The Food that Made Buffalo Famous

Invented at the Anchor Bar, Buffalo Wings have taken off at the annual National Wing Festival

Some things are a “no brainer”! Take, for example, the idea of a National Chicken Wing Festival in Buffalo, New York. After all, wings were invented here back in 1964 at the world-famous Anchor Bar. The staple is even called a Buffalo Wing on menus all across the country. The National Buffalo Wing Festival was founded in 2002 as a way to celebrate the Wing’s contribution to culinary history and its close identification with the city of its birth. In 2008, the festival enters its seventh year as chickens are being hauled in from all parts of the country for the Labor Day event.

Inspired by the movie “Osmosis Jones,” starring comedian Bill Murray, which featured a fictional chicken wing festival, local newspaper columnist Donn Esmonde pondered why there wasn’t a real Buffalo Wing Festival in the city in which the food was created. He wrote about it, and national food promoter Drew Cerza “plucked” the idea and decided to make it happen. Imagine that, Hollywood actually created a real life story.

Over 329,000 people have flocked to Buffalo for the first seven years of the festival with more than 110 tons of chicken wings (approximately 2 million wings) being consumed at downtown Buffalo’s AAA baseball stadium, Dunn Tire Park. The festival has garnered attention from international media outlets such as Today Show, CNN, The View, The Food Network and hundreds of others. Over 105 wing joints have participated in the festival since its inception. In true community spirit, more than $105,000 has been raised for local charities through the festival. Oh yeah, there was also one wedding too!

The 7th annual festival takes place on Labor Day Weekend – August 30-31, 2008 in downtown Buffalo.

More than 25 of the premiere chicken wing eateries will be participating from as far away as Colorado, Arizona and Wisconsin.  Festival attendees get a chance to sample chicken wings from restaurants from all over the country as they bring different styles and flavors that are indigenous to their area.  The eateries will also get a chance to compete in various categories with the chance to take bragging rights back home with the winning recipes. 

The first chicken wings were created on Saturday, March 4, 1964 when Teressa Bellissimo, who owned The Anchor Bar with her husband, experimented in the kitchen at the request of her son’s hungry friends. Mrs. Bellissimo deep-fried a previously unused part of a chicken, the wing, smothered them in a spicy sauce, and served them with celery and blue cheese. Even her son Dominic was a little apprehensive about testing the unusual dish. His friends loved the chicken wings and returned often to the Anchor Bar to consume Mrs. Bellissimo’s delectable new dish. Little did they know they were making food history. Forty years later, the chicken wing went from a late night experiment born out of desperation to a worldwide culinary phenomenon. America’s greatest bar food was born!

More info is available at www.buffalowing.com