Hall of Flame Committee

STAN FRIEDMAN – CHAIRMAN

Restaurant & Franchise Industry Executive

With more than 30 years experience, Stan Friedman is a seasoned franchising veteran, a life-long foodie and Chairman of the National Buffalo Wing Hall of Flame. For nearly five years, Stan served as Executive Vice President and partner at the Wing Zone Franchise Corp., where he led the Atlanta based chain’s development charge, growing them to nearly 100 units. Currently, Stan is the President of FRM Solutions, Inc., a franchise-centric technology company that assists franchisors with the management of relationships, with their prospective and existing franchisees. 
Stan serves on the (IFA) Educational Foundation’s Leadership Council and Board of Trustees, the (IFA) Supplier Board and is a founding member of the (IFA) Diversity Institute. Stan also produces and hosts “Franchise Today,” a live, weekly podcast on BlogTalkRadio, available for download at iTunes and anywhere else that podcast libraries are found. A native New Yorker, Stan has called Atlanta home for more than 30 years.  
Stan has also served on the board of the Georgia Restaurant Association and most importantly, he is a confessed “wing-o-holic.” He loves Buffalo and travels to WNY several times a year, satisfying his craving for the world’s greatest selection of wings, while doing his part to promote economic development in our region.

DONN ESMONDE 

Retired Journalist

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. 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.

Scott Lowery

Co-Founder Buffalo Wild Wings (formerly Buffalo Wild Wings & Weck, BW-3)

After searching for Buffalo Wings late one evening in Kent, Ohio with his adopted brother Jim Disbrow; Jim bet Scott $5 that he could find some wings to eat in Kent. Scott told him that there were not any wings in this town or probably in the entire state of Ohio.  After several hours and an exhaustive search, no wings were found. There was only one thing to do; the next morning over breakfast it was decided that they needed to open a restaurant serving Buffalo Wings.  The first location was opened 1982 in Columbus, Ohio; with the original menu consisting of three Buffalo favorites:  Red Hots, Beef-on-Weck and Buffalo Wings.  Needless to say, it was the Buffalo Wing that caught on quickly and became the top selling item.  In the first years of BW-3, Scott himself, was frying and serving wings, open to close, seven day a week.  As the company grew, he served as Chief Operating Officer, responsible for management, human resources, marketing, advertising, menu design and development, construction, and franchising.  In his youth Scott lived in Buffalo, attending Nardin Academy and Canisius High School.  He was a member of the West Side Rowing Club and his crew won the 1975 Novice 4 race!  In 1976, his family moved to Ohio, where he graduated from Wyoming High School (1978) and Miami University (1982).  He retired from Buffalo Wild Wings in 2004.  In 2007 Scott and Jim were inducted into the Buffalo Hall of Flame and is now proud to serve on the Committee.  Scott is always on the hunt for great wings wherever he travels.