Back in the Day: Chicken Wings
Back to a time where chicken wings were not cool, but I was.
As a Gen X-er I spent my youth in the 80’s. That means yuppies and blow dried hair and square shoulder pads and of course: the mullet. And don’t forget Cyndi Lauper.
Anyway,
I was ubering this afternoon when I picked up a ride from the hotel in Niagara falls to go all the way downtown to go to the Anchor Bar to experience buffalo’s wings. I’m not up on the history of the Anchor bar but I think they were one of the first to sell wings or come up with the idea. It’s located in an old building that looked to be a house at one point so there’s the attraction: It’s an old building with some character and they’re claiming dibs on the chicken wing
The recipe hasn’t changed and it looks like the decor hasn’t much too, but you know what has changed? The prices!
According to the MENU I found, 10 Chicke Wings will cost you $17.00.
That’s a lot of money. For a chicken wing. You can go to your favorite grocer and buy an entire cooked chicken for about 10 bucks and if you can read and know how to work an oven you can cook a chicken for about ten bucks as well and it will better than any wing you can have.
Somewhere along the line chicken wings got to be cool and are having a moment. A two bucks each moment - but a moment.
But wait a moment. Isn’t this supposed to be a back in the day story?
Yes!
Back in the day I paid 10 cents a wing (CDN) and although there were lots of dive bars where we could go get a beer and about 25 wings for under five bucks, sometimes that was even too much money for your young twenty-something writer.
Some nights we would drive to Niagara Falls, NY and cross the border for chicken wings. Like folks do now for the anchor bar. It was loud and fun and even cheaper wings due to the US/Can exchange rate.
It gets even better because the bar we went to used to take Candian money at par. I’m no finance expert but even back then my young self knew this was a good deal. The bill would come in US dollars but we paid in CDN making the 10 cent wings even cheaper.
I fear that by the time the child is ready to go out with her friends for beers and wings she won’t be able to afford it and that would be too bad because going to a dive bar and drinking beer and eating wings on the cheap is an experience that I think she should have.
Heck, who am kidding? She will probably order Uber eats and maybe the guy delivering them will tell her a story about back in the day when wings were just two dollars each.
Until Next Time,
TH and Co.