12 Fascinating Facts About Buffalo Wild Wings

Whether you’re after game-day appetizers or simply craving a huge basket of wings smothered in any type of wing sauce you could possibly imagine, Buffalo Wild Wings has you covered. Fans of the restaurant love its wide variety of sauces and dry rubs, casual and relaxed atmosphere, and array of TVs that make it a perfect place to watch the game or just hang out with friends on a weeknight. But even if you frequent the restaurant on the regular, there’s a good chance that there’s a lot you don’t know about the brand.

We’ve done some digging to bring you the important info on this popular restaurant chain that you may have frequented when you’ve craved good, old-fashioned bar food. Maybe, the next time you visit the chain, you can impress your friends with your BWW knowledge. Or perhaps once you know more about the brand, you’ll decide to pass it up in favor of another sports bar without a past so littered with controversy. Either way, these interesting facts are likely to get you to think a bit deeper about your next meal. These are 12 eye-opening facts about Buffalo Wild Wings.

If there’s one thing that college kids consistently want, despite the decade or location of the school in question, it’s bar food. It makes sense, then, that the founders of Buffalo Wild Wings, Scott Lowery and Jim Bisbrow, would decide to open their wing restaurant near the campus of a school back in 1982. The pair was living in Columbus, Ohio, and lamented the lack of good Buffalo wings in town. They opened their own wing joint to fill that gap in the community, but they made sure that the restaurant was accessible to college kids on the Ohio State University campus. It seems like that business plan was a success, since the business now boasts over 1,300 locations.

Not only did they serve buffalo wings at that first location, the pair also elected to sell beer — again, a smart decision considering the restaurant’s proximity to a college campus. Once they added in the TVs and started leaning into the whole sports bar vibe, it became a college hot spot in town.

You may be familiar with the Buffalo Wild Wings brand, but did you know that the chain didn’t start out with that name? It actually had a longer, less catchy name: Buffalo Wild Wings & Weck. Don’t know what a weck is? You’re not alone. A beef on weck is similar to a French dip sandwich and is actually made with — you guessed it — beef. That beef would be placed on a roll smothered in a rich au jus for a decadent and saucy handheld. Perhaps there were lots of people who didn’t quite know what a weck was, though, because the chain eventually shortened its name to just “Buffalo Wild Wings.”

This name change didn’t take place until 1998, though, which means BWW spent 16 whole years under a completely different name. The new name is a bit easier to remember, but we’re not going to lie: A beef on weck sounds pretty delicious. Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like you can get one on the Buffalo Wild Wings menu at the time of publication, despite a long list of other sandwiches you can find at the restaurant.

Buffalo Wild Wings is known, of course, for its wings. But you may not realize it’s a leader in a completely different product: beer. People get thirsty when they’re eating deep-fried food like wings, and Buffalo Wild Wings’ sales proves it. As of 2016, the chain was known as the largest pourer of draft beer in the U.S. This is partially because the chain simply serves a lot of it, giving you a chance to test out the best beer pairings to balance spicy foods. As a place that’s known as a great spot to watch the game and indulge in greasy bar food, that makes a lot of sense. But another reason why it’s earned this claim to fame is the fact that there are so many BWW locations around the country.

And apparently, selling a lot of beer really works for the brand. Craft beers sell well, and by offering a wider variety of beers than many other sports bars, the chain can ensure loyal, beer-drinking customers keep coming back. We know one thing: A big plate of wings undoubtedly tastes better with a glass of beer on the side.

If you currently follow a vegetarian diet or have tried to in the past, then you know how difficult it can be to eat out at some restaurants — especially restaurants that have a very meat-centric menu, like Buffalo Wild Wings. Therefore, it’s important to really do some research into the food you’re ordering before it actually ends up on your plate. That’s especially true when you’re at Buffalo Wild Wings, since some people have assumed that certain items on the menu were vegetarian when they very much were not.

Those items included the fries and the mozzarella sticks. You might assume that those items wouldn’t contain any animal products, but they’re actually still cooked in beef tallow instead of more-commonly used cooking oils like canola or vegetable oil. Some customers even tried to sue the company for serving them these non-vegetarian items that they assumed were free from meat products. In the end, though, the lawsuit failed, mostly because the restaurant never claimed that these items were, in fact, vegetarian. Let this serve as a lesson, then: Before you order a dish at a restaurant, double-check the ingredients to ensure you’re not ordering anything that doesn’t fit your dietary requirements, as the restaurant may not spell it all out on the menu for you.

When you think of chicken wings, what first comes to mind? If you’re like most people, you think of traditional, bone-in wings, whether you personally prefer drums or flats. And if you’re at a restaurant that’s specifically known for its wings, you may assume that bone-in wings are the most popular item on the menu. In the case of Buffalo Wild Wings, though, that assumption would be incorrect. Yes, wings are the restaurant’s top seller, but as of 2016, it’s actually the boneless wings that come out on top.

What’s even more scandalous is the fact that boneless “wings” actually aren’t wings at all. Rather, they’re made of chicken breast, essentially making boneless wings just ultra-seasoned chicken nuggets. This popularity makes sense, when you think about it: A lot of people don’t want to have to eat around the bones, and boneless wings are made with white meat, which is a preference for those who prefer less-fatty cuts of chicken. We personally feel like it’s hard to beat a basket of flats doused in a classic Buffalo sauce, but for those who want a less-messy eating experience, the boneless wings from Buffalo Wild Wings may just be the way to go.

One of the best parts of eating at Buffalo Wild Wings compared to other wing joints is the fact that there are so, so many different sauces to choose from. This makes it easy to customize your order with whatever flavors you crave. Looking for something especially spicy? Then you may want to turn to the Golden Fire Sauce. Prefer a sweet and smoky chicken wing situation? In that case, you can always opt for the Maple Chipotle sauce. There’s even a Lemon Pepper sauce for those who want to keep things classic with a milder flavor profile. And when you add in the dry rubs, there are even more flavors to choose from.

But you may not know that the chain has discontinued a ton of flavors — and you may never get to eat these sauces again. In 2018, there were Salted Caramel wings, which sound dubious but may have been delicious if you were craving wings and simultaneously had a sweet tooth. The Truffalo wings were a solid option for those who fully fell into the truffle craze of the early 2020s, and the Pizza-flavored sauce is a classic we can never truly get over. Chances are, the chain will discontinue some of the sauce flavors it currently has on its menu, so take advantage of your favorite flavors while you still have the chance.

Buffalo Wild Wings’ restaurant group obviously saw how popular bar food was and decided to try to enter another sector of that market. Not everyone wants to chow down on wings while they’re watching the game, after all. Perhaps that’s why Buffalo Wild Wings, Inc. invested in a pizza chain called PizzaRev back in 2013. This fast-casual pizza chain serves artisan pizza in a laid-back, casual atmosphere not unlike that of Buffalo Wild Wings. It doesn’t seem like it was a huge success, though, considering that there’s only one chain currently open as of the time of writing, located in Corona, California.

However, BWW hasn’t seemed to have given up on the idea of serving pizza entirely. In 2023, the chain unveiled a boneless wing-topped pizza, called the Boneless Bar Pizza. Considering that it was basically just boneless buffalo wings on a pizza, it didn’t look bad at all. It wasn’t quite as big of a deal as a whole other pizza chain, though. Perhaps pizza will just never be at the heart of the restaurant’s fame.

There are a ton of different fast food and fast-casual restaurants on the market today, and you probably think of them as more or less separate from one another. In reality, though, a lot of these brands have a lot in common — like the same parent companies, for instance. You may have assumed that Buffalo Wild Wings was a standalone chain, but that’s not the reality. In fact, it’s owned by the same parent company as Arby’s and many other chains. This company is called Inspire Brands, and it may be home to some of your other favorite restaurants.

In addition to Buffalo Wild Wings and Arby’s, Inspire Brands also owns Baskin Robbins, Dunkin’, Sonic, and Jimmy John’s as of this publication. Between these several chains, Inspire Brands has thousands of franchises all over the country. So, the next time you visit one of these restaurants, see if you can find the similarities to the others on this list. And if you like Buffalo Wild Wings and haven’t tried any of these other joints, you may want to check them out.

Unfortunately, a lot of fast food and fast-casual restaurants aren’t serving the freshest of foods. After all, these restaurants are trying to make a profit, and it doesn’t always serve them to have to make everything fresh from scratch like you might find at a smaller, local restaurant. Some workers have revealed what it’s like to work at Buffalo Wild Wings, and they warned all of us about the less-than-fresh food we might be served if we visit this restaurant chain.

One supposed manager of a Buffalo Wild Wings was asked on Reddit how much of the food is actually prepared fresh. Their response? “Very little actually. We microwave diced chicken which goes into the grilled wraps and buffalitos.” Considering that so much of what the restaurant sells is fried bar food, that may not come as much of a surprise, though.

Wondering about the bone-in wings? According to alleged BWW workers, those actually are fresh. Since that’s what the chain is known for, it makes sense that this is a dish the chain would actually prioritize when it comes to freshness.

If there’s any business we absolutely never want to support, it’s one that condones or engages in racist behavior. Unfortunately, Buffalo Wild Wings seems to have fallen into this camp, with multiple accusations of racism lobbed at the brand. During one incident, managers allegedly allowed a server to refuse to serve Black guests in Kansas City in 2019. In the same year at a Chicagoland location of the chain, a worker allegedly told biracial and African American customers that a regular of the restaurant didn’t want to be seated near Black people. In this latter incident, the employees who were implicated in the racist behavior were reportedly fired.

Although the individuals allegedly responsible for these racist acts are themselves accountable for their actions, Buffalo Wild Wings should also be held responsible while the employees in question are working at their establishments. Hopefully, in the time since these incidents occurred, Buffalo Wild Wings has developed a comprehensive policy for dealing with racism at their locations, but these allegations alone are enough to give us pause when deciding if we want to eat at the chain again. After all, no matter how delicious a restaurant’s food is, it’s going to leave a bad taste in our mouths if we’re eating at a site of excused oppression.

If you’re the kind of person who always wants your food spicier, who carries hot sauce or chili flakes around with them, or who constantly gets in arguments with family members or friends over how spicy to make a recipe, then you may want to go to Buffalo Wild Wings to test how spicy you can really handle your wings. The chain’s Blazin’ Challenge has allowed fans to test their tolerance for heat, all while eating a ton of wings in the process, of course.

As of the time of writing, participants have to eat ten Blazin’ Knockout wings in five minutes or less to win the challenge, removing all the meat from the bone with their mouths only. You can’t eat anything else or even have a sip of a drink while you’re completing the challenge, either, and you can’t spit or throw up any of the food. If you can manage to complete the challenge, you’ll win 1,000 Blazin’ Rewards points and have your name displayed on the “Blazin’ Challenge Wall of Fame.” If you ask us, it’s not exactly worth the undeniable pain one would have to go through to win, but if you’re confident in your ability to handle spice, it might just be worth a shot.

What do Buffalo Wild Wings and figure skating have in common? At first glance, absolutely nothing, but when you take a closer look, they have one common thread: Jim Disbrow, one of the founders of the chain. Although he may be best known for his wildly successful wing chain, his first love wasn’t wings — it was figure skating. He competed in figure skating as a teenager and even made it to the Olympics in 1968, long before he became a wing magnate. He then went on to become a coach and judge, and was even a chairman of the U.S. Figure Skating Association’s International Committee.

Although you might think of Buffalo Wild Wings as a good place to go when you want to watch a football game, if you’re lucky, you may be able to catch a figure skating competition if you manage to visit during the winter Olympics. Admittedly, though, spicy buffalo wings probably aren’t the best thing to eat if you’re training for a high-level figure skating competition, so athletes who share Disbrow’s passion may want to pass on the wings right before they take to the ice.