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2 On Your Side - News

Yep, it looks like it is true, they are planning different formats from an "Express" version that will appear at Food Courts to full-blown replicas of the original Anchor Bar. This is such an interesting move and an unbelievable day for the world of wings!!!

Anchor Bar going national with franchises

Stop the presses! This is huge news! Can it be that the original home of the buffalo wing is going to go nation-wide with franchises? This is the first I've heard of this development so please post a note if you know anything about this. I'll post more info as soon as I know anything...

HeraldNet: Speed eaters wing their way to victory

Wing event held this past weekend in the Seattle area. It'm particularly pleased that both competitive eating and the love of the buffalo wing have started to spread out to the Pacific Northwest. Seattle actually has a couple of really good wing joints with Wing Zone and the locally owned/operated Wingdome. This is a good step in the right direction and hopefully will bring Seattle area wing lovers together.

Wing Scene Heating Up in Portland, OR!

It's been confirmed that there is a new guy coming to the block on September 6th. A Slice of Buffalo: Pizza and Wings will be piggybacking off the roaring success of Fire On the Mountain and taking the Portland wing scene up one notch. A Slice of Buffalo will be located in the downtown area at 12th and Jefferson and will cater mostly to the carryout crowd with a few seats available for dine in.

I stopped by today for a sneak peak where I was greeted by the owner Jack. He promised me a focus on simplicity, value (read, good prices!), and a focus on TRADITIONAL buffalo wings. The wings will be deep fried, naked, and come in one of four sauces with various heat ranges. They also are going to offer lunch specials that offer either individual items or combinations of pizza, wings, fries, and salads.

I personally can't wait till Tuesday!

Peace, love, and grease!
Scott "The Cluckbucket" Roth

Wingstop Opens 250th Restaurant

Wingstop Celebrates 250-Store Milestone; Nation's Leading Chicken-Wing Chain Sets Sights on 500 in 2007

The Wingstop just continues to grow and grown opening celebrating the openin of it's 250th wing restaurant. The chain has pushed it's way into the list of the top growing restaurants in the US and expects that it will have 500 locations by 2007.

Selfish Plea: Someone, please open up a Wingstop in Portland, OR; I love their chicken!!!

Peace, love, and grease!

Scott "The Cluckbucket" Roth
www.cluckbucket.com

4th Annual National Buffalo Wing Festival Takes Flight

National Buffalo Wing Festival

The 4th Annual National Buffalo Wing Festival kicks off this holiday weekend in Buffalo, NY. The organization team lead by Drew Cerza, the "Wing King" have lined up another jam packed weekend of buffalo wing fun. The list of events includes the .5K Wing Run, Chicken Wing Eating, Most Creative Wing Sauce, Traditional Wing Sauce, Miss Buffalo Wing, Blue Cheese Bowl, Baby Wing, Mega Car & Truck Show. Oh, and how could we forget to mention a performance by two of the people from the Real World - Austin. I'm not quite sure yet what they are going to be performing or why they are are even going to be there, but I'm sure it will draw in some form of a crowd. I think they should both be forced to enter the wing eating contest and go side-by-side against Cookie, Booker, Sonya and the rest.

This wing festival is a can't miss event if you live in the area (or just want to get away for a while). You'll be treated to wings from over 20 different vendors and get to see the interworkings of the wing industry at it's finest.

Peace, love, and grease!

Scott "The Cluckbucket" Roth
www.cluckbucket.com

Upcoming Movie about the Wing Bowl?

Our sources indicate that there is an upcoming film in the works that will center around the wildly popular Wing Bowl. The Wing Bowl is the annual event held at the Wachovia Center in Philadelphia in which several contestants participate in an all-out, 30 minute wing eating battle. Apparently the film will center around Bill "El Winador" Simmons, the longime champion of the event. Stay tuned for more...

1st Ever "Wing Tasting"

Suns announce "Wing Fling 2005" - OurSports Central

Following on the widespread popularity of wine tasting events the Hagerstown Suns, a Mets class A affiliate in Maryland, have scheduled the first ever "wing tasting" event. While there have been plenty of wing-offs in the past, this is the first time I've ever heard it called a wing tasting. They will have about ten restaurants competing for the ilustrious best wing title. Go check it out on July 22nd from 6:00-10:00. Thanks for the lead Wade!

Peace, love, and grease!
Scott "The Cluckbucket" Roth
www.cluckbucket.com

Wings in Billings

Winging it: Buffalo Wild Wings latest franchise restaurant to come to Billings - billingsgazette.com

Billings, Montana now has a BW3, can someone in Portland, OR please step up to the plate and open up a location? Actually, don't and I'll talk to the folks at Fire on the Mountain to see if they can open a location across from every Starbucks!

Buffalo Wild Wings shares up on a strong quarter

Buffalo Wild Wings hikes 2Q outlook

Not only are people eating more wings than ever, but BW3 was able to get their wings at a couple of cents less per pound than normal and the combination lead to a great financial quarter. BW3 paid about $1.14 per pound for wings this quarter which still continues to astonish me. You have to figure that BW3 is probably one of the 2nd or 3rd largest purchasers of wings in the world and that's the best deal that they can swing. Does anybody remember the good ole' days three or four years ago when wings never cost more than $.99/pound???

I love the fact that wings are popular now, but I want my good prices back!!!

The other thing of astonishment for me is that there are financial analysts that are covering the world of wings. How cool is that? I'm waiting for my call from them to weigh in on non-financial wing trends... :-)

Peace, love, and grease!

Scott "The Cluckbucket" Roth
www.cluckbucket.com

International Federation of Competitive Eating - IFOCE - Nathan's Famous Resource Center

Nathan's Famous Hot Dog Eating Championships

Just another days work for Takeru Kobayashi as he destroyed the American field for his 5th straight World Hot Dog Eating Championship. While he didn't break his own world record, the noticably stronger Kobayashi calmly put away 49 hot dogs in 12 minutes. The closest runners up were Sonya Thomas (36 hot dogs) and rookie Joey Chestnut (32 hot dogs). A sign that things are changing, noticably out of the top contenders were the old standbys, Ed Cookie Jarvis, Eric Badlands Booker, Rich and Carlene LeFevre, Charles Hardy, and Crazy Legs Conti. One of the coolest new features of the contest was the helmet cam that Eater X Janus wore. The helmet recorded what he was seeing while also capturing a rear-view mirror that looked back at his face. For the fourth year in a row the contest aired live on ESPN. Man, I love America!

Hooters goes for exposure - Top Stories - MSNBC.com

Is Hooters spreading it's wings too far?

In the mind of this wing purist, yes, way too far. First let me say that I'm coming off a bad Hooters experience. Went there two weeks ago after a softball game and the wings were overcooked, under-sauced, then over-sauced, and man, I've forgotten how expensive Hooters has gotten. Now, don't get me wrong, I will still tell you to your face that a properly prepared batch of Hooters wings will stand up against any other wing, but their business ventures are going way too far. Their airline doesn't serve wings on the flights and the magazine just seems like a cheap exploit. Perhaps they are smart and leveraging one of their core assets, hot chicks, but my advice, stick to the "hot chicks" that come out of the deep fryer and get consumed in quantities of 10, 20, or 50 and you'll be much better off!!!

Peace, love, and grease!
Scott "The Cluckbucket" Roth

Wingstop Restaurants, Inc. Expands in Southern California; Nation's Leading Chicken-Wing Chain Sees Area as Next Big Hub

Wingstop is completely blowing up!

They just signed a deal to open up 26 stores in California and expect over 50 to be opened in the next three years. They claim that Californians are really taking to their "brand". I'm not so sure about that claim, but from my perspective I know that there are enough midwest and east coast transplants (as well as other types of transplants ;-) in California to support a lot of wing joints. People that grew up and/or went to school back east need to get their wing fix somewhere and up until now, the whole west coast has been underserved.

Peace, love, and grease!
Scott "The Cluckbucket" Roth

Eatery features award-winning hot wings The first of 11 Wingstop's just opened up in the Pheonix (or is it Phoenix, I can never remember!). These guys are on a massive expansion plan lately. See the other article about their new presence in So-Cal.

Peace, love, and grease!
Scott "The Cluckbucket" Roth

Cardinals bring back the powder blue uni's!

STLtoday - Sports - Cardinals

One thing that I love almost as much as wings is Cardinals baseball. On Saturday evening the Cardinals franchise earned even more of my respect pulling out the powder blue's that the 1982 birds donned while swallowing the Brewers in the series...

Calling all birds fans: Let's flood the front office with suggestions that they keep the powder blues full time!

Wingstop chain picking up steam! Wingstop, America's #1 Wing Chain, Reaches $100 Million Milestone

I personally am a huge fan of the Wingstop! Their focus on the wing is admirable and they've got a good thing going. Their wings come an multiple flavors and the provide an atmosphere that really caters to quick meals or carryout. Their goal is to do to wings what Domino's did to pizza. I'm down with that!

Peace, love, and grease!

Scott "The Cluckbucket" Roth
www.cluckbucket.com

Buffalo Wild Wings sues KFC! St. Paul Pioneer Press | 06/18/2005 | Buffalo Wild Wings Inc. comes out Blazin' in suit

In a move to preserve the sanctity of it's Blazin' wing sauce offering, Buffalo Wild Wings has filed a federal suit against long-time chicken provider, KFC. Good for BW3 says this analyst, don't let the big boys take away from a good thing that you've got going!

On a side note, I read somewhere that KFC (once known as Kentucky Fried Chicken) is actually going back to referring to themselves as Kentucky Fried Chicken. They went to KFC a few years ago to downplay the unhealthy "fried" component of their identity. Now, on the growing success of competitor Popeyes, it appears they are going back to the retro Kentucky Fried Chicken name to promote the down-home, feel-good appeal. I dig it, long live fried chicken!!!

Peace, love, and grease!
Scott "The Cluckbucket" Roth
www.cluckbucket.com

Buffalo Wild Wings grows again. This week they signed a deal for approximately 50 new locations adding to their current flock of 320 restaurant locations. Can someone please bring them to Portland, OR??? Buffalo Wild Wings Comes to the Northeast

Results of the 9th annual Wing Ding in Jefferson City, MO. 17 local restaurants participated for the wing crown.

News Tribune