Anchor Bar - Buffalo, NY

Posted By Stephen Rushmore on February 24, 2007 8:16 AM

According to the Anchor Bar owners, they accidentally invented the Buffalo chicken wing while making chicken stock in 1964. The rest is history.

The key to the tastiest chicken wings you can find anywhere is the cooking process and the sauce. Contrary to how most restaurants prepare the wings-– at the Anchor Bar they are fried-- NOT baked. This makes the skin have a crunchy outer shell and the meat on the bone moist and tender. The sauce is tangy with a slight hint of vinegar and spice. I prefer to order the wings medium-hot to hot, but other levels of heat include mild, medium, BBQ and if you are feeling brave--“Suicidal.”

It's easy to pinpoint the locals dining by what's on their table. They order beef on weck or a wings portion three times the size of a casual wing eater. During my last visit I encountered a couple splitting a portion of 50 wings and a pitcher of beer for lunch!

If you are not planning a trip to Buffalo anytime soon, the Anchor Bar's website offers wings shipped to your home. With proper preparation (read: deep fry and Anchor Bar sauce) they are nearly as good as eating them at the restaurant.

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Posted By ann peeples on October 30, 2012 9:14 AM

I traveled through Buffalo with a friend a few years back on our way home to Wisconsin. I insisted on stopping at The Anchor for two reasons: history and, of course, wings! I found the wings (medium - we are lightweights) to be excellent. I like that they are fried, not baked. Anchor has set my bar for wings. The wings are infused with sauce, rather than coated, and they are of good size.

Stephen gave only part of the history. Yes, the restaurant had an abundance of wings that particular night. However, the owner was faced with feeding her son and his friends a snack later in the evening. Having nothing there except a bunch of wings, she came up with what we now know as Buffalo wings! And, to me, any reproduction of said recipe HAS to have celery and blue cheese alongside.

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Posted By Bill Altreuter on November 12, 2011 1:38 PM

There was a time, not long ago, when the Anchor Bar's wings were the nonpareil. That time has come and gone. First off, it is necessary to state that you cannot get the real chicken wing experience more than thirty miles out of Buffalo. Sorry Rochester, too bad Batavia. Other places serve wings, but they are never quite right.

They aren't quite right at the Anchor these days either. Sometimes they are burned, sometimes underdone, nearly always indifferently prepared. More than once lately I've taken someone from out of town there and found that the wings had the slightly off taste associated with cooking oil that had been over-heated.

There are lots of places with a superior chicken wing in a radius of a couple of miles: try Gabriel's Gate, or Coles (best taps in town). Most people in these parts will tell you Duffs is the best, and I can't say it isn't. That's where President Obama stopped off last time he was in town, so it has it's own piece of history.

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