I don't know, and I'm sure if you really WANT to know, you could look it up on what my son fondly refers to as the "interwebs". I do know that the Anchor Bar in Buffalo is credited with the "invention" of the Buffalo Wing, and the rest, as they say, is history.
In case you've been living under a rock (or just don't care), the largest (only?) Chicken Wing Festival EVER is held in Buffalo New York. As the fiancee of a competitive eater, of course, that's one event that's on our calendar beginning in June or so, when the signups go up on the website (
http://www.buffalowing.com/).
Short history of the Buffalo Wing Festival (stolen directly from the website listed above): The idea for the festival came from a movie called Osmosis Jones. Bill Murray starred as a compulsive eater with a goal of attending the Super Bowl of junk food, The National Buffalo Wing Festival. Ironically, there wasn't one.
That is when native Buffalonian Drew Cerza, now affectionately known as the Wing King decided to make it happen back in 2002. This is a case of Real Life knocking off Hollywood!
Official attendance for the two day event totaled some 92,000, which compares to 78,000 last year. In addition, Saturday set a single day attendance record of 52,000 attendees. Yes, we were 4 of those. It seemed a good idea at the time to take everyone to Buffalo, and then drop the boy-child off at school in Boston on the way home. Which isn't really "on the way home" from Buffalo. It wasn't our best idea ever, but that's a story for another venue.
The Wing Festival is always loads of fun, honestly. There's a ton of stuff for kids to do in their own pavilion and there are vendors from all over, competing for top honors in sauce taste, creativity and who-all knows what else. We, of course, are there for the wing-eating contest held on Saturday and the Buffet Bowl, held on Sunday. Long story short, Sonya Thomas won both events. No surprise there. Bill didn't come in last for either event, which is always a good thing. There were some surprises, like Sean Gordon hitting third place, beating Pat Bertoletti.
So here's how our merry little band spent our food dollars this weekend...
Wing Festival: Food is available by ticket only, and you get three wings per 2 tickets. Other types of food cost more tickets, but if you're there for the wings, you can eat pretty well on $10 or $20. Our picks:
Barber's Buffalo Chicken Fingers (3 tickets), which were tender and moist, breaded and baked in a spicy bread crumb mixture. Best thing I tasted all day!
O'Connell's Buffalo Mac and Cheese (3 tickets), which was creamy and tasty. Not too spicy, and contained all the traditional "buffalo wing" ingedients, from celery to shredded carrot. I'm not a huge fan of cooked celery, but it didn't flavor the dish *too* much and was cut large enough to pick it out.
Falletta's Buffalo Chicken Rice Ball (3 tickets), was an AMAZINGLY good combination of rice, chicken and buffalo seasonings, molded into a ball the size of your fist. TOTALLY worth the tickets, filling and really a taste treat. My son's choice, and a damn fine one, too!
Wing Zone's lemon pepper wings (3 wings for 2 tickets) were to DIE for! Not to spicy, not too bland, coated in a lemon glaze sauce and cracked pepper. Their teriyaki and mild sauce were also amazing!!
Outside the Festival
The Anchor Bar (
http://www.anchorbar.com/)
OK, ok, so it's a bit of a tourist trap, and the last time we were up there, we walked in, looked around and walked out. There was a line out the door, and since we'd just spent the day eating wings, we didn't see a reason to eat more. This time, we had tables reserved, and didn't have to wait in line. Good idea. Eaters present included US Male Dave Goldstein, Buffalo Jim Reeves, Pat Deep Dish Bertoletti, Eric Badlands Booker, Tim Gravy Brown, Russ the Black Hole Keeler, Wild Bill Myers, Big Brian Subich and I'm sure I'm forgetting SOMEONE....I should have written it down when I was there.
BUT...we were also graced with the presence of the bass player from the GooGoo Dolls, Robby Takac!!! From what I understand, he's a competitive eating uber-fan, and he lives in Buffalo. He runs a charity called Music is Art (
http://www.musicisart.org/) which fosters music in the community, and amongst young people. From their website - Music is Art is based on the basic belief that everyone should have the opportunity to find their musical voice. MiA is dedicated to connecting music and the community to ensure all types of music are recognized as an important part of our culture. He is SUCH a nice guy, gracious and down-to-earth. He was kind enough to pose for pictures with my kids, separately, after the event on Sunday.
ANYHOW - on to the food. I caved and ate the Anchor Bar wings - an order of 10 was $10.00. They came with loads of celery and the Anchor Bar's blue cheese, which is awesome. The sauce has a hint of garlic, and the wings were plenty covered in it - nice and tender, just enough sauce (they weren't drowning and they weren't dry).
Bill chose the Roast Beef on Weck, which while good, wasn't as good as the one from Charlie the Butcher. I liked the flavor, but not having the Charlie's sandwich to compare to, couldn't say one way or the other. $9 for the sandwich, which wasn't a bad price - it was thickly piled with beef and the roll was soft and tasty.
My son chose the appetizer sampler platter, which he thoroughly enjoyed. A mix of items -
2 potato skins, 2 pizza logs, 2 jalapeno poppers and 2 mozarella sticks. $12 for the platter, and more than enough for a meal for one, if you're not up for wings or another of the entree choices.
My daughter had an order of the pizza logs. Pepperoni pizza wrapped into a taquito-style presentation. A little greasy, but that's the nature of the beast. She enjoyed them, but wished she had been able to order the children's portion. The adult portion contained a few too many for her delicate appetite. $11.00 for 6.
Onion Rings - YUM!! All I'm going to say is thick cut, beer battered and fried to perfection.
Ted's Hot Dogs (
http://www.tedsonline.com/history.php)
Stopped here for lunch on Sunday before the Buffet Bowl. If you like hot dogs, THIS is the place to get them! Foot longs with foot long buns, grilled over charcoal, just like your family barbecue master makes them! Have it with chili and cheese, add some onions, and for the adventurous, the Ted's Sauce, which is a little sweet, but comes back with a spicy kick. They call it hot sauce, and it is, but it's stealthy. Sneaks up on you. A single, regular hot dog is $2.15 and you can add relish, onions, mustard, ketchup and pickles (dill spears...awesome!). A foot long costs $3.45, and chili and cheese are a little extra, but WELL worth it. Fries are natural and shoesting cut, crisp and really flavorful. A great addition. Natural casing hotdogs from Sahlen's. Nice snap and fabulous flavor. I'm not a HUGE hot dog lover, but I like a good one, and these are good ones!
Last stop - on the way home from Boston - Rein's Deli in Vernon, CT (
http://www.reinsdeli.com/). Along the lines of Harold's NY Deli, the sandwiches are stuffed and the atmosphere is New York. Plenty of half-sour pickles set on the table (1 per person when you sit down, but as many as you like when you ask for more), and a great selection of NY Deli style food. Ruebens and Rachels, corned beef, pastrami, roast beef, chopped liver, Nova lox, you name it, it's on the menu. Find the menu here:
http://vernon.reinsdeli.com/ordereze/SMenu/5/MenuDetails.aspxAny sandwich can be ordered regular style or "Fresser", which is overstuffed. Prices are very reasonable for the size and quality of the meal.
I had a pastrami rachel. Meat was amazing, cheese grilled to perfection, and the cole slaw is NOT your run-of-the mill slaw. Nice and flavorful, with a little hint of onion, I think. Russian dressing is served on the side, and it's just enough to slather it on and enjoy a great taste treat!
Bill chose the corned beef and chopped liver. Now - I am NOT a liver lover. Wouldn't ever order it out ANYWHERE. Couldn't PAY me enough to eat it! But, by the same token, I like the liver spread at Charlie Browns, I like liverwurst, and, well - I liked the spread here at Rein's, too. It was a *tinch* heavy on the liver, but hey...that's what it is, right? I wouldn't have chosen it, but I could have eaten it.
And finally, the girly chose a chicken breast sandwich that you customize with your choice of cheese and veggie condiments (all a la carte, though). Served on a soft roll. She ate the whole thing, and that's a feat for her, so it MUST have been good! Lunch for 3 (one regular sandwich, one fresser, the chicken, a double order of pickles and 3 drinks) was about $35 before tip. They also have a huge deli counter from which you can order lunch meats and other Jewish deliciacies. A neat experience, even if there wasn't a pickle bar.
SO - it was a whirlwind weekend. Two contests, 21 hours in the car, move a young man into his dorm room and still get everyone home in time to go back to work and school. Gotta love it.
