Breaking from the mission statement, GreatJoints.com will occasionally recommend a place that is already popular because, frankly, it is a great joint. Such is the case of Frank and Teressa’s Anchor Bar, the original home of Buffalo Chicken Wings and reason enough to venture up to the vastly underrated city of Buffalo, New York.
Although the restaurant has been open since 1934, the Buffalo Chicken Wing has only been around since 1964. Teressa Bellissimo had to feed a bunch of her son’s friends late one night after they had been out on the town. Facing a kitchen barren of fare from a Friday night busy with paying customers, Teressa improvised. Out came two platters of chicken wings that had been held back to be used later for soup stock. She deep fried them and spread across a special homemade sauce. The wings were an instant hit and the rest is history.
People from all around North America visit Frank and Teressa’s for their famous wings. The license plates in the parking lot confirm that fact. Ironically, license plates are also part of the interior décor.
On weekends, the doors don’t open at the legendary bar until the church bells across the street strike 12 Noon. Weekdays the place opens at 11. While there are tables in the back and side rooms, most people gravitate toward the large rectangular bar or one of the tables that surround it.
The Anchor Bar is always packed, and one could only guess how many chickens have given up their wings to feed the masses. The guess would be low. Wings are sold in increments of 10, 20 or 50, and sauces are Mild, Medium, Hot, Spicy Bar-B-Que, or Suicidal. By the way, since chickens can’t fly they aren’t using their wings anyway. At least that will be my argument to PETA.
Lesser known but not to be missed is that the Anchor Bar makes a mean Beef on Weck, a Buffalo staple that has been shadowed by the more famous dressed-up chicken parts. A thinly sliced roast beef sandwich served on a salty kimmelweck roll found only in Western New York, the Beef on Weck just screams to be painted with horseradish which, after consumption, will require another bartender visit to the cooler for an ice cold beer. Pizzas, pasta’s and chicken dishes add to a surprisingly extensive menu.
The place is full of character as much as it is full of characters. Sitting at the bar one day eating wings and drinking a Labatt Blue Light – my beer of choice at Frank and Teressa’s although Genny Cream Ale is available on tap – I struck up a conversation with a guy making a pit stop. Every Saturday when the Steelers play in Pittsburgh, he drives from Toronto to the game. The Anchor Bar is about the halfway point. He orders a bucket of 50 suicide wings and eats them on the way to Pittsburgh. This guy belongs in Pittsburgh; he must have the constitution of an I-beam. And what does his steering wheel look like?
One Saturday at the Anchor Bar, I sat next to Oakland Raider defenders DeLawrence Grant and Anthony Dorsett (son of Tony) who were enjoying wings the day before a game against the Bills. Not sure if the delicious wings or my strategic pointers helped them, but they did make it to the Super Bowl a few weeks later, even if they got their wings clipped by Tampa Bay.
If shuffling off to Buffalo is not in future travel plans, The Anchor Bar will send a first class vacuum-sealed bag of any flavor wings via FedEx. We have enjoyed them many times from thousand of miles away. Just heat them up and they are as good as ordering them at the restaurant. Not as much can be said for the celery and blue cheese which unfortunately travel coach. – D.M.