Buffalo Wild Wings came to be in 1982.
The American casual dining experience is an invention of Jim Disbrow and Scott Lowery.
Also known by an alternative nickname B-Dubs or BW3, the chain has found home in all 50
US states.
Of course that doesn’t cover other countries like Canada, Mexico, India and the United
Arab Emirates, to name a few.
Yes the tagline “Wings.
Beer.
Sports” is concise and doesn’t reveal much about the famous restaurant franchise,
so prepare your taste buds as we are here to give you the top 10 untold truths about
Buffalo Wild Wings.
Buffalo Wild Wings and the traditional wings dethronement
We all love those beloved wings and when we go hangout at a Buffalo Wild Wings restaurant,
nothing else dominates the plate.
We are not alone on that front as Americans consumed around 1.35 billion wings at the
2018 Super Bowl.
That’s a lot of wings and they have been the celebrity food item since the chain’s
inception.
As of recently in 2016, the boneless wings have replaced the traditional ones in terms
of sales for the restaurant franchise.
Buffalo Wild Wings took a step in 2017, where they replaced their Half-Price Wings Tuesday
deal with the buy one and get one offer on boneless wings.
It was a risky move for the business, but due to rising costs of chicken wings, the
chain was feeding more than they could earn in regards to profits.
Eventually the move towards boneless wings didn’t demand heavy costs and according
to Business Insider, their stocks and profits skyrocketed.
Looks like the boneless ‘dethroned’ the traditional in this war of the wings, and
as long they keep serving them, no one’s complaining because they taste just as good.
Whether you like your wings bone-in or boneless, we won’t judge.
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For the love of beer at Buffalo Wild Wings
A sportsbar would be incomplete without its fair share of beer.
Buffalo Wild Wings likes to greet customers with wings and drinks, and since its venture
for craft beer in 2013, the chain is only moving forwards when it comes to promoting
its beer service.
With 1,200 restaurants strewn across America, BW3 has sold more draft beer than any other
place existing in The States.
All the chains have a three-tier system consisting of beers like Budweiser on top, regional or
state for the second, and customer favourites or seasonal for the third tier.
Some of the bigger restaurants under the brand have 30 beers available on tap.
The menus of the restaurant comprise of detailed descriptions of the beer choices, complete
with categories, alcohol percentage, and the name of the drink.
The restaurant now is playing with the concept of B-Dubs Express, whereby there will be sauce
and self-serve beer walls to speed up the service process.
In one of their locations in Minneapolis, people come across a wall of 10 screens with
20 taps, and they can slide their pre-paid card and experiment with the different types
of beer choices.
The wall also caters to those who prefer cocktails and margaritas.
At the moment there are only three B-Dubs Express and they all reside in Minneapolis,
with one of them having beer and sauce walls.
Depending on your wing preference, it would be sacrilege not to chug it all down with
a nice cold beer at Buffalo Wild Wings, and with the upcoming holiday season, it would
be a good excuse to check out the B-Dubs Express wall.
Buffalo Wild Wings’ vegetarian conundrum
When you think of Buffalo Wild Wings, chicken wings and sauces comes to mind.
Nowhere within the confines of your brain do you consider decent vegetarian options
on the menu.
Vegetarians and vegans have to know that most of the fried food items present are prepared
in beef shortening.
Yes you heard that correctly.
Super far removed from being vegetarian-friendly.
In fact in 2016, one of the customers at the restaurant found out that the mozzarella sticks
and french fries were fried in beef tallow.
This led the customer to file a lawsuit against Buffalo Wild Wings.
But the case was ultimately dismissed in court, because BW3 never claimed to offer vegetarian
options, the customer just assumed.
It may sound all grim and depressing for those who have ditched meat of any sorts.
But it must be addressed that there is light at the end of the tunnel.
With a few changes and letting your server know, you can order garden salad without any
cheese or croutons, and it can be decorated with vegan dressings.
White rice and soft pretzels are not far behind in the list, as they too can be opted for
when you hit the restaurant.
Chicken wraps can also be chosen, obviously without the chicken.
The options are limited yes, but it’s better than watching your friend devour those wings
unceremoniously while you sit pretty, fighting your hunger pangs.
And also all that needs to be done further when you decide to go to a Buffalo Wild Wings
is to read the fine print, because you don’t want to fall victim to the beef tallow if
you practice all things vegetarian or vegan on your plate.
The Buffalo Wild Wings connection to Tonya Harding and Nancy Kerrigan
At first glance, one cannot conceive a valid connection between Buffalo Wild Wings and
the two figure skating icons Tonya Harding and Nancy Kerrigan.
One of the founders of BW3, Jim Disbrow was renowned in the 1960s for figure skating.
He earned a few medals for his time in the skating rink and competed in singles and pairs
figure skating.
He later on became the chairman of the US Figure Skating Association International Committee.
After the Kerrigan and Harding incident, Disbrow was planning to instigate an investigation
into the matter and also launch Michelle Kwan to replace Harding.
Due to Harding’s persistence of suing the US Olympic committee, she was eligible to
compete again.
Disbrow’s passion for figure skating was prominent at his memorial that spoke more
about his role in the figure skating world than his involvement in founding Buffalo Wild
Wings.
Wonder if figure skaters get an extra discount on their orders.
The gambling prospects at Buffalo Wild Wings
You heard that right.
According to Business Insider, Buffalo Wild Wings is delving into new ways to attract
more customers.
It’s currently third right behind Applebee’s Neighbourhood Grill & Bar and Olive Garden.
With a dip in sales recently and its standing in the casual dining experience, the chain
is looking into gambling.
One spokesperson from B-Dubs mentioned that “Buffalo Wild Wings is uniquely positioned
to leverage sports gaming to enhance the restaurant experience for the guests.”
And that they’re currently “exploring various opportunities and potential partners.”
The timing is impeccable as during May 2018, the US Supreme Court axed a 1992 law that
did not permit gambling in most of the states.
Now all that remains is the decision made by the individual states to legalize sports
betting.
Although according to a study, 32 states will allow gambling in the next five years.
Half of them will do so within the next two years.
That sure sounds like a unique opportunity for BW3 to bank in on a lot of customers with
the sports betting feature attached to their chains.
It makes sense to benefit on the sports bar aspect of Buffalo Wild Wings.
So what’s next?
Slot machines?
Buffalo Wild Wings, a victim of hacking
We live in a digital age where nothing is private.
The internet unlocks the secrets to everyone’s personal life online, or digital doppelgangers
can live your life however they choose.
Celebrity hacks, secret government documents, UFO declassifieds that could make conspiracy
buffs proud, you name it, the internet has claimed it.
So part of this bandwagon has been the Twitter account of Buffalo Wild Wings.
There was an outbreak of objectionable tweets on their account feed and as a result a BW3
spokesperson had to come out and clarify that the account had been compromised.
The 700,000 followers were exposed to racist and distasteful tweets.
They have not been the only chain that has been the victim of a hack.
The Twitter account of McDonalds too crumbled in the hands of the hackers when one of the
tweets from their account called President Donald Trump disgusting.
Even media giants like Mark Zuckerberg and Twitter’s former CEO Dick Costello have
had their accounts hacked.
The mysterious ‘W’ in BW3
BW3 being the nickname of the chain saves us the energy of having to say the whole thing.
But why isn’t it BW2?
Well, did you know that initially it was termed as Buffalo Wild Wings & Weck.
As time passed so too did the addition of weck.
Also called kummelweck, it can be traced back to the 1800s in the region of Western New
York.
The weck sandwich comprised of roast beef in an au jus kummelweck roll.
The delicacy wasn’t very popular outside the realms of New York and because it couldn’t
sustain long during the night, the roll would become hard.
It was decided to remove ‘the weck’ from the name, but somehow the name BW3 still remains.
During the 35th anniversary in 2017, the chain celebrated by serving some limited time menu
items.
The weck sandwich was part of the menu and was a way to recognize the heritage of the
brand.
Even though people might have stuck to the wings after the demise of the weck sandwich
at BW3, its limited comebacks could allow the guests to try it out, particularly those
who haven’t heard about it.
Whatever the case, as long as the wings are being served, there is no reason to complain.
Besides when we reflect on Mindy Kaling’s wise words, we have the right to life, liberty
and most importantly, chicken wings.
Blazing, flaming and a whole lot sweating at Buffalo Wild Wings
Buffalo Wild Wings tries to keep things interesting and it's not just restricted to beer and wings.
There’s a thing called “Blazin' Wing Challenge” and the rules that come with competing in
it are not meant for the faint of heart.
Just hearing about them would make one sweat bucket loads.
For 12 bucks you get a dozen chicken wings, which you have to devour in under less than
six minutes.
Sounds easy?
No.
There’s a catch of course.
The wings come drenched in the blazin' sauce which is notorious for its heat levels.
The sauce is 60 times hotter than the jalapeno pepper and is about 300,000 Scoville units.
It is also considered the world’s spiciest of hot sauces, which means BW3 is not kidding
around with the challenge.
Its liquid hell basically.
Before you even think of involving yourself in such madness, you have to sign a waiver,
just in case.
You know this is serious stuff when you sign a waiver.
During the event you cannot use any napkins, dips, or drinks to minimize the pain.
On top of that you can't even wipe your face and if you do end up vomiting during the competition,
you end up losing.
During your ‘spicy’ exploits, the manager and the service staff watch as you perish
in the blazin' challenge.
You might be thinking: what do you end up getting for all your misery?
Well you are handed a t-shirt, and a photo of you adorns the wall of fame.
Bonus, if you do scrape through it all, you get a boost in ego and pride for bearing the
pits of hell.
That speaks of your courage.
But if you don’t immediately regret it consuming all of that, you certainly will when it’s
on its way out.
Sauces galore at Buffalo Wild Wings
B-Dub’s has an array of sauces up its sleeve, 21 to be precise.
It includes sauces like the dreaded Blazin’ to the Honey BBQ to name a few.
To keep things fresh and attractive for the guests, they have a secret lab that concocts
new flavours.
They even re-release retired sauces and bring them back for those who haven’t got a chance
to try them out before.
Speaking of flavours, Buffalo Wild Wings in celebration of National Sauce Month this year,
gave the customers an option to order three new sauce mashups.
Vampire Slayer, Dirty Bird and El Roco could be used on boneless or traditional wings.
They are holding a competition for the employees as well to find out the next unique mashups.
This is part of the B-Dubs Hackables found at the restaurant and it seems like the cogs
at the sauce labs are going to keep moving, spewing out another tasty formula.
That’s a finger licking experience we would love to be engaged in.
These initiatives from the chain to experiment with their food and ‘spice’ things up,
speaks of their persistence to add variety to their menu and move out of their comfort
zone every now and then.
Controversy stricken Buffalo Wild Wings
Buffalo Wild Wings has given us delicious wings and secret sauces to the point where
we end up licking our fingers clean.
But it has been marred in controversy as well.
A story floating around on the internet claimed that it was policy of the company to switch
off or mute the national anthem because it was controversial.
The timing was against the chain as the incident according to the claim happened on September
11th.
The controversy revolved around an actual episode that occurred at one of the chains
in California.
BW3 had to come out and extinguish the fire, emphasizing that they had no such policy and
were disappointed that it happened.
During the release of a statement by the chain, the employee was no longer working at the
restaurant.
Hopefully next time B-Dubs ends up with a controversy, its regarding its next secret
sauce launch.
Surely that would be good publicity for the chain.
So don’t run out to your nearest Buffalo Wild Wings just yet, we’ve got way more
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