Video - Price of Chicken Wings on the Rise

Wing prices are going through the roof, take a look at this CNN.com video.

Video - Breaking News Videos from CNN.com

Hot Wing Cookoff at Union Restaurant in Seattle

Scott "The Cluckbucket" Roth and Mike Suarez - loyal Cluckbucket enthusiast certified wing lover will be attending the following event. Look for our review to be posted shortly after the event...

Everyone loves hot wings. And everybody has an opinion about their favorite – from the traditional Buffalo-style to sweet & sour and extra, extra crispy wings. The options are endless, and the discussions can be heated from the use of breadcrumbs to the ideal spice factor for the sauce. One thing is for sure, people are particular about their hot wings! Now is your chance to let your hot wing preference be heard loud and clear because Ethan Stowell is kicking off his 2009 Cook-Off series with Hot Wing Hoopla. Grab your favorite hot sauce (if you dare) and bring your appetite – there’s some hot wings to be judged! Stowell has rounded up a slew of local chefs and foodie friends to participate with him in the festivities. Chefs include: Mark Fuller (Spring Hill), Justin Solomon (Union), Dan Braun (Oliver’s Twist), Brian McCracken (Spur Gastropub), and Vuong Loc (Portage). The food enthusiasts battling against the chefs include: Rocky Yeh, Darryn O’Shea (O’Shea Scarborough Winery), Keith Waldbauer, and Darren Vengroff.

Each cook will prepare a pile of hot wings from their own secret recipe and bring them to Union to be eaten and judged. Guests will be given a scorecard and then will proceed to enjoy beer as they rate the hot wings. After much bribery and deliberation, a winner will be declared. The winner of the Hot Wing Cook-Off will receive dinner for six at Union, Tavolàta, How to Cook a Wolf, or the soon-to-be opened Anchovies & Olives, and of course, bragging rights!

The Hot Wing Cook-Off is Sunday, January 18 at Union. The finger-lickin’ fun begins at 6pm. The cost to attend is $50/person and includes all the hot wings you can eat, fries, celery with blue cheese dressing, and tap beer. All proceeds from the evening go to support The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. Reservations are highly recommended, as past cook-offs have sold out. For reservations, call Union at (206) 838-8000. The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society is the world's largest voluntary health organization dedicated to funding blood cancer research, education and patient services. For more information or to make a donation, visit www.leukemia-lymphoma.org.

Save the Date:Sunday, April 19 – Lasagna Cook-OffSunday, September 13 – Rib Cook-OffSunday, November 15 – Chowder Cook-Off

Union Restaurant, located at 1400 First Avenue (at the corner of First and Union) in downtown Seattle, was opened in October 2003 by chef/owner Ethan Stowell. Union’s creative, elegant menu changes daily to reflect the freshest and most unique offerings available. Union maintains an award-winning wine list, which includes a cellar with over 200 premium wine selections to choose from. Union serves dinner seven nights a week from 5pm – 10pm. A bar menu is offered between 5pm – 7pm and 10pm –12am every evening. For more information, call (206) 838-8000 or visit www.unionseattle.com.

Union Restaurant is located at:
1400 First AvenueSeattle, WA 98101
Phone: 206.838.8000Fax: 206.838.8001

Cluckbucket quoted in Fort Wayne Paper

Funny quote here from the Fort Wayne, IN newspaper. Seems I've added competitive eating to my resume... :-)

“Seems like most people these days are following Kobyashi with the ‘dunk and drive’ – basically dipping the hot dog and bun together in water and then slamming them into the mouth as fast as possible,” competitive eater Scott “The Cluckbucket” Roth says. “The other one that I’ve seen is a ‘grip it and rip it’ approach, essentially taking the hot dog and bun together, snapping it in half, and then chowing on a half at a time. Lastly, some people try to separate hot dog from bun but I’ve never found that to be very successful.”

See the full article here:

3RF contest could be a wiener The Journal Gazette

New T-Shirts now ready

We finally have gotten some new t-shirts loaded using our new chicken logo. Check out the storefront below to see the new threads...

http://www.cafepress.com/cluckbucket

Joey Chestnut wins again

Live from Philly, Joey Chestnut put back 241 wings in a repeat championship performance at the Wing Bowl. See the full story below.

Joey Chestnut wins again Philly 02/01/2008

Fire On The Mountain 2 now open in Portland - East Burnside

After a short delay, Fire On the Mountain 2 has officially opened it's doors for business on the ever renewing strip of East Burnside in Portland. The silent opening (the place was completely packed even though they didn't do any promotion, just opened up the doors) makes FOTM the first locally owned and operated wing joint in Portland to have mulitlpe locations - and marks another monumental step forward for the wing industry in the city.

Often times you will see the large chain wing joints (such as Buffalo Wild Wings and the Wingstop) open up multiple locations as a part of their market entry strategy, but once a local place is able to open up multiple locations, you know that they've found a winning recipe and a market that is truly ready and open to the wing. The Wingdome in Seattle has witnessed a similar level of success with their multiple locations in the Emerald City.

Fire On the Mountain has recieved much publicity lately for their success, the Oregonian wrote an article about them "Winging it" back on December 21st and BusinessWeek inked their small business success story "Restauranteurs Don't Just Wing It" on January 14th.

Much more will be written by us and others about about this wing joint gem over the coming months and years, but for now, enjoy our review on the Oregon page of the Internet Hot Wing Database and check out the camera-phone pics below...

Peace, love, and grease!

Scott "The Cluckbucket" Roth
http://www.cluckbucket.com/

Fire On the Mountain 2 at 17th and East Burnside


The front half of the restaurant with the expanded bar area

Friends of Cluck (Aaaron and Robbie) getting ready to hurt some FOTM chicken!

A quick stop at University Chicken - Santa Clara, CA

Was on a work trip in the Bay Area last week and was able to sneak away for an hour to check out University Chicken right off of Santa Clara's campus. All-in-all it was a pretty solid visit. The wings were very large and fresh, but slightly breaded and I think I'm done with breading. Pictures below and you can read the full review at the bottom of the California page in the Internet Hot Wing Database: http://www.cluckbucket.com/ihwdbresults.asp?state=CA

Peace, love, and grease!

Scott "The Cluckbucket" Roth
http://www.cluckbucket.com/

Friends of Cluck (Noe, Bill, and Kristen) outside of University Chicken

Batch of wings from University Chicken

Cluckbucket Featured in BusinessWeek

Fire on the Mountain and Cluckbucket.com were recently featured in a BusinessWeek article about local restaurant success tactics and the burgeoning wing scene in Portland. It was reported in the article that in just it's third year of business, FOTM has topped $1M in revenues. I guess Portland is a sustainable wing town afterall...

Check out the article at the link below:

Restaurateurs Don't Just Wing It

Peace, love, and grease!

Scott "The Cluckbucket" Roth
http://www.cluckbucket.com/

PS: Check out The Smash wing eating technique at http://www.cluckbucket.com/ucluck2/wingeating/smash.htm