New York’s food scene may be exciting, with everything from celebrity chefs to weekend markets with indie vendors cooking up their family recipes.
We also know to respect tradition, and there’s a serious OG coming to town. Anchor Bar, the Buffalo-based pub most commonly credited (though occasionally disputed) as the inventor of Buffalo wings, is finally opening an outpost in New York City after sprinkling eight locations across the country and Canada.
According to DNAinfo, the chain is set to open sometime before the end of the year, depending on when they can begin serving beer to go with the wings. The new location will be a 4,000-square-foot affair at 327 W. 57th St. with 200 seats.
Though there’s no evidence that Anchor Bar was the first to slather fried chicken wings in a tangy mix of hot sauce and butter — everyone’s fingers were probably too sticky to take photos — the origin story sounds legit.
One late night in 1964, then-owner Teressa Bellissimo had to figure out what to serve a group of her son’s friends. Knowing that young men will eat anything, she deep fried some chicken wings, which at the time were either used for stock or not at all, then doused them in Frank’s Red Hot sauce cut with butter. This remains the traditional way of making Buffalo wing sauce, though Anchor Bar has its own recipe.
Its menu offers three options for the wings: mild, medium and hot, or get them slathered in something called Suicide Sauce — though before you turn this into a contest, The Daily Beast doesn’t recommend it.
And anyway, have some respect! These wings are about flavor, not eating as many as you can before halftime. Buffalo isn’t even the only style of chicken wing at the pub. They’re also turned inside-out to make meat lollipops or served in ravioli topped with blue cheese alfredo sauce.
We’re looking forward to see how else they’ll raise NYC’s chicken wing game.
