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2010 VOTING IS NOW OPEN!
We need your help for the 2010 nominee's. We need you to nominate a restaurant, a sauce, a person, or company. Please email us at info@buffalowing.com with your nomination of an individual or what entity you think should be inducted into the hall. The committee will take all nominations from the public into consideration when making their selection.
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2009 INDUCTEES
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Donn Esmonde, The Buffalo News |
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Matt Friedmann and Adam Scott, Founders of Wing Zone |
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Donn Esmonde
The Buffalo News
Donn Esmonde has been a columnist at The Buffalo News for 12 years. He started his 24-year career with The News as a sports feature writer and columnist, and for five years was the columnist in the Life section. He’s won numerous NYS Associated Press awards, in addition to other honors. Esmonde is 53 years old and lives in the city of Buffalo with his wife, an education specialist for the Buffalo Public Schools, and their two daughters, 14 and 11 years old. He spends his free time reading, coaching girl’s softball, abusing his electric guitar and attempting to keep up with the demands of a century-old Victorian home.
In August of 2002, he heard about the movie “Osmosis Jones” that featured actor Bill Murray playing a guy addicted to fried food and other artery-clogging fare. His young daughter, fearful he would keel over, wanted him to take a hiking vacation. Instead, he bolted for the National Chicken Wing Festival in Buffalo. Which raised the question: Why isn’t there an annual National Chicken Wing Festival in Buffalo?
Esmonde wrote a column suggesting that there should be a National WingFest in Buffalo in 2001, as a way of staking claim to what is rightfully ours as well as to capitalize commercially on a Buffalo invention. Buffalo’s own Drew Cerza read it and called him the next day. Donn wrote about Drew’s plan in his next column and asked the community for its support. The rest is history. That was seven years and 2.4 million wings ago.
Because of Esmonde’s column and continued support of the event, the National Buffalo Wing Festival has grown into one of America’s favorite festivals. Thanks Donn, we owe it all to you!
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Matt Friedman and Adam Scott
Founders, Wing Zone
In 1991, University of Florida fraternity brothers Matt Friedman and Adam Scott embarked on an entrepreneurial journey that forever changed the Buffalo chicken wing landscape when they founded Wing Zone after recognizing a demand, yet no concept offering delivery/ take-out of the tasty product. Quickly, the duo built up several restaurants spread across their beloved campus and neighboring states, yet were disappointed their product couldn’t reach the taste buds of more wing fanatics. Equipped with a great product, system and brand, the success story strengthened with the launch of the Wing Zone franchise (more information at www.wingzone.com).
Since then, Friedman and Scott have grown Wing Zone to 100 locations, with 30 more in development. As one of the nation’s fastest growing takeout/delivery chains — known for its 15 award-winning flavors of fresh, cooked-to-order chicken wings, fingers, chicken sandwiches, burgers and more, its growth has significantly “heated up”. To this day, Wing Zone has remained dedicated to supporting emerging and established entrepreneurs, promoting the originator of chicken wings – Buffalo, and maintaining a fanatical following.
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2008 INDUCTEES - FRANK'S REDHOT CAYENNE PEPPER SAUCE
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It was Frank’s RedHot Cayenne Pepper Sauce that Teressa Bellissimo used in the creation of the original Chicken Wings at Buffalo’s historic Anchor Bar in 1964. Since then, consumer's desire for the distinctive taste of Frank's RedHot has risen to a fever pitch. And face it, without Frank's RedHot there'd be no Buffalo Wings as we've come to know them!
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2007 INDUCTEES - BUFFALO WILD WINGS FOUNDERS
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Their 2007 induction coincides with the 25th Anniversary of Buffalo Wild Wings, which began in 1982 as Buffalo Wild Wings and Weck, commonly referred to back then as BW3. It was a modest beginning for these
life-long friends, who were recent transplants to Kent, Ohio at the time. Craving their beloved "Buffalo Wings" from back home, they decided to start their own restaurant near Ohio State University.
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2006 INDUCTEES - THE ANCHOR BAR
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Frank and Teressa Bellissimo, founders of the Anchor Bar Restaurant and creators of the original Buffalo Wing sauce, have become the first inductees into the newly-announced Chicken Wing Hall Of Flame in Buffalo, New York. Online voting and committee meetings solidified their induction. |
MEET THE NATIONAL BUFFALO WING HALL OF FLAME COMMITTEE
In, 2006, Wing King Drew Cerza launched the National Buffalo Wing Hall of Flame. A Committee was formed to select Hall of Flame nominees from among restaurant owners and others in the food industry who have advanced the wing's climb from an unwanted chicken part that usually ended up in a dumpster to a much-devoured favorite and national food icon.
Click here to meet the Committee
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