & duplicate the sauce but couldn't & had 12 sauces made up & decided to have all 12 on the menu . 

 

They wanted to open a restaurant so they did they had 50 different beers on tap 12 sauces for the wings & at first they called Buffalo Wild wings & Weck the Weck being Beef on Weck as we all know from living up home but it didn't start out to great . The bar was near the Ohio State Buckeye stadium in Columbus & 1 day while a college student came in for a beer & some wings he asked if they could turn the Buckeyes on the TV it was near the end of the game so he did .

 

So they dropped the Weck from the name & Hence Buffalo Wild Wings was born & became the first Sports bar which was 1982 . Shortly after that hooters came to be and we all know now that Buffalo wings are all over the world & they said that the anchor bar serves 1 ton of wings per day .

 

If you get a chance look up on the History Channel the show called The Foods That Built America & the name of this episode is "Flight of the Buffalo Wing" I think being Buffalo fans you would dig it I know i was glued to it till the end . So now we all know a bit more about how Buffalo wings came to be in Buffalo & I believe they said John Young's daughter opened a bar not to far from the Anchor bar which again i didn't catch the name but maybe we should pay homage to Mr. Young for first starting to put wings in sauce .

 

But there will only be 1 Anchor bar where the original Buffalo wing was first made !! Thank you Theresa Velisimo for many nights of drinking to be able to have Buffalo wings to go with an ice cold Brew !!! 

I Posted the original broadcast of this episode  and had a thread on the off topic board….