In 1964, in Buffalo, N.Y., Teressa Bellissimo threw together a cheap late night snack for her son and his college buddies. The chicken wings, fried and smothered in sauce, were a massive hit. Bellissimo and her husband Frank decided to start selling the wings at their restaurant the Anchor Bar. After acknowledging that the wings were such a success, other restaurants began making their own and in 1977 Stan Makowski, then mayor of Buffalo, declared July 29 National Chicken Wing Day.
For 50 years, restaurants around the country have been working to create the perfect buffalo wing and sauce. The owners of Dirty Birds in Pacific Beach, which has been voted Best Wings in San Diego four years in a row, believe they have found the secret.
“Our root owners and operators are all East Coasters,” kitchen manager Marco Montes said. “They know a thing or two about chicken wings. Combine that with some Western and Southwestern kitchen know-how and step back because here comes the boom.”
For eight years, Dirty Birds in Pacific Beach has been the go to place for buffalo wings, cold beer and sporting events.
Every morning the chefs at Dirty Birds prepare to season, bake, fry and sauce the wings. But the first step in readying the wings is to cover them in the restaurant’s secret rub.
“The key ingredient for us and what I think sets us apart from others is the seasoning we bake all of our wings in first,” said general manager Marlee Lucas.
From there, the wings are partially baked to lock in the flavors of the secret seasoning.
“There definitely has to be a frying element when it comes to cooking chicken wings, that’s the typical method of cooking them,” Lucas said. “We add baking or roasting to our process to lock in the juices and allow the flavors to really resonate throughout.”
The wings then wait for an order to come in. When one does, they are fried and coated in the customer’s choice of seasoning or sauce. The last minute frying keeps the flavors locked in, the texture crispy and the wings hot and ready to be tossed in sauce.
The secret to a good sauce, Montes said, is some flavor know-how, imagination, practice and a whole lot of love. The actual ingredients in the sauce though, Montes said, he is not at liberty to share.
With more than 33 different sauce flavors, Dirty Birds provides customers with a variety of options in taste and spice. The heat ranges from mild up to a spice that, Montes said, has made grown men cry. The most popular sauce is Dirty Ranch. Other favorites are Spicy Garlic, Diablo, Ninja, Sweet Chili and Lemon Pepper.
“No one else makes wings like this place,” said Eric Bell, a Pacific Beach resident and Dirty Birds regular. “I love the choices in sauce, the taste of the chicken and the atmosphere here.”
The restaurant orders roughly 10,000 pieces or 1,280 pounds of chicken wings at a time, and while that may sound like a lot, Montes says they go through about 3,400 pounds of chicken wings in an average week. On a regular season football Sunday, they go through nearly 640 pounds of chicken, but on Super Bowl Sunday they average about 960 pounds.
According to Lucas, chicken wings and sports are the ultimate combo that makes the restaurant busy during any kind of sporting event. Even without a major sporting event, Lucas says people seem to always want wings and always want to eat as many as they possibly can. Mondays at Dirty Birds are all-you-can-eat wing nights, and people take it very seriously. The most wings Lucas has witnessed eaten in one sitting, is 58.
Dirty Birds has another location in the College Area and will be opening a place in Liberty Station this year. National Chicken Wing Day
Where: Dirty Birds, 4656 Mission Blvd.
When: 3 to 6 p.m. July 29. What: Half-priced wings.