NY Best Wings Festival draws thousands

Winner L. I. Pour House, Best Buffalo Wings.

Courtesy Dan Kourie

Brixx & Barley of Long Beach

Courtesy Dan Kourie

Wings galore.

Courtesy Dan Kourie

Thousands turned out to sample wings of every sort.

Courtesy Dan Kourie

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Month of planning, and tasting, tweaking of recipes, and more tasting, and the New York Best Wings Festival began June 7, at the New York Community Bank Theatre in Westbury. Over fifty years after the birth of the Buffalo Chicken Wing two Oceanside residents, Matthew Kourie and Robert Wittman, brought together more than 7,000 people to eat, drink, and vote of the best wing. The two Oceanside men are not only good friends but they also share the love for a spectacular chicken wing. This alliance has turned the two musicians into full blown bona fide “Wing Hunters”.

It was March 4, 1964 when Teressa Bellissimo, the owner of a small restaurant in Buffalo, New York, called Anchor Bar, accidentally invented the Buffalo chicken wing. Before that wings were considered scraps, used for soup or thrown away. That morning she received an extra box of wings and did not need them for soup, so she improvised, deep frying them, and then dressing them with vinegar and butter and an industry was born, or so the story goes. Some say it was October, not March, and other say a cook named John Young invented them.

No matter. After all tasting and finger licking here are the results:

Best Buffalo Wings:

1st place: LI Pour House - Port Jefferson

2nd place: Brews Brothers Grille - Franklin Square

3rd Place: Wander Inn - Baldwin

Best Unique Flavor

1st place : Heartbreaking Dawns Hot Sauce - New Jersey

2nd place: Pelicana Chicken - Flushing Queens

3rd place: Wing Zone - Bellmore

Best Smoked BBQ Wings: Swingbellys BBQ - Long Beach

Festival Spirit Award: Wing Zone