On a chilly night in 1964, a bar in Buffalo, New York, was about to change the culinary world forever—not with a gourmet dish or a fancy cocktail, but with a humble pile of chicken wings, usually tossed into soup pots or thrown out as scraps. Fast forward to today, and those same wings are the star of National Chicken Wing Day, celebrated every July 29 with sauce-stained fingers and stacks of napkins. But how did a throwaway cut of meat become an American obsession, devoured by the billions? The story is messier, spicier, and more contested than you might think.
As someone who’s spent countless game nights elbow-deep in a basket of wings, I’ve always wondered: who had the audacity to take a part of the chicken most people ignored and turn it into a cultural phenomenon? Let’s dig into the sticky, saucy history of National Chicken Wing Day and uncover the surprising origins of Buffalo wings.
The Birth of a Legend: The Anchor Bar’s Claim to Fame
The most widely accepted story of the Buffalo wing begins at the Anchor Bar, a family-owned spot on Main Street in Buffalo, New York. In 1964, Teressa Bellissimo, co-owner with her husband Frank, found herself with a surplus of chicken wings. Back then, wings were considered scraps, used mostly for stock or discarded entirely. But one night, inspiration struck—or so the story goes.
According to the Anchor Bar’s lore, Teressa’s son Dominic and his college buddies rolled into the bar late one night, hungry for a snack. With little on hand, Teressa took those unwanted wings, deep-fried them, and tossed them in a cayenne pepper-based hot sauce mixed with butter to tame the heat. She served them with celery sticks and blue cheese dressing to cool the spice. The result? An instant hit. The wings were so popular that they landed on the menu the very next day, dubbed “Buffalo wings” after the city of their birth.
This tale, passed down through the Bellissimo family and echoed in countless articles, paints a picture of serendipity and ingenuity. As Michelle Buchholz, the Anchor Bar’s marketing director, told Business Insider, “Teressa was Italian, so she made some nice sauce and seasoned them with the sauce, and we always say the rest is history from there.” The Anchor Bar became a mecca for wing lovers, with its walls now adorned with over 500 license plates from fans across the globe.
But the story isn’t as clean-cut as a perfectly fried wing. There’s another contender in the origin story, and it adds a layer of complexity to the narrative.
The Other Wing: John Young’s Forgotten Legacy
While the Anchor Bar gets most of the credit, another Buffalo restaurateur, John Young, has a compelling claim to the chicken wing crown. Young, a Black entrepreneur who moved from Alabama to Buffalo in 1948, opened Wings’n Things in 1963, a year before the Anchor Bar’s alleged invention. His wings were different—breaded and served with a tomato-based “Mambo Sauce,” a nod to Southern culinary traditions.
Young’s story is less about a late-night snack and more about cultural heritage. As The Clifton Times notes, “Food traditions observed by Black Americans in the south included fried chicken wings long before the 1960s, and those traditions would have informed the techniques and recipes Chef Young used with such success in Buffalo.” Young himself didn’t claim to invent wings outright but argued that his restaurant was among the first to serve them as a standalone dish in Buffalo, capitalizing on a soul food staple that predated the Anchor Bar’s saucy creation.
So why does Young’s story often take a backseat? Some argue it’s because the cultural contributions of Black Americans have historically been overlooked. A Reddit thread on r/Wings captures the sentiment: “The family doesn’t want credit for inventing buffalo sauce wings, but rather that they were the first to sell wings in Buffalo. They acknowledge it’s a different recipe.” The Anchor Bar’s unbreaded, hot sauce-coated wings became the blueprint for what we now call Buffalo wings, while Young’s breaded version faded into relative obscurity.
A City’s Love Affair: How Buffalo Embraced the Wing
Regardless of who fried the first wing, Buffalo, New York, was undeniably the epicenter of the wing revolution. By the late 1960s, other local spots like Duff’s in Amherst were serving wings, and the dish was spreading across the city’s taverns. In 1977, Buffalo’s mayor, Stan Makowski, declared July 29 as National Chicken Wing Day, a nod to the city’s pride in its culinary creation. The proclamation highlighted that “thousands of pounds of chicken wings are consumed by Buffalonians in restaurants and taverns throughout the city each week.”
This declaration wasn’t just a publicity stunt. It came at a time when Buffalo was reeling from a devastating 1977 blizzard that dumped over nine feet of snow and claimed nearly 30 lives. The city needed a morale boost, and what better way to rally a blue-collar town than around a “blue-collar dish”? As one Buffalonian put it in a 1980 New Yorker article, “A blue-collar dish for a blue-collar town.”
The timing was perfect. The 1970s and ’80s saw a shift in American eating habits. As consumers favored boneless, skinless chicken breasts, wings became an inexpensive byproduct. Restaurants realized they could sell these cheap cuts at low prices, and the spicy, salty sauce made them a perfect pairing for beer, driving bar sales through the roof. Add to that the rise of sports bars with multiple TVs and satellite dishes, and wings became the ultimate game-day food, especially during football season.
From Local Favorite to Global Phenomenon
The Buffalo wing’s journey from a regional specialty to a global obsession is a masterclass in culinary virality. By the 1980s, the dish was gaining traction beyond Buffalo. Dick Winger, a hot sauce salesman who supplied the Anchor Bar, teamed up with Dominic Bellissimo to promote the wings nationwide. The big break came in 1990 when McDonald’s introduced Mighty Wings, followed by KFC’s Hot Wings in 1991 and Domino’s in 1994. Suddenly, wings were everywhere.
Today, Americans eat a staggering 30 billion chicken wings annually, with 1.3 billion consumed on Super Bowl Sunday alone. The National Buffalo Wing Festival, held in Buffalo, draws 800,000 people each year, and in 2018, organizers cooked over 50,000 pounds of wings for attendees. Wings have gone global, too, with adaptations like soy-garlic wings in South Korea and spicy masala wings in India.
But it’s not just about numbers. Wings have become a cultural touchstone. They’re the ultimate shareable food, perfect for game nights, parties, or late-night cravings. As National Today puts it, “When it’s game time or just time to kick back, these crispy bites are the ultimate companions for sharing and savoring.”
The Anatomy of a Perfect Wing
What makes a chicken wing so irresistible? It’s more than just crispy skin and spicy sauce. Let’s break it down:
- The Cut: A whole chicken wing has three parts—drumette, flat (or wingette), and tip. The drumette, meatier and shaped like a mini drumstick, is a favorite for many. The flat, with its two thin bones, offers a perfect balance of meat and crispy skin. Tips are often discarded or used for stock.
- The Preparation: Traditional Buffalo wings are unbreaded, deep-fried, and tossed in a vinegar-based cayenne sauce with butter. Variations now include breaded wings, baked wings, or even air-fried versions for a healthier twist.
- The Sauce: The classic Buffalo sauce is a blend of cayenne pepper, vinegar, salt, garlic, and margarine, but today’s wings come in endless flavors—honey mustard, garlic Parmesan, mango habanero, or even “Atomic” for the brave.
- The Sides: Celery and carrot sticks, paired with blue cheese or ranch dressing, are non-negotiable for balancing the heat. Fun fact: more Americans prefer ranch over blue cheese, despite the latter being the traditional choice.
Celebrating National Chicken Wing Day
National Chicken Wing Day on July 29 is a chance to indulge in this beloved dish. Restaurants like Wingstop, Applebee’s, and 7-Eleven roll out deals—think buy-one-get-one-free wings or discounts with a special code. In Buffalo, the celebration extends to the entire month of July with the Chicken Wing Festival, where fans vote for the “Best Wings in Town” and enter photo contests for prizes like Red Bull Racing sunglasses.
Want to celebrate at home? Here are a few ideas:
- Host a Wing-Off: Invite friends to bring their favorite sauce or wing recipe. Try classics like Buffalo or experiment with bold flavors like Thai chili or lemon pepper.
- Join a Competition: Some bars host wing-eating contests. In 2015, Patrick “Deep Dish” Bertoletti set a record by eating 444 wings in 26 minutes at Buffalo’s Wing Bowl.
- Visit the Source: Make a pilgrimage to the Anchor Bar or explore Buffalo’s Wing Trail, featuring 12 pubs with unique takes on the dish.
The Controversy That Lingers
The debate over who invented the Buffalo wing—Teressa Bellissimo or John Young—may never be settled. Both stories highlight the ingenuity of Buffalo’s culinary scene in the 1960s, but they also reflect broader themes. Young’s overlooked contribution speaks to the erasure of Black culinary traditions, while the Anchor Bar’s dominance shows how a single narrative can take hold. As The New Yorker noted in 1980, “If a pack of revisionist historians descended on Buffalo, they would have no serious quarrel with the basic story… although the feminists among them might point out that the City of Buffalo’s proclamation would have been more exact if it had named Teressa Bellissimo” as the inventor.
For me, the real magic lies in how a simple dish born from resourcefulness became a symbol of community and celebration. Whether you’re a flat fan or a drumette devotee, there’s no denying the wing’s universal appeal.
As we approach National Chicken Wing Day 2025, wings continue to evolve. Restaurants are experimenting with plant-based wings, and chains like Wingstop are adding flavors like Hot Honey Rub to their permanent menus. With concerns about inflation, wings remain an affordable luxury, as Tom Super of the National Chicken Council notes: “Wings continue to be a most affordable and popular luxury when dining out or barbecuing on the home grill.”
So, this July 29, grab a bucket of wings, share them with friends, and raise a glass to the scrappy, spicy dish that conquered the world. What’s your favorite wing flavor, and how will you celebrate? Let’s keep the wing love alive—because if there’s one thing we can all agree on, it’s that wings make everything better.
