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Happy Holiday Season to everyone. I hope that business is treating you all well and you are prosperous. For La Nova it is a wonderful time of year, and a very busy time as well. Getting to business, I am going to go back to basics here. We have always tried to assist operators in knowing how to add our favorite menu item here in Buffalo, the Buffalo Wing. I am going to try and guide you in what we feel is the best way to implement and market the wings in your operations. I would be remiss not to include the boneless wings in here as well, since over the last year or so it has become an absolute winner for us in both segments of our business.
To start, I want to say that every pizzeria operator can find a solution to adding this most popular item to their menu without adding materials or much added cost. There are solutions available for both stores who have the ability to fry and those who have ovens alone, regardless of type. For both types of operations there are many items and directions to choose from. I will isolate this to our true Buffalo Wing solution. No breading, no full wings, no turkey wings. This is for those people who want to add the authentic solution to their menus.
First I will talk about how to work the operations if you have fryers in your buildings. This is the most traditional solution and the way the product is made in our area. You take a plain wing, either fresh or fully-cooked, and fry it to temperature. Fresh wings will take about 12-14 minutes to cook through; fully-cooked should average about 3.5 minutes to fry. After the wings are fried, you toss them into a bowl or bucket container. Then you add the sauce, an average of 2-3 oz. per 10 wings. Toss the wings until they are coated and remove them and place into your container. We always suggest fully-cooked for speed, safety and consistency.
For operations that only have ovens, there are two different style solutions. You can either use unseasoned or pre-seasoned options. Both items should be fully-cooked and ready to heat and serve. Usually for speed and convenience, most operations will work the wings from a refrigerated state for speed. If you want real ease, use a flavored wing that you can just heat and eat. You would take that item out and place the amount you wanted to cook on a screen with foil, or a pan with parchment on it. I always suggest using spray release on the cooking surface in order to avoid the wings from sticking. Run them through the conveyor or put them into the deck until they reach the temperature and consistency you like, and then place them into the container to serve. If you are using a plain wing, then you would replicate the steps above by placing them into a bowl and saucing them to finish as if they were fried. The plain wing in my opinion allows for a crispier and fresher finish since it is sauced at store level.
The boneless wing is exactly the same operationally as the plain fully-cooked wings. Either bake or fry the item to finish. The breaded boneless breast meat chunks can then either be tumbled in sauce or you can offer a 2-3 oz. cup of sauce on the side for the customer to dip. The reason i highlight this item in addition is it is the real trend in appetizers and our pizzerias have had great success with them. It reaches women and children that do not like the bone-in wing and it has a lot of different applications like pizza toppings and salads as well.
Now that we have talked about how to get them ready i want to highlight on how to market your appetizer offerings. When we talk to our clients about how to make the wings and boneless wings successful, one key word is in every single sentence: COMBINATIONS. This is absolutely the most important marketing toll for driving up your ticket average and getting more items into your customer’s homes. We are not talking discounts or coupons here, strictly menu placement. Take a large cheese and one topping pie, an order of wings or boneless wings (10-12) and a soda deal and make it a menu combination. Call it a party pack or a meal deal. Be creative with how you brand it. But make it a solid menu item and watch the business flow in that direction. Customers have the combo mentality and they want to make it easy to feed a family.
I hope this helps get you started. La Nova Pizzeria’s have made wings a staple in our business. They work! If there are ever any questions regarding wings or anything else I might be able to help you with please send me an e-mail at wingman@lanova.com.