Speaker 1: Right now, it's time for the way Black History Fact.
Speaker 1: In today's way Black History Fact is sponsored by Underground
Speaker 1: Beach Club from the Streets to the Beach for the
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Speaker 1: And we're gonna read from history dot com. All right,
Speaker 1: this is not Ramses and Q dot com. It is
Speaker 1: History dot com. You can check it out for yourself.
Speaker 1: We're gonna talk about and I'm just I pulled some
Speaker 1: paragraphs here along. The short of it is that you know,
Speaker 1: Buffalo Wild Wings originated with a black restaurant tour, and
Speaker 1: the popular narrative is that it originated with white restaurant tours.
Speaker 1: I can't share it all with you because it's too long,
Speaker 1: so I'm gonna give you just a couple of bullet points.
Speaker 1: In the nineteen sixties, a black restaurant tour named John
Speaker 1: Young open Wings and Things in Buffalo, New York. Around
Speaker 1: the same time, a white couple named Frank and Teresa
Speaker 1: Bellissimo began so in Chicken Wings at the Anchor Bar,
Speaker 1: about a mile away from Wings and Things. By the
Speaker 1: nineteen eighties, the Bellissimos had become famous for supposedly inventing
Speaker 1: Buffalo wings. Yet in recent years, local historians tracing the
Speaker 1: history of the dish have drawn attention to the contributions
Speaker 1: of John Young as well as the cooks who came
Speaker 1: before him, and wings have had a place in both
Speaker 1: restaurant home cooking for a long time, around the country
Speaker 1: and around globe. In Buffalo, the oldest known establishment to
Speaker 1: serve chicken wings is the Clarendon Hotel. A copy of
Speaker 1: the hotel's menu from July first, eighteen fifty seven, listed
Speaker 1: an entree called chicken wings fried. In addition to this menu,
Speaker 1: Cynthia VanNess, the director of the Library and Archives at
Speaker 1: the Buffalo History Museum, has also found a recipe for
Speaker 1: chicken wings in a eighteen ninety four issue of the
Speaker 1: Buffalo Commercial Advisor. It's unclear when Young opened his Buffalo restaurant,
Speaker 1: although he applied for a business license for Wings and
Speaker 1: Things in nineteen sixty six. Interviews with the Young and
Speaker 1: former customers indicate that he likely started selling food under
Speaker 1: that name before applying for the license to do so,
Speaker 1: and in case, Young's restaurant became known for serving breaded
Speaker 1: whole wings tossed in Young's own version of mumbo sauce. Again,
Speaker 1: the article goes a little bit more into the history,
Speaker 1: the black history of that down in DC and blah
Speaker 1: blah blah bah skipping ahead. At some point in the
Speaker 1: mid nineteen sixties, Frank and Teresa Bellissimo's their Anchor Bar,
Speaker 1: began serving its own version of chicken wings. Unlike Young's
Speaker 1: wing the Anchor Anchor Bars, chicken wings were fried, broken
Speaker 1: into pieces, and tossed in hot sauce in this recipe
Speaker 1: that today's buffalo wings most closely resemble. As the dish
Speaker 1: took off in the nineteen seventies and eighties, it was
Speaker 1: the police and most who received most of the credit
Speaker 1: for quote inventing unquote the buffalo wing. Young had moved
Speaker 1: to Illinois around nineteen seventy. When you returned to Buffalo
Speaker 1: about a decade later, he was surprised to see how
Speaker 1: many restaurants were serving what they called buffalo wings. He
Speaker 1: was also surprised to see that the Anchor Bar had
Speaker 1: claimed the title of being the first restaurant to serve
Speaker 1: the wings, especially because he thought that Frank Bellissimo had
Speaker 1: gotten the idea from him. Young's advocacy helped him secure
Speaker 1: recognition as the first person to open a Buffalo restaurant
Speaker 1: centered around chicken wings. He names it wings and things.
Speaker 1: That's what he specialized in, and I think he absolutely
Speaker 1: deserves credit for that, Van Neess says. In nineteen eighties
Speaker 1: and more restaurants outside Buffalo began to semiple their own
Speaker 1: buffalo style wings. The franchise Buffalo Wild Wings, originally named
Speaker 1: Buffalo Wild Wings and Weck, opened in nineteen eighty two
Speaker 1: and Columbus, Ohio. As Buffalo Wings spread throughout the country,
Speaker 1: they became associated with football, and in particular, the Super Bowl.
Speaker 1: This increased demand for chicken wings has come with a
Speaker 1: serious change in price. Back when the Super Bowl began
Speaker 1: in nineteen sixty seven, buffalo wings would have been a
Speaker 1: cheap chicken option for game day food. Ironically, their growth
Speaker 1: in popularity since then has turned wings into one of
Speaker 1: the most expensive and in demand pieces of chicken. And
Speaker 1: just so you know, I don't believe I've ever eaten
Speaker 1: a chicken wing. Ramses doesn't consider.
Speaker 2: Boned chicken real chicken.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I can't. I can't do it with the bones
Speaker 1: in it too much.
Speaker 2: Need you guys to hear this stuff? I can't do
Speaker 2: it with the wings, and it is a clearly I
Speaker 2: can't do it with the bones is a clearly rational
Speaker 2: thing to say. But that the chicken with the bones
Speaker 2: isn't real chicken is insane.
Speaker 1: Listen, man, I need them strips. That's the real chicken.
Speaker 1: But anyway, that's that