Buffalo Wings

The wing was a throwaway cut before this. The Anchor Bar in Buffalo claims the invention in 1964, with Teressa Bellissimo frying a batch and tossing them in hot sauce and butter, though the details of the story have several versions even within the family, and a rival claim from John Young in the same city involves a different sauce and a whole wing. What became standard is the Anchor version: unbreaded, fried, tossed in cayenne pepper sauce cut with butter, served with celery and blue cheese dressing. Locals will tell you the Anchor Bar is now the tourist stop and that better wings are elsewhere in the city, which is generally true.

Highlights

• Unbreaded wings fried and tossed - cayenne sauce cut with butter.
• Celery and blue cheese alongside - not ranch, in Buffalo.
• The Anchor Bar claim of 1964 - contested even locally.
• Better versions elsewhere in the city - what residents will tell you.

When to go

Year round. A meal.

Things to know

The Anchor Bar is a tourist destination and prices reflect it. Heat levels vary wildly between kitchens. Ordering ranch instead of blue cheese will be noticed. The origin story is genuinely disputed.

Nearby

Niagara Falls is about half an hour north; Buffalo's Larkin district is close.