The inventor of Buffalo wings is bringing a new restaurant to Raleigh
Poets and philosophers may never settle the chicken or the egg question, but we can trace barroom lore back to the dawn of the chicken wing.
Buffalo’s Anchor Bar claims to be the birthplace of the Buffalo wing, creating the fiery orange icon of pub grub menus more than 50 years ago.
Now those famous wings are coming to Raleigh.
Raleigh is among several cities that will get an Anchor Bar franchise, including Cincinnati and Orlando, reported Buffalo television station WKBW.
Mark Dempsey, president of the Anchor Bar Franchise Company, confirmed the brand had signed a deal with a Raleigh franchisee to open a restaurant in the Triangle. Dempsey declined to name the local Anchor Bar franchise owner and said the brand is still working to pick a location for the restaurant.
“We’re really in the early stages, we’re doing a search and have a couple sites in mind, but nothing concrete,” Dempsey said. “We’re looking at the entire Raleigh area, downtown and suburban areas.”
The National Chicken Council, a Washington, D.C. chicken centric lobbying group, endorses Anchor Bar’s claim to chicken wing fame, with the tangy and peppery Buffalo sauce invented as a late night lark that stood up in the light of day.
Now it’s impossible to imagine the bar food landscape without Buffalo wings, coated in ever hotter hot sauces.
Dempsey acknowledged the Triangle’s robust chicken wing scene and said Anchor wants to join Raleigh’s restaurant community.
“We think Raleigh has great food, not only great chicken wings,” Dempsey said. “We’d love to be part of the landscape and showcase our wing and the rest of our products. We’re really looking forward to being part of that area.”
Dempsey said at its core Anchor Bar is a sports bar and plans to have 40 to 50 televisions to pair with its wings.
There’s no timeline for Anchor Bar’s arrival in Raleigh, but Dempsey hopes to settle on a site within a few months.
This story was originally published November 16, 2022 at 4:51 PM.
