There's something undeniably delicious about Buffalo wings.
And barbecue wings.
And lemon pepper wings.
Carribean jerk wings, too.
Just wings in general.
And that's the craving Buffalo Wild Wings was built on.
Here are some things you might not know about this massively popular chain.
It seems like it might be a given that this chain started in Buffalo, but it didn't - in
fact, Buffalo Wild Wings' actual connections to Buffalo are somewhat tenuous.
The first location was opened in Columbus, Ohio, not far from The Ohio State University,
in 1982 by Jim Disbrow and Scott Lowery.
Disbrow moved to Buffalo in 1974, and was back in Ohio a few years later.
He was lamenting the fact he couldn't find a good chicken wing anywhere, so he and Lowery
decided to open their own chicken wing joint in the spirit of the wings Disbrow had discovered
in Buffalo.
Other locations opened slowly, and they didn't hit the point of franchising until 1991.
Buffalo Wild Wings is often known colloquially as "BW3," because the chain's name originally
featured a third W. It was first called Buffalo Wild Wings & Weck, and it's not entirely surprising
that last word was dropped.
If you're not from Buffalo, you probably haven't got the foggiest idea what weck is.
Weck is short for kummelweck, a type of bread roll.
No one's really sure where the super-regional delicacy started, but it likely has roots
in the German immigrants that settled in the Western New York area.
The caraway-and-salt-topped rolls are chewy inside and hard on the outside, and since
they hold up to liquid, they're perfect for soaking up meat juices for things like beef
on weck sandwiches.
So, why did Buffalo Wild Wings drop the weck?
Bizarrely, attempts to make a true, Buffalo-style weck roll outside of Western New York have
failed, and they're not easy to export.
They get rock hard overnight, so it's probably best to just stick to the wings.
In 2013, Buffalo Wild Wings menus got a major overhaul, and it all had to do with how they
did business.
At the time, customers would order based on the number of wings they wanted.
The chain was buying their chickens by weight, though, and as chicken wings were getting
larger and larger, they were paying more to their suppliers.
That meant the customer was getting more chicken, each portion was costing the chain more, and
without raising prices, Buffalo Wild Wings's profits were taking a major hit.
It's a tricky way to do business that doesn't really have much consistency, and it also
means that when chicken prices are high, profits suffer.
So, Buffalo Wild Wings decided to start selling wings by weight, rather than by number.
The goal was to serve an amount similar to what customers were getting before wing sizes
were getting noticeably bigger.
It may have been tricky at first to explain to customers, but people love giant chicken
wings.
Half-Price Wings Tuesday at Buffalo Wild Wings was the highlight of the week for coworkers
and drinking buddies everywhere, but that came to an abrupt end in 2017.
It was replaced with a buy-one, get-one offer on boneless wings.
It makes you wonder why they would have gotten rid of such a massively popular deal in favor
of a new one that, at a glance, is essentially the same thing.
It's all about profit margins.
Half-Price Wings got a ton of people in the door, but the rising costs of chicken wings
meant that they weren't making as much as they could have been off all that foot traffic.
Enter the boneless wing.
Even as they increased in popularity, boneless wings weren't being hit by the same price
hikes as traditional wings, so BW3 could make more with them.
Did it work?
Absolutely.
Business Insider says BW3 profits, and stocks, soared after they made the switch.
That's a huge deal that allowed Buffalo Wild Wings to stay profitable and keep the doors
open.
Chicken wings are a big deal in the United States.
The National Chicken Council says Americans ate an estimated 1.35 billion wings during
the 2018 Super Bowl alone.
For some perspective, that means that if you were able to take all 32 NFL stadiums and
fill the seats with that many wings, every chair would have to hold 625 wings.
That number was up a shocking 20 million wings from just the year before, so you'd think
chicken wings would be BW3's biggest seller.
They're not.
"I mean, they actually pretty good, but they don't have no bones in 'em."
"They boneless, baby!"
As of 2016, boneless wings stepped up to take over the majority of chicken wing sales at
Buffalo Wild Wings.
They're the fastest-growing section of the market, and ironically, they're not even chicken
wings at all.
When you order "boneless wings," you're actually getting chicken breast sliced into wing-sized
pieces and fried.
Why the change?
Well, it's a simple math problem.
Chicken wings are becoming more and more popular every year, and while you can breed more chickens,
wings are not like eggs.
Every chicken can only give you two wings, and if you're selling mostly wings, you're
left with a surplus of other parts of the chicken.
The oversupply of all those other cuts meant that people started using the breasts for
other things, thus inventing the "boneless wing."
It's no secret that BW3 takes their beer almost as seriously as they take their chicken wings,
and there's a good reason for that.
What goes better with wings, after all?
According to The Motley Fool, about 20 percent of Buffalo Wild Wings's profits come from
the sale of beer, and even more impressive?
Thanks to their 1,200 locations, they're the largest pourer of draft beer in the country.
Part of that success is thanks to limited-run craft brews like Fandom Ale and Game Changer
Ale, and part of it is thanks to a tiered system put in place to ensure customers have
the best possible beer selection.
The bigger the restaurant, the more taps they might have.
Some Buffalo Wild Wings locations have up to 30 beers on tap, but they're all monitored
to make sure they're popular enough that the kegs run out before they compromise quality.
And every restaurant subscribes to a three-tier system.
At the top, there are beers that are in every Buffalo Wild Wings across the country, common
brands like Budweiser.
The second tier is made up of state, regional, or major-market favorites.
The last tier leaves it up to the individual restaurant to find something super-local,
seasonal, or whatever customers request the most.
You might assume that anyone going to Buffalo Wild Wings isn't going to be looking for a
vegetarian option.
With more and more people opting to go meat-free, though, there's bound to be one in every group
of friends heading out to watch the game.
In 2016, one vegetarian customer sued after finding out menu items she thought were vegetarian
- mozzarella sticks and french fries - were actually fried in beef tallow.
There was a catch, though, and it was a pretty big one that led to the suit being thrown
out.
Buffalo Wild Wings never advertised or labeled any items as being vegetarian.
The customer just assumed they were.
BW3 has a ton of sauces: 16, to be exact, and 5 seasonings.
You can order things like bourbon honey mustard, Parmesan garlic, lemon pepper, mango habanero,
and Thai curry, and those are all great.
But if you're a purist, you know those aren't exactly Buffalo wings.
It's actually super easy to make your own, authentic Buffalo wings, and it all comes
down to the sauce.
Even though BW3 offers a ton of options when it comes to wing sauce, there's only one true
Buffalo sauce.
You can make it at home, and you should definitely try, because it's not just brilliant on wings.
It's great for fries, for chips, for burgers, for tacos, you get the idea.
The recipe?
Only half a cup of classic Frank's Red Hot Sauce and a third of a cup of melted butter.
That's it!
You're welcome.
Back in 2017, Buffalo Wild Wings admitted that it was struggling.
They were starting to sell corporate-owned locations off to franchisees, and that's always
something of a questionable sign.
Then, more news went public: Buffalo Wild Wings' owners sealed a deal with Arby's parent
company, Roark Capital Group, to sell the company in its entirety for $2.9 billion.
This was actually good news for fans of the chain.
Arby's had been struggling as well, and in 2013, a new CEO took over and made a series
of changes.
The result was impressive, and by 2016, Arby's was seeing record sales numbers.
Those are the same hands that Buffalo Wild Wings passed into, so the hope was that Buffalo
Wild Wings would turn around, as well.
Customers were also immediately hopeful that they'd see some crossover, particularly between
Arby's famous sauces and the signature sauces of Buffalo Wild Wings.
Sure enough, by early 2018 there was a crossover sauce.
Sadly, though, it was a very limited edition, only available in a few locations for a handful
of days.
Confusing ordering system
One of the basic rules of business is that when customers order, they should know exactly
what they're ordering and what they can expect to get.
Buffalo Wild Wings has had a chronic problem with that, and in 2020, they announced things
were going to change.
Originally, customers could place their order for six, 10, 15, 20, or 30 wings.
That's pretty straightforward.
Then, the company changed that ordering system to small, medium, and large, as we mentioned,
based on weight.
That's...less than straightforward.
"Can I get a large order of spicy garlic wings?"
The reason for the change was that the wings they were getting varied in size, to the point
where some patrons were feeling cheated by small wings.
Orders started going out based on weight and sizes of wings, which sounds fine.
But when one person at the table gets six wings and another gets eight - even though
they ordered the same size - that's not going to sit well, either.
Customers were understandably unhappy, and Buffalo Wild Wings announced they were going
back to the old way of ordering.
In a statement, the company said that they'd heard the results of customer research loud
and clear.
Buffalo Wild Wings guests prefer wing count over wing weight.
In early 2019, a Buffalo Wild Wings location in Kansas found itself in the middle of some
terrible headlines.
According to The Kansas City Star, a former employee was suing after he was fired, which
he said happened after he reported discrimination and an unsafe, hostile work environment.
Former employee Gary Lovelace said that the work environment was "racially hostile," and
that employees were regularly told to refuse some customers based on race, age, and disability.
Lovelace reported the conditions, which allegedly began with the hiring of a new general manager.
He was fired for making the report, after working there for 12 years.
Just a few months later, Buffalo Wild Wings was making headlines again.
This time, Eater reported that the company had fired two managers at a location in Naperville,
Illinois.
The managers were reportedly fired after they asked about the race of a group of customers,
and repeatedly tried to move them away from a customer who did not want to sit near them
because of their race.
"And so the host said 'Well, we have a regular customer here who doesn't want to sit around
black people.'"
If you haven't been at a Buffalo Wild Wings lately, you'll find that when you go back,
it looks a little different.
That's because they're giving the whole place an overhaul.
According to Business Insider, they're doing it in hopes of attracting a new, millennial
crowd.
Inspire Brands CEO Paul Brown - the same person who turned Arby's around just a few years
before - said Buffalo Wild Wings is targeting millennial sports fans who liked to hang out
with friends...but found life getting in the way of that.
March Madness has always been a big deal for the chain, and they used the 2019 event to
kick off their new advertising campaign, updated menus, new employee uniforms, and a new image.
They're aiming to be a favorite place to hang out with friends, have some beers and wings,
and watch whatever sport happens to be in season.
One of the first changes is definitely geared toward courting millennials concerned about
the environment.
Gone are the plastic sauce containers and paper boats, and in their place are things
like metal trays.
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