All language subtitles for The.Food.That.Built.America.S04E03.Flight.of.the.Buffalo.Wing.1080p.AMZN.WEB-DL.DDP2.0.H.264-NTb

Six billion
pounds eaten annually

in the US alone,

1.4 billion of them are
consumed in a single day,

Super Bowl Sunday.

Wings are a big
deal in America,

but Buffalo wings haven't been
around as long as you think.

But
before the 1960s,

not only was chicken obscure,

many Americans wouldn't
even eat the wings.

Wings were discarded

'cause it's mostly
skin and mostly bone.

And spicy foods
were avoided at all costs.

It'll take a few
culinary visionaries.

People were lining
up around the block.

It was like he
created a monster.

He put chicken
wings on the map.

To reimagine
what people want to eat,

these unlikely entrepreneurs

will bring wings out of Buffalo.

They were the first to put
out the word Buffalo wing.

And
into the mainstream,

creating a totally new
American establishment.

We have wings, we have beer,

we now have sports,

and the Holy Trinity is born.

While a
group of Florida friends

accidentally build a
cultural phenomenon.

They were one of the fastest
growing restaurant chains

in the country.

That changes
American dining forever.

It just exploded.

Now you can see their impact

on restaurants
across the country.

Propelling chicken

to become America's
favorite meat.

In the 1950s, Buffalo, New York,
is a thriving metropolis.

It's the 15th largest
city in the United States

compared to its 78th
place ranking today

with more than double the
population it has now.

It was one of the most
prosperous towns in the country

with a whole lot of interesting
confluence of cultures.

Since 1940,

residents moving to Buffalo
have been skyrocketing.

Due to the great
migration from the South,

the number of African
Americans alone is on its way

to an increase of 422%.

Buffalo is known for being
close to Niagara Falls,

being close to Canada,

and it was a industrial town.

The jobs were here.

Buffalo was a 24-hour town
because of the plants.

But in 1956,

as the Interstate Highway Act

starts to forge new highways
all across the country,

many cut right through
the hearts of cities,

including Buffalo,

and it cripples a once
thriving inner city economy.

It was a steel town,
it was an iron town.

But in Buffalo in the 1950s,

as in a lot of cities

in what's now called
the Rust Belt,

the city emptied out.

In a community like Buffalo,

that's gonna mean this
crisis of identity

as that industry which
once defined that region

begins to move.

Where are people gonna live?

Where are they gonna work?

How are they gonna
make a living?

As the
new highway system

allows families to move from
the city and into the suburbs,

the city's population rapidly
shrinks from over 600,000

down to 260,000.

But restrictive policies
create barriers to entry

for many people wanting
to live in the suburbs.

Those highways
insured exclusivity.

It was required that the
bridges over the highways

be just low enough so a
bus couldn't pass through.

What did that mean?

If you wanted to live
in one of those suburbs,

you also had to own a car.

Buffalo becomes
more segregated than ever,

as black families are unable

to leave the
confines of the city.

It's really appealing
to think about

the 1950s in the United States
as this happy, domestic time

when, you know, people
had white picket fences

and everyone could
afford a home.

But it's important to realize
how incomplete that dream was

and how excluded a lot
of people were from it.

In 1961,

on the predominantly
African American east side,

a recently unemployed
radiator salesman

has put everything he has into
opening a small restaurant.

John Young was born in
small town rural Alabama

as the 4th of 14 children
and like many people,

traveled north with the
great migration to Buffalo,

where presumably he would
find money and jobs.

John Young is a black
entrepreneur in America

and in the '60s, being African
American, male or female,

anywhere, was a very tough

and very dangerous
position to be in.

Even in the face of
Buffalo's rising unemployment,

Young sees an opportunity to
cook with a low priced meat.

While red meat is by
far the most popular,

chicken is an
affordable alternative

and an integral part of the
African American cuisine

known as soul food.

Fried chicken was
convenient and accessible.

Chickens became a great
food source for the poor.

During slavery,

African Americans
typically had access to

what was considered the less
desirable parts of the animal,

leftover scraps,
organs, and wings.

Back then, the idea
of seeking out wings

as the cut of chicken you're
serving was unheard of.

No one stops to
think about a time

when they weren't everywhere,

when they weren't
at every sports bar,

every bar and grill.

Now every Thai restaurant,
every Korean restaurant,

has some variation on the wing.

Today, 25 billion
wings are consumed each year

in America alone.

At that time, wings
were sort of discarded

'cause it's mostly
skin and mostly bone.

It's usually something that
was used for soups or stews,

but not like a sought
after piece of chicken.

But in 1961,

John Young opens his
small wing restaurant

that also offers other
Southern soul food favorites.

He opened up this little
place, Wings and Things.

He had pork chops, greens,
macaroni and cheese,

cornbread and chicken wings.

But his wings

are unlike the
wings we know today,

which are cut into two parts,

unbreaded and drenched in sauce.

What John Young served
was a whole breaded wing

without sauce.

Mr. Young's wings
was a fried wing,

seasoned flour and was
fried to perfection.

No sauces, nothing.

But
to turn people on

to the unfamiliar chicken wing,

Young wants to make
them truly unique.

John Young started
with this sauce called

the Mumbo sauce.

It was a thinner, red,

slightly spicy version
of barbecue sauce,

which is a sauce
you might have found

served at barbecue
restaurants at that time.

You can't say it's
barbecue sauce,

you can't say it's hot sauce,

but it's a sauce that makes
you say, "Damn, this is good."

But young
wants his Mumbo sauce

to have something special,
a secret ingredient.

He apparently
changed the flavors

with a little bit
more of a tropical hit

after a trip he had
taken to Jamaica.

Young
also adds extra heat,

spicy enough to get
people's attention.

No one could replicate
what John Young was doing.

His sauce was secret.

His sauce was his sauce.

That sauce did something.

It's like a cake.

A cake is not a cake until
to put that cherry on top.

That sauce did it, that did it.

But bold flavors
are completely foreign

to most Americans at the time.

In mid-century America, the
taste buds were very bland.

It's a lot of heavy meatloafs,

heavy, kind of tasteless sauces,

things that they thought were
kind of haut French cuisine,

but were really just kind
of bland, tasteless things.

But John Young
believes his spicy flavors

are the perfect accompaniment
for fried chicken.

And he is very
driven, determined.

He thinks this is
a brilliant idea.

He's going to run with it.

As Young
releases his wings,

he quickly finds few customers
willing to try his creation

and sales are dismal.

He had good business sense
as far as in the community

and making a name for his self.

Back in those days,
us as people of color,

we didn't have the
resources to say,

"Hey, I wanna brand this."

With no marketing
beyond word of mouth,

the business is
barely scraping by.

Food marketing is a
huge piece of the puzzle

because if you can make
something delicious

but you can't get
anyone to eat it,

then your business
isn't gonna grow.

Until one day,
his wings unexpectedly

catch the attention
of a local celebrity

who plays on the city's
newest sports team.

The Buffalo Bills stadium
was about six blocks

from where his restaurant stood

and the Buffalo Bills'
Cookie Gilchrist, went there

and because he was famous,

the people were lining
up around the block.

It was like he'd
created a monster.

At only
5 cents a piece,

Young's wings are priced
right for cash-strapped locals

who want to snack

while rooting for their
favorite sports team.

People would come in
and buy 500 at a time

and take them to the game,

and they have distinct
memories of buying them

from John Young.

Back in the '60s,
going to the stadium,

there was just a few lousy
items for food, you know?

Nuts and so forth.

So they start bringing

John Young's Buffalo
wings to the game,

and thus begins the
connection between football

and Buffalo wings.

While most
Americans are still

unaccustomed to
eating chicken wings,

the buzz around Young's
wings in Buffalo is growing.

Soon, national celebrities,
especially African Americans,

begin discovering the
sauced wings at Young's

Wings and Things.

James Brown, Harold
Melvin and the Blue Notes,

then Curtis Mayfield used
to come and do performances.

Leave there and go
get chicken wings.

That's just what it was.

He created a lot of
hope for the community

because everybody seen that a
black man could be successful

in the city at that time.

He was something. Mr.
Young was something.

Everybody knew who he was.

He was the man!

But due to the
segregated nature of the city,

five years after opening,

Young's delicious
wings are a mainstay

only in the vicinity
of the Bills stadium

and the predominantly
black neighborhood

surrounding his restaurant.

John Young didn't have
access to the broader market

and community at those times.

In Buffalo in the late '60s,

there was a great
deal of tensions

revolving around civil rights.

And those tensions
will soon be detrimental

to John Young's
Wings and Things.

In a community like Buffalo
with the rise in protest

that's happening
over the treatment of

particularly African Americans,

this is gonna put
even more stress

and pressure on
these communities

to deal with these
underlying pressures

which are really
coming to the surface.

Race riots
tear through Buffalo

in the mid-1960s.

Fearing for their lives,

many African Americans flee
the city, including John Young.

Here he was with
a thriving business

and the racial
tension in Buffalo

made him feel his
family wasn't safe.

He left for the
Decatur, Illinois,

to pursue other opportunities,

and he started a bunch
of other restaurants

trying to catch
fire the same way.

The most
heartbreaking thing is

John Young's story is sort of
lost to history unfortunately.

Although he leaves

knowing he was the first
to sell and popularize

the once rejected meat,

he never got the
credit he deserved

for laying the foundation
of the chicken wing.

What I will say is this here.

Buffalo got started on
chicken wings with Mr. Young.

He put chicken wings on the map.

It's not a Buffalo wing
unless it's loaded with sauce,

unless you've got sauce
dripping on your shirt,

on your face,

and that was John
Young's vision.

But the chicken
wings Young introduced

are still not called
Buffalo wings,

and Young's creation
is not widely known

outside of the African American
neighborhoods of Buffalo.

And with no one
to take his place,

chicken wings are on the verge

of falling back into obscurity.

But just a mile down the road,

another local restaurant
is about to stake its claim

to what will become known as

the Buffalo wing.

In 1964, one
mile from where John Young

popularized chicken
wings drenched in sauce,

another Buffalo family business
is struggling to stay afloat

amid the city's turbulent
economic climate.

Teressa and Frank Bellissimo

were two Sicilian immigrants
to America, who, in 1935,

started a restaurant
called Anchor Bar,

serving Italian
American classics.

And Anchor Bar was on

the exact dividing line
of segregated Buffalo.

Once
a bustling spot

known for spaghetti napolitan
and chicken cacciatore,

the family-owned restaurant
run by Teressa Bellissimo

is now drawing only a handful
of customers, mostly friends.

This was a tight-knit
Sicilian family

that was always together,
sometimes raised their voices,

sometimes cussed up a storm,
but a very tight family.

With
dwindling profits,

there's no margin
for error or waste.

They were supposed to
get some chicken breasts.

But there was a
mistaken delivery.

What am I supposed to
do with all these wings?

While wings have been popular

at John Young's
nearby restaurant,

the less than desired
part of the chicken

has not caught on outside
African American communities

and Bellissimo is unfamiliar
with preparing it.

The story goes that
her son came in, Dominic,

and asked Mom, Teressa.

Mom, the guys are hungry.

Yeah.

She said, "Okay, what
can I whip up quickly?"

Using what they had on hand.

What Teressa Bellissimo
did at Anchor Bar

was she cut the
wing up into parts.

She got rid of the little
dangley part on the end

and served drums and flats

that look a little bit
like they came from

a much smaller bird
than a chicken.

By breaking
apart her wings into pieces,

Bellissimo believes the
wings will be easier to eat.

The whole wing has
three parts to it,

the tip, the flat, and then
you've got the drumstick.

Now most bars will just
give you the drumsticks

and maybe the flats.

Some connoisseurs will tell
you, "Oh, I like the flats."

It's a little bit more tender,

little bit less
cartilage in it.

In contrast
to Young's breaded wings,

Bellissimo deep fries
her wings unbreaded,

resulting in a crispy finish.

But her version of chicken
wings have no flavor.

So to add a quick
dash of seasoning,

Bellissimo creates a butter base

that will stick to the wings.

Well, if you start
adding in dairy,

if you start adding in
butter, super smart idea,

it's gonna incorporate
into a sauce beautifully.

And
experiments with using

a peppery Louisiana spice

normally reserved for
making Bloody Marys.

She doused them in a sauce
that has since been codified as

Frank's Red Hot and butter.

Teresa's simple
improvised sauce combination

will one day be
recognized worldwide

as the essential
Buffalo wing flavor.

Fast forward to
the 21st century

and Buffalo sauce has
completely taken over

as one of the top flavor
profiles in the country.

It came down to the sauce.

It really started with that
base of a lot of butter

and some Frank's Red Hot sauce.

Frank's Red Hot

has been on the
market since 1920.

Created to mask the
flavor of older meats,

it gives a less spicy
kick than Tabasco sauce.

This is a cayenne pepper
based Louisiana style hot sauce,

which means it has a higher
vinegar to pepper ratio.

So what that does is it
gives it more of a tang.

With that tanginess,
it really adds

a lot of character to
whatever you put it on.

I'll be honest with you,

Frank's Red Hot is
freaking delicious.

It's the
sauce that will one day

become a staple in
supermarkets across the world

and become a favorite
in wing recipes.

But in 1964, it's
an obscure flavor.

And on Bellissimo's spicy wings,

it's not an immediate hit
with unsuspecting taste buds.

Hot sauce was largely a
Southern thing at the time.

The Midwest and the Northeast

were definitely not as familiar
with hot sauce as the South.

They saw it as,
almost a foreign food.

It was exotic, it was
something Southern.

You did not have tacos,

you did not have the
different ethnic foods.

In order to unload
her chicken wing inventory

Bellissimo knows she'll need
something to cut the heat.

If you look at old
Anchor Bar's menu,

she was already serving
celery and blue cheese

on her antipasti platters.

I don't know whether
the addition of celery

and blue cheese to wings
could be called accidental

except to say that it is a thing

that she believed
belonged there,

and the thing that we
now see as providing

a necessary balance.

The Bellissimos first
started serving their wings

the same way that you would
serve nuts on the bar.

You would just kind
of pass them around

and people would
get a wing for free.

But soon, customers
are flocking to Anchor Bar

for the free wings.

Then it sort of
became local specialty.

Wasting no time,

Teressa Bellissimo
officially adds wings

to the Anchor Bar menu,

hoping that customers are
now willing to pay for them.

They became so popular that

within a month or two of
first serving wings at all,

they were serving
thousands a week

and they maintained
serving thousands a week

from that point forward.

So Anchor Bar,

which had originally been
known as an Italian restaurant,

became known as the
home of the wing.

Soon, copycats
start selling similar versions

of the Bellissimos'
spicy chicken wings.

They were lively,
entertaining people

who had a very
popular restaurant

and it didn't take
very many years

before every bar in Buffalo
knew the secret to their sauce

was Frank's Red Hot and butter.

It's the Anchor Bar's sauce
that they're recreating,

a buttery, sour, spicy sauce.

While
John Young is the first

to bring fried chicken
wings in sauce to Buffalo,

he's rarely acknowledged as
the one who laid the foundation

for the chicken wing's rise.

Everybody wants to
think that Buffalo wings

came from the Anchor Bar,

but John Young would
be smiling right now

because you can get chicken
wings anywhere, anytime,

and that's probably
because of Mr. Young.

Ask anybody from Buffalo,
they'll tell you the same thing.

It is what it is.

Today,
John Young's daughter

keeps her father's legacy alive

by selling wings in Buffalo
with his original recipe.

I hope that anyone
who goes to Buffalo

goes to his family's restaurant

as much as they go
to the Anchor Bar.

Teressa
Bellissimo and her Anchor Bar

are celebrated for
creating the wing recipe

that is still a
Buffalo specialty.

Today, the award-winning
Anchor Bar

is built entirely around
its reputation for wings.

It serves one whole
ton of wings a day

and has expanded to
over a dozen locations

and draws in nearly
750,000 people a year.

The Anchor Bar became famous

because they were
credited with a recipe

that bars all over
Buffalo were using

and that people then
took from Buffalo

to other states all
over the country.

But by the 1970s,

no one is getting rich off
what will one day become

a multi-billion dollar industry,

until two brothers
fall in love with

the spicy Buffalo delicacy,

take it across state lines,
and give it a new name.

After John
Young laid the foundation

for fried chicken
wings with sauce

and Teressa Bellissimo popularized

her own version of wings
across Buffalo, New York,

the chicken wing craze has
completely taken over the city

by the 1980s.

If you lived in
my time in Buffalo,

well, you could go to any
corner bar, any restaurant,

and it was always chicken wings.

But Buffalo wings
are still known simply as wings.

I used to joke
around with my dad

whenever we would
order Italian food

or go to an Italian restaurant.

He said, "You know what
you call this in Italy?

Food."

And like, that was sort of
the thing with Buffalo wings.

Few places
outside Western New York

have heard about
Buffalo's wing craze

and even fewer have
dared to offer wings

or spicy food at all.

In Ohio,

a former Olympic skater who
recently moved from Buffalo

is looking for a taste of home.

Hey. Can we also
get some wings?

Chicken wings.

Very funny.

Jim Disbrow is actually
kind of an inspiring guy.

He beats polio as a child,

ends up falling in love
with figure skating,

goes on to become a
professional figure skater,

became an alternate
for the 1968 Olympics,

and went on to judge multiple
ice skating competitions

all around the United States.

Unable
to find chicken wings,

Disbrow and his
brother Scott Lowery,

realize there's a gaping
void in the market.

You'd make a killing
if you sold wings here.

It's a
vision that will one day

turn chicken wings into
a $3 billion business,

make the brothers millions,

and change America's eating
habits in the process.

But right now, it's an industry
they know nothing about.

These aren't restaurateurs

and nobody in Ohio has
ever heard of wings.

As
they map out a path,

the brothers make their
first important decision.

They decide that they're gonna
open it in the shadow of...

The Ohio State University
in Columbus, Ohio.

Really smart, obviously.
Perfect bar food.

With a location

at the doorstep of
58,000 students,

now the brothers
have to figure out

how to get it up and running.

They saw that kids
were an audience

that weren't budget conscious.

College kids are like,

"Hey, every night is
a night for beer."

They had a great day, they
had midterms, they had finals.

With
their careers on hold

and money invested in a
business offering a food few,

if any outside of Western
New York, are eating,

they need to hedge their
bets by offering something

college kids have heard of.

These two guys
taking this risk,

knowing that they had put
their blood, sweat, and tears

into this restaurant
with their own money,

had the idea of
creating a restaurant

that not only revolved
around wings but also beer.

- Lots of beer.
- Lots of beer.

They were pretty
trailblazing with their beers.

They went after
the national brands

'cause that's what
everybody had.

But then they also tie in
the regional and local.

They've added, not
one or two beers

like a lot of restaurants
had back in those days,

they added 20, 30, 40.

50 kinds of beer.

50 different beers on tap.

There's no such thing as
craft beers in those days.

I mean, people just drank the
big stuff back in the '80s.

They're offering
a brand new idea,

let alone 50 taps
across the bar.

But now the
brothers need to figure out

the most important part of
their bar and restaurant,

creating their own Buffalo
sauce from scratch.

They try to get close to
the Anchor Bar flavor profile,

so they started working
on various recipes.

Let's do it.

I don't know, yeah,
it's kinda, yeah.

There are many different
variations of chicken wings,

but the Buffalo
wing to me is butter

and vinegar and seasoning.

The thing that really
distinguishes the Buffalo wing

is the sauce.

Everything else is
just a chicken wing.

They plan to
open in the next few weeks,

but they can't seem
to land on a sauce.

None of these are right.

Maybe that's the point.

We sell a dozen flavors.

Yeah.

Much like
their beer offerings,

they don't just settle
for one signature sauce

but land on a total
of 12 distinct ones,

varying in heat
levels and sweetness.

The different levels of heat,
extra hot, mild and medium,

the different types of
garlic parm was in there,

as well as they had
their crazy hot sauces.

You know, the better
be ready, blazing.

Not
only do they go with

a dozen variations of
the exotic Buffalo wing,

but they make the
curious decision

to serve another food
unknown outside of Buffalo,

the weck sandwich.

Weck. W-E-C-K.

It's usually a horse
radish sauce, onions,

and sliced roast beef
off a steam ship round.

They
settle on a name

that brings these two
obscure entrees together

and pays homage to
the wing's birthplace.

Buffalo Wild Wings and Weck.

When you're in Buffalo, it's
not a Buffalo wing, right?

It's just a chicken wing.

They were the first to put
out the word Buffalo wings.

It's a
culmination of choices

that puts Buffalo
Wild Wings and Weck

on an unstable foundation.

First of all, what's a
Buffalo wing and what's a weck?

To make it even
more confusing,

their logo had a Buffalo.

These guys make some pretty,
kind of, stupid choices.

It's a watershed
moment for the partners.

One that will either
put them on a course

to turn Buffalo
wings into a brand

or set them up to fail.

In 1982, Jim
Disbrow and Scott Lowery

have just opened their
new bar and restaurant

in Columbus, Ohio, Buffalo
Wild Wings and Weck.

But the one-of-a-kind concept
is far from an instant hit.

They drew customers
and they need crowds.

You need to remember they
have 50 beers on tap,

12 wing sauces.

They have high overheads.

It's an expensive place to run.

Realizing they
may be in over their heads,

the inexperienced restaurateurs

need some way to attract
customers and fast.

There you go.

Thanks, man.

Hey, can you put on
the Ohio State game?

Come on, it's the
fourth quarter.

Yeah, you got it.

It makes a whole
bunch of sense now

because we know what
a sports bar is,

but that's not how
it was back then.

Despite
televised sports

airing for the past 43
years, by the 1980s,

it would've been unrecognizable
to viewers today.

Devoid of statistics and
high definition replays,

the broadcasts
rarely ever posted

the actual scores of the games.

Hey, can you turn up the
volume on the game please?

But Disbrow
and Lowery's customers

can't seem to get enough.

We now know, in
the 21st century,

very well what a sports
bar is, looks like,

smells like, serves.

We know that experience.

It wasn't as understood

and widely accepted a
concept as it is now.

With customers
fixated on the TV,

Disbrow and Lowery realized that

showing sports at their
their bar and restaurant

could be the hook they need.

What these kids really
wanna watch is sports.

I mean, this is Columbus.

This is the Ohio State
University we're talking about.

Football.

They realized college
guys love sports

and it was sort of like the
one missing puzzle piece.

We have wings, we have
beer, we now have sports,

and the Holy Trinity is born.

From then on, they became
a wings sports bar.

Buffalo Wild Wings is about
the communal experience,

bringing together
people around a game.

Buffalo
Wild Wings and Weck

is at the forefront
of sports bars,

and within 11 months, they
sell nearly one million wings.

Now, you can see their impact

on restaurants
across the country

'cause even the nicest,
swankiest restaurants

have TVs everywhere.

Encouraged
by their newfound success,

the brothers rapidly
expand operations

in the hopes of becoming the
first national wing brand.

Disbrow and Lowery
open six more locations

around college campuses.

They loved skiing near
Steamboat, Colorado,

so they open one there.

As the brothers
rapidly grow their business,

there's no one else even close.

But 1,000 miles away,

a gregarious young
man named Ed Droste

has convinced a few friends

to go in on a business
together in Florida.

They were drinking buddies
and they liked to goof off

and they're like,

"Hey, what if we
started a restaurant

and it would be this place
that we could all go drinking

and it would be a
neighborhood type bar

that would have sort
of a Midwestern feel."

Because they're all from Iowa.

Well, their investment
was $140,000,

which was a substantial
sum at the time.

They planned
to create a restaurant

with a fun, party atmosphere

and serve the latest Midwest
trend, Buffalo wings.

How much did we
spend on this dump?

But while the
chicken wing is catching on

in different parts
of the country,

Droste knows he'll need
to create a better hook

for his new restaurant.

This was the era of
Chili's and Bennigan's

and Ruby Tuesday's and
companies like that

where they would grow
based on this idea

where you could go
and have a drink

and enjoy obnoxious
service from waitstaff

that wore a lot of flair.

And Droste
wants to create a restaurant

where the main attraction
is not the wing,

but the women who serve them.

They knew who their
customer base was.

They wanted to
make it known that

they were a destination for men.

Sex sells has always been
a part of American business

and marketing, and he
wanted to capitalize on

this emergence of hypersexualization

of women by the 1980s.

Droste enlists
a young local bikini model,

Lynne Austin, as
their first waitress.

Now all he needs is the perfect
company uniform to match.

I think we got a winner.

Bright
orange shorts

and a white softball tank top.

It will go on to become

one of the most iconic
restaurant uniforms in history.

It just sort of plays with
the whole Florida culture

and nobody really has
a culture like that

where something like this works.

I mean, it certainly
couldn't work in Buffalo.

Like Buffalo Wild Wings
paired sports and wings,

Droste had the brilliance to
pair beautiful women and wings.

And
Droste and his partners

settle on a head-turning name.

You can't lie to
yourself and say that,

"There isn't an aspect of
innovation in the creation."

Few restaurants
were able to have

such an impact in
the food business.

It's a
name that will soon be

known around the world for
more than Buffalo wings,

and in the process, fuel
a casual dining industry

worth over $160 billion.

And in the most surprising way,

change the face of
dining out in America.

In
Clearwater, Florida,

Ed Droste and his friends,
turned business partners,

are on the cusp of opening their
new wing-centric restaurant

with a twist, Hooters.

They're not trying to
hide what they're about.

The name alone is clearly this
super bro-ish, super fratty,

super juvenile joke about boobs.

Ed Droste would admit that

where it came from was an
old bit from Steve Martin

in which Steve said that

women's breasts should
only be referred to as:

Hooters.

It was a bold strategy
to call their place Hooters

and have what are clearly
a pair of female breasts

be the logo of their owl's eyes.

They're like, "This restaurant
is all about female breasts,

but we're gonna
pretend it isn't.

It's really about an owl."

In October of 1983,
Ed Droste and his partners

unleash their unique
restaurant concept, Hooters,

to the world.

And customers are eating it up.

So the Super Bowl was
hosted in Tampa in 1984

and the Washington Redskins
lost the Super Bowl

and took the team to Hooters

and it got a ton of
publicity at the time

and that really sort of
helped build its reputation

among the football
loving public.

They have this
cohesive brand identity

and the Hooter's
image is so strong

that it overpowers the fact that

they actually have
pretty tasty wings.

Within a year,

Hooter's is so popular,

customers are waiting
two hours for a table.

Now, Droste believes
this can be more than

a fun bar and restaurant,
and he's seeing dollar signs.

He really started expanding
it very, very aggressively

throughout the country.

As Droste grows

the Hooters brand
beyond Florida,

by 1984, the one time local
fascination, the Buffalo wing,

is beginning to
spread across the US.

You had all these
small Mom and Pop brands

selling Buffalo wings.

But no one's
been more successful

at bringing the Buffalo
wing out of Buffalo

than the brothers who
popularized the name.

As Buffalo Wild Wings and Weck
expands beyond six locations,

each has not one TV
for patrons to gather

and watch the game,

but many TVs broadcasting
throughout the bar.

They had a ton of screens

showing a variety
of different sports.

And to this day, if there
is a big sporting event

and you walk into any
of their locations,

it's gonna be a mob scene

and everybody is
gonna be eating wings,

staring up at the screen.

Not only did they create

America's sports chain
themed restaurant,

they actually promoted
this idea that

chicken wings and
football went together.

They're in stadiums now.

You know you go to basketball
game, you get chicken wings.

No sporting contests is
complete without Buffalo wings.

The Super Bowl,
the World Series,

Buffalo wings are always there.

Today, the
majority of chicken wings

are eaten while watching sports.

But at the time, while Buffalo
wings' popularity is rising,

it's not a multi-billion
dollar industry yet.

There was a lot of one
location wing restaurants

popping up.

Wing restaurants were
coming up everywhere.

And Disbrow
and Lowery's vision

to become the first national
wing brand is in jeopardy.

I don't get it.

They've got wings,
TVs, and her.

While they've
helped propel Buffalo wings

into the national consciousness,

Disbrow and Lowery's wing
brand has never faced

a direct challenge to
their dominance until now.

By the mid-1980s,

Hooters is opening
more locations

than any other chicken
wing restaurant,

including Buffalo
Wild Wings and Weck.

They were one of the fastest
growing restaurant chains

in the country

and they started spending
money on advertising,

telling the world, "Our
waitresses are so good looking."

They've got this
knockout bikini model

as a waitress in the restaurant,

and it suddenly dawns on
Droste that she's the draw.

You come for the girls,
you stay for the wings.

Droste understands
that sex sells,

so he merchandises in just
about every form he can.

Anywhere he can get the image
of the Hooters girls out,

he does it.

Droste makes Lynne
Austin the face of Hooters,

with her appearing in
advertisements, commercials,

and even magazines.

That ended up getting
Lynne Austin into "Playboy"

and she would
actually go on to be

one of the most famous
Playmates of the time,

of all time actually.

Hooters is essentially

the Playboy Club
for the common man.

It takes this model

and it makes it accessible
to everyday average Joe's

who can now drink and
partake with wings,

surrounded by beautiful women.

It tended to
generate some protests,

but they sort of loved all of
the attention they could get

and they generated a lot of it.

Back in Ohio,

determined to overtake Hooters

and become America's
Buffalo wing brand,

Disbrow and Lowery
begin to franchise.

Yeah, I'll call you later.

With a
streamlined business model

and a new name.

They become simply
Buffalo Wild Wings.

They could only grow their
number of corporate locations

with their own money

and they had to
franchise from there.

It was 10 to 20 locations,

and then it just exploded

and made the word
Buffalo wing mainstream.

Despite the
success of Buffalo Wild Wings,

the Florida chain that started
as a hangout spot for the owners

has grown into a
cultural phenomenon,

allowing Droste and his friends

to strike while the iron's hot

and cash in on their creation.

There was a lot of
attention being paid to them.

They very quickly
got the attention of

a company called Neighborhood
Restaurants of America.

The Atlanta-based investors
want to expand Hooters

on a massive scale.

It really took off after that.

Oh, it took off like fire.

Like by the early '90s, this
thing was all over the place.

And by 1993,
one decade after opening,

Hooter's expands nationwide,

beating out Buffalo Wild Wings
with over 100 restaurants

and $200 million in value,

cementing the chicken wing
as an American mainstay.

The chicken wing business,

it wouldn't be where it
is today without Hooters.

They really were the first one

to take this thing
on a national scale.

Today,
Hooters of America

has over 420 restaurants
in 29 countries,

generating annual
revenue of $1.2 billion.

Although Buffalo Wild Wings
lost the race in the 1980s,

today with over
1,200 restaurants,

they are the nation's
largest wing chain

and the top pourer
of draft beer.

But their greatest contribution
is introducing America

to a completely new dining
experience, the sports bar.

If you've ever gone
with friends or family

to a local neighborhood joint,

got a pitcher of cold beer,
an order of hot wings,

you really have Disbrow and
Lowery to thank for that.

And
elevating the Buffalo wing

to a food as ubiquitous
as pizza in America.

But the global expansion
of Buffalo wings

would be impossible,

if not for the
original innovators

from a Western New
York city in decline.

The truth is,

whenever you go to your typical
sports bar to try a wing,

it's the Anchor Bar's sauce
that they're recreating.

But ultimately,
anybody who was there,

know that John Young's
wings came first.

And John Young,

I hope that this serves as
your time in the spotlight.