If you live in the United States, chances are you are very aware of what Buffalo Wild Wings is. According to wikipedia there are over 1000 stores now but there was a time when this name was something only specific people had heard of and my college town, when I was in college in that town, was one of the first extensions of the, then, small chain that was known as "Buffalo Wild Wings and Weck" or as it was colloquially known as, BW3's.
I remember when it opened up because it was my sophomore year at college and I had just stopped commuting back and forth from my parents' house and was now living in Greenville, home of East Carolina University.
I hadn't had any exposure to "Buffalo Wings" at that point in my life and as difficult as it is to imagine, not many other people had either. At that point in time this type of fried chicken wings was still kind of a rather unknown thing that is based on a wonderful sauce that originated in Buffalo, New York.
The story goes that two guys had relocated to Ohio from Buffalo and one day they wanted wings but nobody had the style they were used to back in Buffalo... so they did the smart thing and opened a restaurant / sports bar and while it took a while to convince people to try something new (as it tends to be with anything) before long people were really excited about this new style of wings that nobody had ever had before. I know that the first time I had Buffalo wings I had to be told something like "oh you have to try this stuff!)
My apprehension disappeared right after the first bite. Thankfully my friend had a similar spice threshold to me and we chose the medium spice one even though there was something like a dozen different choices. There was one sauce on there that I think was meant as a gag and it was the hottest one. one bite of that and I had hiccups that would not go away for the next half an hour and my mouth was on fire.
They had a ton of different sauces but every time I deviated from medium I ended up regretting it and always returned to my favorite. I don't know what it is about that particular sauce, but it is just perfect to me.
This BW3's was wildly popular at least in part to the 20 cent wing Tuesday where they also had pints of domestic beer for $2. I don't think anyone else on that street could compete with a deal like that.
I never saw another BW3's until after I was out of college and that chain must have gotten a huge influx of cash or something because not these shops are everywhere. I've heard there are more than 100 of them in Texas alone and while they are no longer a quirky place that only college students go to anymore and are more of a strip mall chain, the flavors and deals are still the same. We even have one here in New Bern, which is pretty amazing because we don't normally get a whole hell of a lot here.
The saying locally goes, "if they have it in New Bern, they have it everywhere" and aside from some local BBQ places, that is probably true.
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ours is small, but we have one!
ECU's BW3's wasn't the first location, it may not have even been one of the first 25, but it was the first one that I or anyone else that I knew had seen or heard of at the time and it's deserved that this is now a household name that everyone goes to for food that they know are terrible for them.
I don't go there often anymore because I am older and don't want to be a fatty, but every now and then I will join with some friends for a fried feast and guess what? I still get medium spice. I see no reason to ever change that.