Historic Buffalo Wing Chain Anchor Bar Plans First NYC Location

Anchor Bar — a Buffalo-based restaurant chain that claims it invented the town’s famous wing — is planting its first New York outpost in Hell’s Kitchen.

The chain, which has ten locations in the U.S. and Canada, will be taking over a space at 327 West 57th Street, near Eighth Avenue, according to DNAinfo. It will open later this year, serving its signature buffalo hot wings and a menu of pub fare like onion rings and burgers.

The original location of Anchor Bar opened in 1964, and original owner Teressa Bellissimo is often credited with inventing the fried wing with a hot sauce coating. The claim — and the wings — has propelled the chain to more locations, including ones in Texas and Virginia. It also briefly had an outpost in Las Vegas.

But according to an old Calvin Trillin piece in the New Yorker, who can actually claim to be first is more unclear. Another man in Buffalo at the time named John Young told Trillin that black people had always eaten the wings of a chicken — and he is the true originator of the popular appetizer.

Still, Anchor Bar certainly played a part in popularizing it, and last year, a Daily Beast writer found that the wings taste excellent.

• Eatery Claiming to Have Invented Buffalo Wings Opening First NYC Outpost [DNAinfo]