They were both from Buffalo living in Ohio and couldn't find a restaurant that served their hometown buffalo wings. So they built their own.
WIKIPEDIAOriginally Buffalo Wild Wings & Weck or BW3 or B-Dubs
American casual dining restaurant and sports bar franchise in the United States, Canada, India, Mexico, Panama, Philippines, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, and United Arab Emirates which specializes in Buffalo wings and sauces.Buffalo Wild Wings & Weck (BW3) was founded in 1982 by James Disbrow and Scott Lowery, whose parents were Disbrow's ice skating coaches and guardians when he was younger. Meeting up in Kent, Ohio, after Disbrow had finished judging an amateur figure skating competition at Kent State University, the pair were unable to locate a restaurant that served Buffalo-style chicken wings. They decided to open their own restaurant, selecting a location near the Ohio State University in Columbus.
Buffalo Wild Wings & Weck"Weck" is a Kaiser roll. Beef on weck was a sandwich originally served at the restaurant.
- “Weck” is short for kimmelweck, a Kaiser roll seasoned with special toppings. These tasty rolls are popular on the East Coast and were served at our restaurants when we first opened.
- In 1998, we officially changed our name to Buffalo Wild Wings.
- As of November 2020, Buffalo Wild Wings had 1,279 locations across all 50 U.S. states and DC. The company is operated out of Atlanta, Georgia, home to its parent company, Inspire Brands, in the Sandy Springs district just north of downtown Atlanta. However, Inspire still maintains a support center in Minneapolis, Minnesota, the location of its previous headquarters.
- They are best known for Buffalo-style chicken wings along with over a dozen sauces, as well as a complement of other items such as chicken tenders and legs.
- The menu also features appetizers, burgers, tacos, salads, and desserts, along with beer, wine, and other beverages.
- They are known for their famous "Blazin Wing Challenge." They challenge customers to eat 10 of their Blazin' Knockout wings in under five minutes. The winners receive 1000 Blazin' Rewards points and the winner's name is shown on select TV screens at varying times throughout the day via Buffalo Wild Wings' internal OT Network shown on a “Blazin' Challenge Wall of Fame” type of page. The winner's name will appear on the “Blazin' Challenge Wall of Fame” for an unspecified amount of time.
- The restaurants feature an open layout with a bar area and patio seating flanked by over 50 televisions and media screens. Starting in 2016, the new restaurants being built follow a new type of layout that gives the guests the feeling as if they were actually in a sports stadium.
- In December 2018, they unveiled a new restaurant design featuring a more prominent bar area, flexible seating areas, VIP spaces and large arena-like video screens with anti-glare technology.
Signature Sauces
- Honey Sriracha Sweet and spicy combination of honey and Sriracha.
- Honey Garlic Sweet and savory combination of honey, soy sauce and garlic.
- Blazin' Knockout A fiery sauce made with nine different hot peppers
- Wild Blistering heat packed with a flavorful blend of chili peppers
- Mango Habanero Two sensations, one sauce: feel the burn, savor the sweet.
- Lemon Pepper Bright lemon flavor with notes of black pepper and butter.
- Hot Classic wing sauce: memorable flavor, exhilarating heat.
- Original Buffalo A house-made buttery blend of hot sauce and spices.
- THAI CURRY Bold flavors with a bite: sweet chilies blended with spices. Coconut and curry.
- Nashville Hot Regional hot sauce with cayenne pepper and brown sugar.
- Jammin' Jalapeno Jalapeno sauce with hints of tequila and lime.
- Caribbean Jerk An excellently exotic sauce: red peppers you love, island spices you crave.
- Asian Zing Sweet meets heat: A chili pepper, soy and ginger sauce.
- Spicy Garlic A tasty good sauce: Spicy and garlicky.
- Orange Chicken Sweet citrus and tangy orange zest with soy and mild chili peppers.
- Medium Classic wings sauce: perfectly balanced, comfortably hot.
- Honey BBQ Savor the flavors: a sweet, sassy sauce.
- Parmesan Garlic Creamy and rich: Parmesan, roasted garlic and Italian herbs.
- Mild Classic wing sauce: High flavor, low heat.
- Teriyaki Terrifically tasty: Savory and full- bodied.
- Sweet BBQ Traditional BBQ sauce: satisfyingly sweet.
Signature Dry Rub
- Desert Heat A fiery combination of peppers with a sweet, dry touch of smoke.
- Buffalo Classic heat and soothing buttery flavor.
- Chipotle BBQ A blend of fire-roasted chipotle pepper and BBQ flavors.
- Lemon pepper Citrus zest with black pepper
- Salt & Vinegar It's all in the name.
Wing AddictsBuffalo Wild Wings
Jim Disbrow and Scott Lowrey had recently moved to Ohio from Buffalo, New York. They were craving buffalo wings from home and came up with the idea to open their own wing joint. They decided to opened it near the Ohio State University campus and named it Buffalo Wild Wings & Weck.
Weck is short for "beef on weck"
Another upstate New York delicacy consisting of thinly sliced roast beef on a kummelweck roll (a hard roll topped with salt and caraway seeds), with au jus and horseradish. Yummm.The boys wanted to serve beer as well (because what goes better with wings?) and they added a TV set for watching music videos (as MTV had just become the rage). One day, somebody asked them to turn on the Ohio State game and soon they began adding extra TV's and sports won out.
Having zero clue how to run a business, the pair took on an additional partner, Mark Lutz, and expanded into a chain adding six additional locations around Ohio and Indiana, and one in Colorado where they'd frequently go to ski. After ten years, BWW (they dropped the "weck") and decided to franchise. In 1992 you could purchase a BWW franchise for $15k, plus a percentage of sales. They added eight more locations in Ohio that year, and also launched their own bottled wing sauce (starting with just buffalo).
- By 1995, the company shifted gears and switched from a “college bar” type setting to a sports-related casual dining atmosphere with a large seating space. At that time there were a total of 48 locations.
- In 1999, Buffalo Wild Wings Grill & Bar opened its 100th location in Apple Valley, Minnesota
- By 2001, BWW began pushing takeout sales.
- Co-founder Jim Disbrow (54) died of brain cancer the following year
- In 2003, the company went public. It's IPO opened at $8.50 per share and skyrocketed 35% in its first day of trading.
- They began international expansion, not long after that, starting with Canada in 2010 and then Dubai in 2015. Today, BWW has over 1,500 locations worldwide with franchises in all 50 states and also restaurants in India, Mexico, Oman, Panama, Philippines, Saudi Arabia, UAE, and Vietnam. Roughly half of those restaurants are corporate owned.
- In 2018, Buffalo Wild Wings was purchased by Arby's Restaurant Group
- In 2007, Disbrow and Lowery became the second inductees (after Anchor Bar) into the "National Buffalo Wing Hall of Flame."
Draft Beer
Another interesting tidbit about Buffalo Wild Wings is that the company is currently the largest server of draft beer in the entire country and maybe even the world. Hmm. How did that happen? It all started with a little wing craving. Wings up! Burp! LOL
Mental FlossBuffalo Wild Wings
What began, appropriately, with two wing-obsessed dudes back in 1982 has become a global empire. Buffalo Wild Wings, with its sliding scale of sauces and more screens per location than NASA Mission Control, has over 1,000 restaurants in the U.S. and a growing number abroad delivering the oh-so-American gift of sauce-slathered chicken parts. B-Dubs, as it's affectionately known, is truly a modern-day success story.
- It all started in... Ohio.
Buffalo wings may have originated in New York state, but it was in the nation's heartland that Buffalo Wild Wings took flight. Two Buffalo natives living in Columbus, Jim Disbrow and Scott Lowery, missed their beloved hometown wings and couldn't find a restaurant that served them. So they built their own.- It was originally called "Buffalo Wild Wings and Weck."
This is the source of the company's still-popular nickname, BW3. But what the heck is a weck? If you're from western New York, you likely know the answer: It's a thin-sliced roast beef sandwich served with horseradish and au jus, and named for the roll (kummelweck) that holds it all together. Apparently it's delicious, but wasn't popular enough to keep on the menu.- One of the co-founders was huge in the figure skating world.
Buffalo wings made Jim Disbrow rich, but his true passion was figure skating. He won national medals competing in his teenage years, was named an alternate for the 1968 U.S. Olympic team, and eventually became a renowned coach and judge. He was also chairman of the U.S. Figure Skating Association's International Committee during the Kerrigan-Harding dust-up, and served as the association's president from 1998 to 2000.- The TVs originally played music videos.
- It grew by placing its restaurants near college campuses.
- They have a gallery of retired sauces.
- They thrived during the recession.
- They sell nearly two billion wings every year.
- Now, you can order your 'Asian Zing' Wings in Asia.
- Their current CEO kind of fell into the job.
Back in 1996, the company hired a new CEO to run its then 30-restaurant outfit. The guy failed to show up on his first day, so one of the directors turned to CFO Sally Smith and said: "I guess you're going to have to do it." More than twenty years later, she's still at the helm.- There's a Blazin' Wings Challenge.
If you're not afraid of a little heat and absolutely covet free T-shirts, you can take the Blazin' Challenge, which involves eating 12 of the company's hottest wings in under 6 minutes. The rules include no drinks, no dipping sauces, and no puking. And no crying. There's no crying in wing eating.- They're hiring people to change the channels.
In addition to turning on the big game, the “guest experience captains,” which the company began hiring during 2015's March Madness, are also tasked with chatting up customers and promoting the brand.
1000logosBuffalo Wild Wings
In terms of visual identity, the company has been loyal to the badge, introduced in 1998, after its rename from Buffalo Wild Wings & Weck. Although, throughout the years the logo was refined several times. The insignia looks very cool and modern due to the use of an intense color palette and solid silhouettes.
1982 – 1998
The original logo for the company, established in 1982 as Buffalo Wild Wings and Weck, was introduced in the same year. It was a bold and very masculine badge in a circular shape, with the dark brown contours of a Buffalo bull on a gradient beige background, and brown lettering is written around the perimeter of the roundel, from the inside. The first letter of each word in the inscription was emboldened and set in red, being supported by the heavy red “BW-3” set at the bottom of the composition.1998 – 2012
After the rename of the company, the new logo was created in 1998. This version has become a basis for the iconic badge, still used by the brand today. It was a solid yellow roundel in a thick black outline, overlapped by a horizontally-stretched black rectangular banner at the bottom. The roundel comprised a black silhouette of a bull with white wings, drawn in profile, facing to the left. As for the banner, it had two-leveled lettering in white, with the bottom line decorated by two yellow five-pointed stars with three arched tails each.2012 – 2018
The redesign of 2012 has placed the circular yellow and black emblem on the left from the rewritten inscription, which was now set in three lines, with the emboldened uppercase characters executed in a fancy custom typeface, where the massive contours were decorated by small triangular elements on top parts. As for the graphical element of the logo, it got come delicate gray details on the wings and the body of the bull added volume to the composition.2018 – Today
In 2018 the logo of Buffalo Wild Wings was redesigned again, with the color palette switched to a smoother one. The black shades got brown, and the gray elements were removed from the badge, making it flat and cool again. As for all other elements of the logo, they remained untouched.Font and Color
The sleek and heavy lettering from the Buffalo Wild Wings primary badge is set in a custom font with massive characters and delicate triangular serifs on the rods of orange lines. The closest fonts to the one, used in this insignia, are, probably, ITC Mixage Std Black, or Brickton Regular, but with some significant modifications of the characters' contours.As for the color palette of Buffalo Wild Wings' visual identity, it is based on a soft and warm combination of yellow and brown, with white accents, where yellow stands for energy, brown - for coziness and taste, and white - for loyalty of the brand to its customers, and the reliability of the chain.
CheapismMost Sold Sauce
Here are Buffalo Wild Wings's most popular sauces, according to a representative for the company:
- Honey BBQ
- Parm Garlic
- Medium
- Mild
- Asian Zing
I visited a Buffalo Wild Wings near Milwaukee, WI in mid-June, 2023 for this taste test. The wings were brought out in batches of three flavors from mildest to hottest over the course of about two hours for photos and tasting. Here are my thoughts on all 26 Buffalo Wild Wings flavors, ranked from best to worst, including the two limited time offer sauces available at the time.
- Lemon Pepper Is the Best Buffalo Wild Wings Sauce
- Hot Is the 2nd Best Buffalo Wild Wings Sauce
- Nashville Hot Is the 3rd Best Buffalo Wild Wings Sauce
- Jammin' Jalapeno Sauce
- Honey BBQ Sauce
- Caribbean Jerk Sauce
- Chipotle BBQ Seasoning Is the Best Buffalo Wild Wings Dry Rub
- Lemon Pepper Seasoning
- Medium Sauce
- Spicy Garlic Sauce
- Thai Curry Sauce
- Original Buffalo Sauce
- Parmesan Garlic Sauce
- Mild Sauce
- Wild Sauce
- Salt and Vinegar Seasoning
- General Tso's Sauce
- Mango Habanero Sauce
- Buffalo Seasoning
- Blazin' Knockout Sauce Is the Hottest Buffalo Wild Wings Sauce
- Sweet BBQ Sauce
- Orange Chicken Sauce
- Sweet Chili Lime Sauce
- Asian Zing Sauce
- Desert Heat Seasoning Is the Worst Buffalo Wild Wings Dry Rub
- Teriyaki Sauce Is the Worst Buffalo Wild Wings Sauce