Being a native Buffalonian, I know wings. If you're unfortunate enough to be born in Buffalo, your first food (after the bottle/breast) will likely be a hot wing. Don't get me wrong, Buffalo will always be my home town, my heart resides there, and it's a great place to be from... with the operative word being "from." Most high school kids can't wait to get the hell out of there, and rightfully so. But I digress...
Just for the record - in Buffalo, they're just called "wings" (not "Buffalo wings" - there's no need to specify, since your arse is sitting in Buffalo). They are typically served hot, medium, or mild, with lots of places also offering other options like barbeque and suicidal (translated into Boston-ese: wicked hot). Only babies and the elderly order their wings mild. Everyone else orders at least medium, and truth be told, if you're a real man, you order your wings hot or suicidal. Thankfully, I'm a woman so I can get away with ordering medium. Most "Buffalo-style" stuff (prepared somewhere other than Buffalo) tastes like a mild wing at best... some places rise to the challenge and manage a medium, but that's pretty rare.
And also - there's no such thing as "boneless wings" - those are called chicken tenders. And yes - in Buffalo, you can get them hot, medium, mild, barbeque, or any other of the myriad of styles that wings come in - but they're not "boneless wings." They're chicken tenders. Wings should have bones. That's one of the defining characteristics of the chicken wing. Everything else is just chicken.
Lastly, in Buffalo, wings are almost always served with their party-food soul-mate, pizza. Pizza and wings. Pizza and wings. Pizza and wings. Say it with me. Like a mantra. Those two belong together... one is just not fully complete without the other. Of course, the crap that passes for pizza here is a joke. So maybe just go with the wings.
It's laughable to me - the type of thing that gets labelled a "buffalo wing" here in Boston, or anywhere other than Buffalo, for that matter. Soggy, meatless, no flavor... the list goes on and on.
However, Buff's gets it just about right. My husband can rightfully be called a Wing Connoisseur, and he gives Buffs wings a hearty, manly, dripping-with-hot-sauce thumbs-up. Me - I'm partial to the honey hots, and I'm more likely to order them in chicken-tender form, as I find wings pretty messy and I dislike having my fingernails stained bright orange. Tenders you can eat with a knife and fork, thus avoiding most of the mess (although if you scarf them down like I do, you'll have at least one token orange splotch on your shirt).
This place has a cool, laid-back, neighborhood dive bar vibe. The perfect place to kick back and watch a game - although good luck getting a table on a Sox game night. It's the closest thing my husband and I can find to "home" as far as wings go.
Long live Buffs! read more