I recently watched a segment of The History Channel’s Food That Built America series, “Flight of the Buffalo Wing,” in anticipation of Super Bowl LX (60th). During the piece I found myself questioning facts and timelines, which sparked my deep dive into the true origin of the popular buffalo wing.
The two major players are the Bellissimo family of the Anchor Bar and John Young of Young’s Wings and Things. There is also a piece of tangible history shown in the form of an 1857 bill of fare from the Clarendon Hotel located at Main and South Division Streets in Buffalo, listing an entree option of “Chicken Wings, Fried.”
Fanfare aside, the Anchor Bar in Buffalo, NY, has been generally recognized as ground zero for buffalo wing creation in 1964, with some slight timeline variations. A few stories have circulated as to the exact circumstances behind the accidental creation, but the standard version goes a little like this: Co-owner Teressa Bellissimo cooked wings that were delivered to the restaurant in error late one evening as a snack for her son and his friends, tossing them in a hot sauce before serving. The story continues that the wings were so enjoyed that they became a standard menu item the next day with the addition of celery sticks and blue cheese dressing. Teressa is noted for chopping the wings in half, resulting in drums and flats, thus creating today’s standard finger-food version…