Buffalo wings: what a divine invention! Created back in 1964, who would have known they’d become as famous as they are today? If you head down to 1047 Main Street in Buffalo, you’ll find yourself at Frank & Teressa’s Anchor Bar – the restaurant where it all began.

Anchor Bar is an unique bar and restaurant with a menu that proclaims “The Real Story.” It proceeds to give a short summary of “how this wing thing really started…” Frank and Teressa Bellissimo had a son who worked in their restaurant and bar, and one night a group of their son’s friends came in and he served them a round of drinks. By midnight they were all really hungry, so he asked his mother to fix something up for them. She brought out chicken wings that she was going to put in the stock pot (for soup) but served them to them instead and, as the menu explains, “the rest is history!”

Anchor Bar has an enjoyable, interesting atmosphere filled with anchors painted on the mirrors and skis on the rafters. The walls of the bar area are littered with different license plates and old pictures. All of this adds to the exclusive quality of the original home of Buffalo wings. Along with the meaty and flavorful wings, the menu boasts a wide array of other items.

So how are the wings at the original home anyway, you might ask. Well, you won’t be disappointed. Anchor Bar offers wing flavors of Mild, Medium, Hot, Spicy Bar-B-Que, and Suicidal. In terms of how they compare, the medium sauce is very flavorful, but not quite spicy; it’s mild if anything. The hot sauce is very spicy, as hot sauce should be. The suicidal sauce is quite interesting in that it’s very hot and spicy but there are a lot of black peppers in it, the wings a different sort of taste than the typical hot sauce used on wings. It gives the sauce a sort of maroon color.

Anchor Bar is just what you’d expect and nothing less. In a national contest containing over 1000 sauces, theirs have been judged the “Best of the Best” of American Hot Wing Sauces. The menu is peppered with many interesting facts, such as that one, about Anchor Bar. For more information, check out www.anchorbar.com, and definitely make sure you make your way to the place itself, if you haven’t already.

Another great place to find some tasty wings is Buffalo Wild Wings Grill & Bar at 3035 Niagara Falls Blvd. They have 12 signature sauces, which you can also buy in bottles. For smooth tasting wings they have Teriyaki, Sweet BBQ, Mild, and Smoky Southwestern. For a spicier taste they have Medium, Spicy Garlic, Thai, and Caribbean Jerk. And for those of you who are daring and want a smokin’ hot taste, they offer Hot BBQ, Hot, Wild, and Blazin’.

Just to give you an idea of how some of these taste: the medium is quite simply just as medium should be; not mild, not hot, but just right in the middle. The Hot BBQ is similar to the Sweet BBQ, but with a dash of fire that lingers on your lips. Blazin’ is an extremely hot, no wait, DANGEROUSLY hot sauce. Use caution!

The wings are plump and you won’t be disappointed. In fact, they are probably some of the best in the entire area. Not only does Buffalo Wild Wings have incredible wings, but it has quite an interesting little entertainment plan set up. At this particular wing place, you can play trivia. Strewn about the restaurant and bar are trivia game pieces that you can use to play against other people in the place. The trivia shows up on TV screens around the restaurant and bar and you use the trivia boards to play. This adds a lot to the entertainment and excitement of the Wild Wings atmosphere. For more information on Buffalo Wild Wings Grill & Bar, log on to www. buffalowildwings.com/index2.asp.

Last but definitely not least is Duff’s. Located at 3651 Sheridan Drive in Amherst, Duff’s lives up to its title of Famous Wings. Duff offers sauces such as Mild, Medium, Medium Light, Medium, Medium Hot, Hot, BBQ, and Super Hot. However, there is a warning on the front of the menu that “Medium Hot IS Hot” and proceeds to warn the customer how extremely hot the Hot sauce is. And honestly, the menu does not lie. The Medium sauce is itself fiery and the Hot sauce is unbearably scorching. The Medium Light sauce was slightly hot, but more like medium should be. They’re spicy enough that “bland” never crosses your mind, but not so spicy that you can’t have more than just a couple. The Mild Medium tastes mild and pretty normal.

The sauces are pretty chaotic being that Medium is incredibly spicy. However, there are quite a number of people who are always complaining that the hot wings are not hot enough. So, for all you lovers of really sizzling wings, here’s the place to go.

Anchor Bar, Buffalo Wild Wings, and Duff’s are definitely the best choice to go in looking for some excellent wings. If you’ve never ventured to one of these places or any of them at all, make sure you feast at one of them before the end of the semester.