Anchor Bar BNIA Location
4200 Genesee St., Cheektowaga, New York 14225
Web: Anchor Bar BNIA Location
Phone: 716.630.6000
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Amherst Buffalo Cheektowaga Chicken Wings Depew Festivals

"If the wings are nothing special at the place where Buffalo wings were invented, tourists are going to wonder whether there's any reason to bother trying them in Buffalo."

As this year's National Buffalo Wing Festival has successfully concluded - more successfully than ever before, with over 92,000 attendees versus the prior year's 78,000 - it's time for a brief update on two franchised locations of Western New York's most venerable chicken wing restaurants: Anchor Bar, the place where wings were invented, and Duff's, the place were the recipe was perfected. This update adds some new details to previous articles: Duff's in Depew and Eat & Fly: Dining at Buffalo Niagara International Airport.

We decided to revisit our previous comments on the Anchor Bar in light of the chain's dismaying showing at the National Buffalo Wing Festival this weekend, which saw the storied but historically up and down restaurant again putting its name on some depressingly mediocre wings - this time, ones that were less impressive than what could be found at third- or fourth-rate chains elsewhere in the country. These soggy, blandly flavored wings weren't the first poor wings to carry the Anchor Bar name; the ones we had at the actual restaurant years ago were bad enough that we didn't want to return, but after starting Buffalo Chow, we felt obliged to pay the place another visit, and discovered they'd made an apparent comeback. On two recent occasions, we were pleased to find the wings crispy and more boldly flavored, if not as ideally balanced as the richer, saucier versions at Duff's. Then we visited the newer Anchor Bar location at the Buffalo/Niagara International Airport, which we wrote about back in June, noting that the wings just weren't the same; it was as if different people were working from a somewhat different recipe, producing wings that weren't as crispy or tasty. The Landmark Bar only a few doors down in the Airport served better wings.

At this point, you may be asking yourself why one restaurant's wing quality would matter to us, or anyone else in Western New York. There are, after all, other and considerably better choices still available. The answer: food tourism. For better or worse, the Anchor Bar has become an iconic symbol of Buffalo, and many tourists actually seek out the place so that they can receive a proper introduction to "authentic Buffalo wings." If you don't believe that on its face, note that the National Buffalo Wing Festival reported that visitors from 49 states and 31 different countries attended this year's event, and you can be sure they came solely for the wings. There's no doubt that serving mediocre wings there, and similarly, at our airport - where people fly in and out of the area every day - makes an impact on tens of thousands of people, who will then talk about the experience with other people. In short, if the wings are nothing special at the place where Buffalo wings were invented, tourists - particularly food tourists - are going to wonder whether there's any reason to bother trying them in Buffalo.

This week, following the Wing Festival, we went back to the Airport's Anchor Bar location again to see if anything had changed, as well as to sample the Beef on Weck, which we've been cataloguing in all of its variations around Western New York. Surprise: the wings weren't quite the same, but they weren't much better, either. Our order of Suicide Wings ($12.50) arrived with what tasted like light batter on the outside - an authentic wing no-no - and a pepper-flecked hot sauce that wasn't bad, but wasn't great, either, roughly equivalent to a Duff's medium-hot or hot. Apart from the fact that they're perhaps the fourth or fifth variation on the wing recipe that we've had from a place with the Anchor Bar name over the past decade, they weren't memorable in any way, and we're really curious as to what's going on. Doesn't it matter to the Anchor Bar that its wings live up to a certain consistent standard of preparation? Shouldn't it matter to Buffalonians that people will visit locations of one of the City's most famous businesses and walk away wondering what the big deal is?

As a footnote, we'll mention that the Beef on Weck ($9.25) was only decent - again, not up to the standards of the airport's neighboring Landmark Bar. The Anchor Bar's beef was hot, watery-moist and tasty, but the kummelweck bun tasted as if it was almost stale, and had little caraway seed flavor, besides. It was served splayed open with the meat unfortunately touching a clump of otherwise fine potato salad. Something about this just didn't seem kosher.

That's not exactly a happy place to segue away from, but it does bring us to the topic of Amherst's Duff's, which in our view - and many others - has consistently served the best wings in Western New York for years, with extra emphasis on the word "consistently." As wing fanatics may already know, Duff's franchised itself into Canada a number of years ago, then expanded through another franchise into Orchard Park - notably a nicer venue than the original, albeit with less impressive wings - and has been working on another Western New York location in Depew, in the former Vasilio's Family Restaurant at 550 Dick Road. That location is now externally complete, sitting near the corner of George Urban Boulevard and Dick near the Walden Galleria Mall, and only a short drive away from the airport.

It remains to be seen whether this new location of Duff's will be up to the preparatory standards of the Amherst venue, or whether it will be more like the Orchard Park store. So far, it sounds like there will be elements of both places: we were told that it will be a sports bar inside, and it's obvious from a drive-by that the owner has already decorated the windows with neon beer signs, while adding a nice new awning with "Famous Wings" in big letters. Apparently, the recipes and prep are being carried over by someone who has worked at the Amherst location for years, so our hopes are high that it will offer residents of Cheektowaga and Depew an equally excellent option. When we hear more, we'll let you know.