Since 98 I have lived everywhere on the Earth BUT back in western NY. Everywhere I go I try the local version of "Buffalo" wings and outside of perhaps three or four places, they have all been shit. Sometimes you get terrible sauce, sometimes they're breaded, the blue cheese looks like jizz, all you get is ranch, the wings are soggy, greasy, or sometimes they are so bad that your inner WNY'er get so pissed that you tell them how shitty they are and come close to punching the asshole "chef" from Tampa that thinks he knows more about the "real" wings than you do. I once ate a wing at a BBQ joint in Denver and when I went to the counter to send them back this guy standing next to me, on my side of the counter grabbed them and wanted to know why. Turned out he was an outside consultant and was hired to bring the restaraunt back into the profit zone. I wrote down everything from oil choice, temp, sauce ingredients, cooking time, good blue cheeses etc and they put them on their menu. Now I'm not saying I saved that joint but they are always packed now and their wings are one of their best sellers.

Personally, I'm a huge fan of the traditional Franks and butter sauce but I have had some great wings that broke from that tradition too. I like to add a bit of salt, pepper and a squirt of lemon juice the party. I also make a great wing sauce with the Frank's base and homemade honey mustard, dijon and BBQ sauce thrown in which slams each time. I have made wings for 50+ people at parties tons of times and am now known as the Wing Man in some circles.

So I guess I started this to first off bitch about how people fuck up such a simple dish, to hear your experiences with shitty wings and your best of awards. Also, how do you make them?

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Lol, see my post in RTT.

I dunno, I've never had a style of wings that I genuinely enjoyed other than Franks, Butter, Deep Fried Chicken wings.

Granted due to my recent lifestyle change (past 2 years) I rarely "cheat" and eat wings, but still. I think the best wings around are either Duffs, of Gabriel's Gate. They're simple, to the point, and exactly what they are supposed to be. Spicey, not overly greasy, and simplistic.

Maybe I'm just a simple kind of guy, but I don't believe wings should be anything but Hot, Medium, or Mild.

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"She's like plan C after an 18 pack"

Squanto 7/27/2010

My buddy Mike makes great wings, pretty much perfect as far as I'm concerned.

As far as Pittsburgh restaurants go, far and away the best wings you will find are at Fat Heads in the south side. None of their flavors claim to be "Buffalo" but their original flavoring is great. You pretty much can't go wrong eating any of their food (a sandwich is about the size of a football in some cases) but be warned about their 54 taps of beer, there are some great and hard to find suds there, but they will let it sit forever, even the seasonal stuff. Nasty.

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"I love that you know how to do that." Cheryl/Carol/Crystal

"And I love that I have an erection that doesn't involve homeless people." Kreiger

There is are a couple places by me that do wings well but most of them suck. For the last couple years me and a couple friends have gone to chicagos "wing fest". its a gathering of bars from chicago and set up booths and serve samples of their wings. the wings are broken down into 3 different groups...bbq, heat, exotic. most of the bbq ones are decent (or about as decent as bbq wings get). the heat one vary a lot...most of them used some flavorless sauce that tastes like spicy ass and a couple years ago, there was a wing that was so hot you couldnt taste anything else about it, garbage. the exotic ones are just fucked up...berry flavored, mango....most of those get a bit then get tossed in the trash can.

very few places here get it right. Theres a bar down the street from me called Timothy O' Tools that does great wings. another bar is Durty Nellies, theirs dont suck either.

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"That wasn't very nice...I do believe you killed my hat."

Driver of the FIRE LINDY RUFF Bandwagon since 2008.

I stick with Gabriel's Gate.

A couple of Super Bowls ago, my buddy Mike and I bought like 16 pounds of wings and fried em up at his house and sauced em up with melted butter, Frank's, and he had a couple of pepper extracts he used sparingly. Best homemade wings I ever had.

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mechaphil

call me crazy, i still think buffalo wild wings wings are really good.

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Yer crazy

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mechaphil

I agree. Intense internet stare:

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Bar Bill in East Aurora has some great traditional wings, but they also make these Sicilian wings that are made with herbs and parmesan cheese and they are very good.

Curly's in Lackawanna makes these Jamaican jerk-style chicken wings that are delicious and the dipping sauce that they serve them with is really good.

And I think it was Wegmans actually, but I've had some Teriyaki-style wings before that were pretty good.

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"Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail." - Ralph Waldo Emerson

Hockey Night in Buffalo

When I web to buffalo back in December I had by far the best chicken wings I have ever had, too bad I can't remember the name of the place.

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just call me Brad

Twitter @BUrbanowicz13

pizza hut?

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they do em right, IMO. perfect mixture of dry and grease. no breading.... i dunno, i like em.

maybe its that asian zing sauce.

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You're right about no breading. Breaded wings are an atrocity.

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mechaphil

BWW isn't terrible if you away from home. In WNY though? No way.

Even the shittiest corner pizza place is better than them.

My dad's best friend, who I call Uncle owned Socreboard's pizza right by Lew Port and another joint somewhere. Anyway, he wouldn't give me his steak and cheese sub or wing recipes for years. I asked everytime I was on leave but he kept telling me to fuck off. When my grand father died I was outside of Harding's funeral home in Lewiston and he comes walking up...I asked and he was all like "Your Grandpa would be proud you guilt using little bastard."

There are so many times man when I call home and hear them saying they're gonna order some pizza and wings and I just get homesick. I mean, loganberry, pizza logs, wings, steak and cheese subs, chicken finger subs, beef on weck, watching hockey WITH Sabres fans....ugh...fuck stick I need to come home during the hockey season for once instead of summer trips.

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Since I don't live in WNY I own a fryer.
I refuse to eat shitty wings.

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Hold my beer and watch this...

Amen. Had some last night and me thinks the other package I have and left over sauce will be lunch.

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Having consumed the best wings I've ever tasted on our trips to Buffalo, I refuse to eat any of the garbage they serve at any establishment in my town. I guess we've been spoiled Not even Boston Pizza or Pipers Pub can get it right. At Pipers, they have a "Wing Night" every week and the wings are about the size of that of a robin or pigeon and the texture of rubber & cardboard. When I want a wing, I want a good size wing with flavor. Which is why, we always buy frozen and do them at home ourselves.

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If it's a tight squeeze, spit on it! - NyI

He's a middling AHL player who had the good fortune of a drunk arbitrator. - The Squanto re: Tim Kennedy

I second this after going there multiple times thanks to Phil's recommendation. I've found a guy here in Rochester that makes some of the best wings in town. He doesn't overdo anything, but isn't afraid to experiment with new sauces and cooking styles. His blue cheese is also the best I have EVER had. I could eat spoonfuls of it.

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I've never ate at Duff's. Being from Youngstown I never went into Buffalo and I left when I was 19 so I never got to go downtown much. I have been there since but the only place I had wings in Buffalo itself is the Anchor Bar. We have some good places in Youngstown and Lewiston though that make wings.

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