Battle of the Hot Wings

Dave in front of Duff's

I'm slow to post but this was written Friday, August 6

Not sure if it was the Food Network or the Travel Channel that brought the 'battle of the wings' to our attention but before heading out to Buffalo Dave and I knew that we would need to form our own opinion on the matter. Today was the day.... lunch at Duff's Famous Wings and dinner at the Anchor Bar. The Anchor Bar holds the distinction of creating the recipe for hot wings but evidentially Duff's has become a major contender for the title of 'Best Hot Wings'. Dave and I rode to the Duff's on the outskirts of Buffalo for lunch. The menu warned that their medium is hot and their medium-hot is very hot. Hot is 'at your own risk' and they had one that required a waiver to be signed before serving the wings. We ordered one 10 medium and 10 medium-hot. We thought the wings were probably the best we've ever eaten and preferred the medium-hot over the medium. As we were getting back on the bike Dave started laughing at me... evidently I still had a considerable amount of wing sauce on my face.... well.... they were tasty.

The Anchor Bar

We spent the next few hours just riding around Buffalo and then around 3:30 we found our hotel, checked in and unloaded the bike. Around 5:00 we were ready to check out the Anchor Bar and more wings. We walked outside to find the sky dark and a little rainy. Not wanting to let a little rain interfere with our quest for hot wings we hopped on the bike and rode off toward the Anchor. What we didn't factor into our decision to ride in the 'light' rain was 5:00 traffic and road construction.  The traffic was bumper to bumper as people were trying to get home from work plus one lane was blocked, it was a mess! We pulled over for gas (and to get out of the rain) and decided to drive on because if we didn’t go now we never would besides we’d have to sit in traffic to get back to the hotel anyway.

Dave and his Anchor Wings

We drove out of the rain in no time and were at the Anchor within 10-15 minutes. Another thing that we didn’t factor into our plans was that we were going to one of the most popular places in Buffalo at dinner time. We had a couple of things in our favor 1) a motorcycle is easy to park and 2) it’s easier to find a place to sit for just 2 people! We set in the bar area and ordered from the bartender rather than wait the 20 minutes for a table and waitress.  They did not have the same range of hot sauces at the Anchor so we just got 10 medium and 10 hot. When the wings arrived they did not look as appetizing as Duff’s and didn’t seem to have any sauce. They were kinda dry and not at all hot. We got some extra sauce and that made the wings much better. They were good… just not as good as Duff’s. As we were leaving I heard the hostess tell a couple that the wait was 1 hour 25 minutes! Wow!