Food Of The Day…
Buffalo Hot Wings!
There are four different legends about how the Buffalo wings came to be.
- One story is that Buffalo wings were first prepared at the Anchor Bar, located at 1047 Main Street (between North Street and Best Street) in Buffalo, New York on October 3, 1964, co-owner of the Anchor Bar with his partner Frank. Upon the unannounced late-night arrival of his son, Dominic (and several of his friends from college), he needed a fast and easy snack to present to his hungry guests. It was then that he came up with the idea of deep frying chicken wings (normally thrown away or reserved for stock) and tossing them in Frank’s Red Hot hot sauce.
- A second version as told by Dominic Bellisimo (Frank and Teressa’s son) to “The New Yorker” reporter Calvin Trillin in 1980 stated: “It was Friday night in the bar and since people were buying a lot of drinks he wanted to do something nice for them at midnight when the mostly Catholic patrons would be able to eat meat again.” He stated that it was his mother, Teressa, who came up with the idea of chicken wings.
- The third version of the origin involved a mis-delivery of wings instead backs and necks for making the bar’s spaghetti sauce. Faced with this unexpected resource, Frank Bellisimo says he asked Teressa to do something with them.
- The fourth version has nothing to do with the Bellisimo’s or the Anchor Bar. Calvin Trillin stated in his 1980 “New Yorker” article that a man named John Young also claimed credit for serving chicken wings in a special “mambo sauce.” Chicken wings in mambo sauce became the specialty at his Buffalo restaurant in the mid-sixties. Young had registered the name of his restaurant, John Young’s Wings ‘n Things, at the county courthouse before leaving Buffalo in 1970.
Buffalo wings are also used in competitive eating events, such as Philadelphia’s Wing Bowl and at the National Buffalo Wing Festival.
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