Just caught a preview for a new wing related TV series launching soon called Wingmen. It appears to be about two guys who have a food truck/cart called 2 Fat 2 Fly where they stuff chicken wings with various flavors and are trying to make it big. I'd love for them to drive their food truck out to Portland so that I can try them, because honestly they seem interesting but don't sound very good to me. Maybe I'm too much of a buffalo wing purist.
Regardless, here's the scoop:
The big day is here - Tuesday, July 29 is National Chicken Wing Day 2014! This is amazing news for wing lovers because (1) we get to eat wings and (2) many wing joints across the US are giving away free wings as a way to entice us to dine at their restaurants. Look no further, we've rounded up the best specials around to help you make the most of your National Chicken Wing Day!
As we hear of more specials, we'll post them here.
Just added:
Peace, love, and grease!
Scott "The Cluckbucket" Roth
It's that time of year again, July 29th is National Chicken Wing Day! Where are you going to have your wings? Check out our recipes page if you plan on making them yourself.
Happy Winging!
Pizza Hut is placing some big bets on the wing industry by launching a national television advertising campaign during March Madness to promote it's WingStreet wings. According to Pizza Hut the WingStreet concept has now been rolled out to over 5,000 locations nationwide so chances are good that there is a Pizza Hut/WingStreet location near you. All of this awareness as well as a limited time promotion of 8 wings for $6 prompted me to give WingStreet a try - here's what I found:
The Wings: WingStreet deep fries their wings at each location which gives it a huge advantage over other pizza chains that just warm up their wings in an oven. The wings come with breading or without breading (I highly recommend the ones without breading as the breaded ones have too much breading and taste more like regular fried chicken) and tossed in one of eight sauces - including Buffalo Mild, Buffalo Medium, Buffalo Burnin' Hot, Spicy Asian, Spicy BBQ, Honey BBQ, Lemon Pepper and Garlic Parmesan.
I had a chance to try the Buffalo Mild, Buffalo Medium, Buffalo Blazin' Hot, and Spicy BBQ - see some pictures below.
WingStreet box with contents ready to be consumed!
Bone-in, no breading, Buffalo Burnin' Hot
Cluckbucket.com Review:
So, here's the deal, I'm a pretty tough critic when it comes to wings. I've been a lot of places and have eaten a lot of wings and feel like I know a pretty good wing when I come across one. That being said I really didn't have very high expectations for WingStreet given it's a nationwide chain that was birthed from a pizza restaurant - and I'd say that overall my expectations were met and just a little bit exceeded. Are WingStreet wings the best buffalo wings in your town? Likely not. Are they a better than the wings that you'd get delivered alongside a pizza from most places across the country? Heck yes!
WingStreet wings definitely benefit from being deep fried instead of baked which ensures that the meat is moist while the skin is crispy - even when delivered to your door. This fact alone gives them a huge leg up over other chains like Dominos or Papa Johns who haven't invested in deep fryers for their restaurants. When it comes to sauces, I would say that the sauces I had were good but also left a bit to be desired in regards to having the punch and uniqueness of flavor that good wing joints tend to deliver. In regards to presentation, I felt like WingStreet needs to do some work in order to deliver on the true buffalo wing experience - wings, celery, blue cheese. My first order of wings came with none of the above and my second order came with only a mini-tub of ranch dressing which is a major wing faux pas from my perspective.
The Final Word: If you need your wing fix and want to stay at home and have a solid batch of wings delivered quickly to your door with or without a pizza - you need to give WingStreet a try. If you are going out specifically for wings or looking for a good carryout option - I would probably steer you more toward your local wing joint or one of the more wing-focused chain restaurants like WingStop or Buffalo Wild Wings. Lastly, I really do love what Pizza Hut is doing for the world of the wing by taking WingStreet out to the masses and creating a clear line of separation between their wings and the typically crappy wings that you get from a pizza restaurant. The more options that people have for good wings, the happier we'll all be.
The momentum from the 50th anniversary of the buffalo wing continues as we start to move into summer season. Wings and BBQ are cousins so it makes logical sense that Memphis would be a great place for the wing. The Southern Hot Wing Festival marks it's 12 anniversary this year and the event keeps getting bigger and better. There's a jam packed line-up of musical entertainment set for April 26th and with local restaurants and individuals competing for the best hot wings in Memphis any wing lover surely can't go wrong here.
Southern Hot Wing Festival
March 6, 1964 has officially been declared the birth date of the Buffalo Wing and that means that this week our favorite food turned 50! What an amazing ride the wing has been on from discarded scrap, to free happy hour grub, finally to one of the most expensive - but still best tasting parts of the chicken. To help wing lovers around the world celebrate this amazing milestone, we've rounded up some of the top news coverage from around the wing world:
Today in 1964: The Buffalo Chicken Wing was Born: Yahoo
50th Anniversary of the Chicken Wing: Buffalo WIVB Channel 4
Anchor Bar Celebrates 50th Anniversary of the Chicken Wing: Buffalonews.com
At 50, the Buffalo-Style Chicken Wing has Conquered the World: Buffalonews.com
Buffalo-Style Chicken Wing turns the Big 5-0: The Daily News
Well, apparently I'm not the only one who likes to geek out on the proper way to eat a buffalo wing. I just stumbled across this Huffington Post article that documents how eat a wing like a lady - kinda looks like the Small Bone Twist to me.
Here's @brandimilloy's video and mine so you can compare.
OK, so maybe she looks a little bit better than I do eating a wing.,. :-)
As a businessman and a lover of the wing I find it fascinating when the financial analyst community writes about wings and the restaurant industry. Buffalo Wild Wings (B-Dubs) is a bit of a darling stock in addition to being a major catalyst in the popularity growth of the wing.
To to try and take a bite out of B-Dubs' impressive growth the fast food enterprises namely McDonalds and Popeyes have launched wing offerings and sadly it's not going well. To me the reason why is simple, their wings suck and are too expensive. Making good wings is not that difficult (just fry some chicken and toss them in sauce), if the big boys can figure that out and price aggressively they could finally make a play.
Read more:
http://www.dailyfinance.com/2014/01/07/popeyes-and-mcdonalds-both-want-a-piece-of-buffalo/
Traveling to Phoenix for work this week so naturally needed to brush up on the top places to get wings. We are still working on getting the Internet Hot Wing Database refreshed but fortunately I found a great local article. Looking forward to trying out a few of these: http://blogs.phoenixnewtimes.com/bella/2012/05/hot_wings_phoenix_best_buffalo_chicken.php
Today is an absolutely huge day for the wing world as a new documentary, The Great Chicken Wing Hunt takes flight! The film, directed by and starring Matt Reynolds - a close friend of the Cluckbucket - follows a crew of wing lovers on an epic journey from Manhattan to Buffalo in a quest to find the best buffalo wing in the world.
The Cluckbucket brothers were proud to play an exciting role in the film, joining the hunters for their last couple of stops in Buffalo and helping to moderate the pinnacle of the film - a heated debate on which wing was truly the best wing and whether or not it was a true authentic wing. How did things turn out? We'l, you'll just have to watch the movie to see...
Having won numerous awards in several film festivals around the country the movie is set to hit select theaters and electronic distribution starting today. The best way to stay up-to-date is by checking out the movie's website at www.chickenwinghunt.com. Below we highlight the key things for you to be aware of:
Screenings: several screenings have been scheduled at theaters across cities like New York, Los Angeles, Miami, Seattle, and many more. We're even working to bring the film to Portland in the coming months! See all the screening times, dates, and locations here: http://chickenwinghunt.com/screenings/
Trailer and Digital Purchase: You can check out the trailer and purchase a digital copy of the film on iTunes
Social Media: Join the conversation around the film by following @winghunt on Twitter or visiting and liking The Great Chicken Wing Hunt page on Facebook.
Traditional Media: Read some of the great early coverage of the film at the links below:
We absolutely loved being a part of the film, hopefully you enjoy watching it!
After way too many months of down time. The Cluckbucket is back! You'll notice that we've cleaned up a lot of content, streamlined the look and feel of the overall site, and made the site mobile friendly!
Unfortunately, we are still working on repairing the Internet Hot Wing Database so please bear with us while we get that important part of the website back up and running.
Friends of Cluck (Aaaron and Robbie) getting ready to hurt some FOTM chicken!
Batch of wings from University Chicken
