A 2005 Update: Fin
Burton and I visited the Anchor Bar on our way to a Six Hour Sports Car Race at
Watkins Glen International Raceway. We were disappointed to find prices at
$8.00 for ten hot wings and $9.00 for ten Suicidal wings. Quality has
declined at the Anchor Bar, and the wings are WAY too large and tough and chewy
to be enjoyable. As a result of our most recent visit, The Anchor Bar has
taken a terrible tumble on The Great Wing Pyramid.
They now dwell with the average, ordinary steak houses and fern bars that serve
up sorry substitutes for wing. Maybe they did invent Buffalo Wings, but they were
certainly perfected elsewhere...
Wingazetteâ
Magazine
finally made it to the birthplace of Buffalo wings!!! In 1964, Teressa
Bellisimo invented the Buffalo Chicken Wing (See the complete story below this
review). In 1977, Buffalo Mayor Stan Makowski, proclaimed July 29th as Official
Chicken Wing Day. In 2003,
Wingazette®
Magazine fulfilled a life-long goal of visiting the Anchor Bar. Oh! to be in
Buffalo, NY everyday at the Wing Mecca!
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Trembling with anticipation, we opened the front door of
the Anchor Bar Restaurant, established in 1935, and found ourselves in the bar
area with the scent of wing sauce floating in the air. The bar was dark, cool
and smoky, and the walls are papered with old automobile license plates. It is
a classic bar in every way. We found our way to the hosting area, and waited
for a table. While waiting, we noticed the merchandising cabinet, full of
t-shirts, sauces and other wing toys. You can see from the picture (click on it
to enlarge it) that you can even buy the sauce by the gallon here or on the
internet.
We were seated at a small, neat little table. They use
dark, green linen tablecloths, covered with a plexiglass sheet. A little
warning sign was under the glass, letting you know that you cannot get separate
checks, and that you will have to spend at least $4.50 while you are there.
The menu is almost too complete, with almost everything you
can imagine. I think the only thing they don’t serve is lobster and pasta
salad. You can, however, get pasta in many different ways. We consider this a
dangerous flirtation with our “No pasta salad allowed on the menu” rule. We
opted for wings and fries.
Prices here are steep for our taste. A ten piece order of
wings and celery and blue cheese will set you back $7.00. If you dare to go
Suicidal, that’s $8.00. Fries came in at $2.50 for a small bowl full of big
shoestrings. If you compare prices here with Café Hot Wing 8, you’ll be getting
sticker shock for sure.
The ambiance is unique here, with a simple linoleum tile
floor, and a swordfish mounted over the door entrance in the dining area. A
piano sits on the small stage, as they feature live jazz on Friday and Saturday
nights. The Anchor Bar has been the favored stop of visitors and celebrities
alike: from actor John Candy, to musicians Kenny Rogers, Bob Seger, Spyro Gyra,
Glen Miller's Band member Dick Gerhart, and most sports figures. Funny,
but the Wing General doesn't have his picture or
autograph featured here. Can this really be the most famous of all wing
joints without that? The walls of
the Anchor Bar are filled with awards, comic strips, and proclamations
about Buffalo's Famous Chicken Wings.
The wings arrived after the standard 15-minute wait. The
presentation was on a real plate, with the celery on top of the wings and a bone
bowl on top of the celery, keeping the heat in on the wings. We tasted the Hot
wings first, and found them to be very tasty indeed. The sauce tastes like
Frank’s RedHotâ Sauce as expected.
Then we ventured into the Suicidal wings. We noticed that
you get a neat little red pepper stash with the order that has a graphic stating
“I survived the Suicidal wings at the Anchor Bar”. Seeing that print gave us
hope that we would survive. If this review is, in fact, published, then you
will know that we made it. These are HOT! Bob Kim might need a beach towel to
eat these, and certainly a hot shower afterwards, since he would probably do his
best Niagra Falls impersonation on the spot. Those of us at the table only blew
our noses about a half dozen times (it was pollen season). During the delivery,
some of the blue cheese had spilled onto a wing, and we considered ourselves
fortunate to have had that happen. Great flavor and strong heat lasted through
the entire order.
While we were excited to be at the Anchor Bar, we did
experience some negative impressions. The blue cheese dressing was very average
– probably too much mayo and not enough blue cheese. The celery preparation was
unacceptable, with knuckle joints still attached and some of the celery had
split ends. The wings were too large by our standards – and slightly
under-cooked in the middle. For the 10 Hot wings I ordered, I received 11
wings, 6 of them were drummettes. For the 10 Suicidal, I received 13 wings, 5
of which were drummettes. I guess when you charge $7-8 per ten you can afford
to give a few away. The fries were average at best, and short and stubby. I
won’t say that we were disappointed in the experience, because we did enjoy the
meal altogether, but we were expecting a higher level of quality and value.
Those of you who have ranked wings with us in the past know that quality and
value aren't rated as highly as taste and heat, so the Anchor Bar would still
fare well in the Hot 100 if we were still doing that kind of thing (The Hot 100
was discontinued several years ago).
The owner stopped by and was telling us about all the
awards he keeps getting, and that he doesn’t know what to do with them all. He
had just returned from New York City, after accepting the James Beard Institute
award.
If you are in trouble after a batch of suicidal wings,
there is a Wendy’s less than a block north on Main Street where you could get a
Frosty to put out the flames.
You can actually order these wings online and they will
ship them frozen so that by the time you get them they will be refrigerated and
ready to re-heat. You can also buy sauces by the bottle, case, gallon or
gift-pack, as well as t-shirts and other merchandise.
Here are the web sites where you can purchase products:
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