Buffalo Wing Festival Hall of Flame - New York Food Festivals

2011 VOTING IS NOW OPEN!
We need your help for the 2011 nominee's. We need you to nominate a restaurant, a sauce, a person, or company. Please email us at info@buffalowing.com with your nomination of an individual or what entity you think should be inducted into the hall. The committee will take all nominations from the public into consideration when making their selection.

2010 INDUCTEES		Jonathan A. Dandes and the Buffalo Bison Baseball Organization
		Antonio Swad, Founder of Wingstop Restaurants

Jonathan A. Dandes

and the Buffalo Bison Baseball Organization

For more than two decades, the Buffalo Bisons have built one of the most respected organizations in professional sports. The combination of strong leadership and a team of associates with a “get it done” attitude is the reason the Buffalo community has embraced the Bisons as the place to go for the best family sports entertainment value in the area. The Bisons commitment to the community has had a great positive impact in Western New York.

In 2002, when Drew Cerza decided to create the National Buffalo Wing Festival, it was the proverbial no-brainer to approach the Bisons to host the event. What Cerza didn’t realize, was that the venue was much more than a field. It included an organization of dedicated professionals that are the best in their fields.

President of Baseball Operations, Jonathan A. Dandes and Bisons associates Mike Buczkowski, Robert Free, Tom Sciarrino, Roger Buczek, Kevin Parkinson, Joe Petronella, Eugene Steele, Sean Reagan, Curt Anderson and Jim Morrissey, make up an organization that companies in Buffalo strive to duplicate. The Bisons have won championships on the field, but have built a dynasty off the field.

Who would have thought when you needed to find a way to serve 91,000 people 40 tons of chicken wings over two days that the answer would be a baseball organization? The National Buffalo Wing Festival wouldn’t be in existence without the Bisons organization. The Wing industry will forever be indebted to them for helping create the Super Bowl of Chicken Wings.

All of America tips their hats in honor of one of greatest sports organizations in the country, the Buffalo Bisons, whom will forever be enshrined in the Buffalo Wing Hall of Flame.

Antonio Swad

Founder, Wingstop Restaurants

Antonio Swad is the founder of nationally acclaimed Wingstop Restaurants, a franchised chain that today has grown to become one of the top wing brands in the country, with nearly 450 locations in the U.S. and Mexico and some 100+ in development.

Today we celebrate Antonio’s love affair with chicken wings. For him, that began at age 22 when he waited tables at a restaurant in Columbus, Ohio where he was in charge of keeping hors d’oeuvres stocked for happy hour. He noticed that every Wednesday, the crowds were growing larger. Wednesdays was wing night. It was then he started to believe that wings would become the next big thing. Over the next ten years he kept bumping into wings more frequently and by 1993, he had literally set up a series of deep fryers in the living room of his modest home to begin creating and testing wing recipes.

In 1994, Swad founded Wingstop, featuring wings and only wings as the center of the plate item on the menu. He received lot of push back by many naysayers, but Antonio had a vision and was not to be denied.

By 2002, the original Wingstop location was grossing about $1.5 million per year in sales. This was accomplished by making the limited selection of 8 wing flavors and fresh-cut seasoned fries exceptional. And remarkably, the restaurant, with a small footprint of approximately 1200 sq. ft. didn’t even open until 4 p.m. daily.

In 2003 Antonio sold the 100 unit concept, which was then operating in 16 states, to a group that became Wingstop Holdings. By 2007, Wingstop had reached the milestone of ‘1 Billion Wings Sold.’ Also, at the 2007 National Buffalo Wing Festival, Wingstop Restaurants received the “Wing King” award for their quality sauces, popularity with festival attendees, and overall excitement that they brought to the event. Today, we celebrate how it all started.

2009 INDUCTEES		Donn Esmonde, The Buffalo News
		Matt Friedmann and Adam Scott, Founders of Wing Zone

Donn Esmonde

The Buffalo News

Donn Esmonde has been a columnist at The Buffalo News for 12 years. He started his 24-year career with The News as a sports feature writer and columnist, and for five years was the columnist in the Life section. He’s won numerous NYS Associated Press awards, in addition to other honors. Esmonde is 53 years old and lives in the city of Buffalo with his wife, an education specialist for the Buffalo Public Schools, and their two daughters, 14 and 11 years old. He spends his free time reading, coaching girl’s softball, abusing his electric guitar and attempting to keep up with the demands of a century-old Victorian home.

In August of 2002, he heard about the movie “Osmosis Jones” that featured actor Bill Murray playing a guy addicted to fried food and other artery-clogging fare. His young daughter, fearful he would keel over, wanted him to take a hiking vacation. Instead, he bolted for the National Chicken Wing Festival in Buffalo. Which raised the question: Why isn’t there an annual National Chicken Wing Festival in Buffalo?

Esmonde wrote a column suggesting that there should be a National WingFest in Buffalo in 2001, as a way of staking claim to what is rightfully ours as well as to capitalize commercially on a Buffalo invention. Buffalo’s own Drew Cerza read it and called him the next day. Donn wrote about Drew’s plan in his next column and asked the community for its support. The rest is history. That was seven years and 2.4 million wings ago.

Because of Esmonde’s column and continued support of the event, the National Buffalo Wing Festival has grown into one of America’s favorite festivals. Thanks Donn, we owe it all to you!

Matt Friedman and Adam Scott

Founders, Wing Zone

In 1991, University of Florida fraternity brothers Matt Friedman and Adam Scott embarked on an entrepreneurial journey that forever changed the Buffalo chicken wing landscape when they founded Wing Zone after recognizing a demand, yet no concept offering delivery/ take-out of the tasty product. Quickly, the duo built up several restaurants spread across their beloved campus and neighboring states, yet were disappointed their product couldn’t reach the taste buds of more wing fanatics. Equipped with a great product, system and brand, the success story strengthened with the launch of the Wing Zone franchise (more information at www.wingzone.com).

Since then, Friedman and Scott have grown Wing Zone to 100 locations, with 30 more in development. As one of the nation’s fastest growing takeout/delivery chains — known for its 15 award-winning flavors of fresh, cooked-to-order chicken wings, fingers, chicken sandwiches, burgers and more, its growth has significantly “heated up”. To this day, Wing Zone has remained dedicated to supporting emerging and established entrepreneurs, promoting the originator of chicken wings – Buffalo, and maintaining a fanatical following.

2008 INDUCTEES - FRANK'S REDHOT CAYENNE PEPPER SAUCE

It was Frank’s RedHot Cayenne Pepper Sauce that Teressa Bellissimo used in the creation of the original Chicken Wings at Buffalo’s historic Anchor Bar in 1964. Since then, consumer's desire for the distinctive taste of Frank's RedHot has risen to a fever pitch. And face it, without Frank's RedHot there'd be no Buffalo Wings as we've come to know them!

2007 INDUCTEES - BUFFALO WILD WINGS FOUNDERS

Their 2007 induction coincides with the 25th Anniversary of Buffalo Wild Wings, which began in 1982 as Buffalo Wild Wings and Weck, commonly referred to back then as BW3. It was a modest beginning for these
life-long friends, who were recent transplants to Kent, Ohio at the time. Craving their beloved "Buffalo Wings" from back home, they decided to start their own restaurant near Ohio State University.

2006 INDUCTEES - THE ANCHOR BAR

Frank and Teressa Bellissimo, founders of the Anchor Bar Restaurant and creators of the original Buffalo Wing sauce, have become the first inductees into the newly-announced Chicken Wing Hall Of Flame in Buffalo, New York. Online voting and committee meetings solidified their induction.

MEET THE NATIONAL BUFFALO WING HALL OF FLAME COMMITTEE

In 2006 the National Buffalo Wing Hall of Flame was launched. A Committee was formed to select Hall of Flame nominees from among restaurant owners and others in the food industry who have advanced the wing's climb from an unwanted chicken part that usually ended up in a dumpster to a much-devoured favorite and national food icon.

Click here to meet the Committee