“I know there’s going to be creativity here,” Lowery said. “The wing has developed from just being medium hot — the red cayenne type sauce — to now all sorts of flavors. The sky’s the limit as far as I can see on the creativity to come over the years."
Kickin’ Chicken Wing Fest winners
Dayton BBQ Company, located at Carillon Historical Park in Dayton, took home Best Smoked Wing, as well as Best Side for their loaded fries topped with mac and cheese and brisket.
Romer’s Bar & Grill in Bellbrook received Best Boneless Wing with their Asian Persuasion and Amber Rose Restaurant & Catering in Dayton won Best Sauce for their Blueberry BBQ.
Nick’s Restaurant in Xenia won Hottest Wing for their “Fire in ya Hole” sauce, as well as people’s choice for Best Damn Wing.
Best Dessert went to El Meson in West Carrollton and Pies & Pints in Beavercreek took home Best Decorated Booth.
What makes a good wing?
When asked what makes a good wing, Lowery said, “Size matters. I don’t like a large wing. To me, the perfect size of a wing is about 10 wings per pound.”
From there, it’s all about the sauce.
“There are so many good vendors out there creating wings with so many good sauces it’s not even funny, and I really enjoy it,” Lowery said.
When trying different wings, he typically goes for the medium sauce.
“To me, that is the original basis,” Lowery said. “I generally almost always have whoever’s medium first to see what that’s like.”
Most are “fairly fine,” but some are not “saucy enough.”
“The sauce might be thin. I don’t like a thin sauce,” Lowery said. “I want it to have a thickness to it. I want it to stick to the wing.”
Cooking the wing properly is also important. Lowery doesn’t want to see any gelatin fat underneath the skin.
“You want a nice crispy wing, which is hard to do because when you’re cooking wings there’s a battle going on with the oil and the moisture inside the wing. The oil wants to go in through the skin. The moisture inside the wing wants to go out through the skin. If you can keep them underneath the level of the oil, you have a nice battle and you get a nice skin level,” Lowery said.
To help keep the wings underneath the oil level, Lowery said he will go as far as putting another basket on top to make sure they don’t float up.
Trying hot wings for the first time
Lowery was born in Troy. His parents were figure skating coaches, so they moved around a lot.
He recalled being a freshman in high school when he tried hot wings for the first time in Buffalo, New York.
Lowery was with a friend at a local pizzeria and he thought they ordered wings that were hot, as in the temperature.
“I was not used to spice. Nobody was used to spice back in the 70s,” Lowery said. “I was a young kid, and I really didn’t eat wings for some time after that because I don’t want to say I was turned off of them, but it was just hotter than I could handle.”
The start of Buffalo Wild Wings & Weck
Fast forward to the late 70s, early 80s, Lowery met his brother in Kent.
“We’d gone out for the evening, and we’d indulged in some beverages and we hadn’t eaten all day,” Lowery said.
They spotted a gyro cart when they came out of the bar, but Lowery wasn’t interested in it. That’s when his brother, who was living in Pittsburg at the time, made a comment about chicken wings being everywhere.
Lowery bet Disbrow five bucks they wouldn’t find a place serving chicken wings between midnight and 2 a.m. They didn’t, and the next morning they talked about opening their own wing restaurant.
“We actually tried to get it off the ground in the fall of 81 at Ohio State... but unfortunately, the landlord wasn’t going to allow us to have beer, so we tabled the idea,” Lowery said.
After graduating from Miami University in May 1982 with a degree in marketing, Lowery, his brother, and two partners opened Buffalo Wild Wings & Weck.
What the original location was like
“None of us had any food service experience,” Lowery said. “I had the most experience out of the entire group.”
Lowery previously worked at an ice rink concession stand making roller dogs and tuna/chicken salad sandwiches.
Buffalo Wild Wings & Weck opened with wings, hot dogs that were charred, broiled and grilled, and beef on weck sandwiches.
Lowery said they had only settled on a medium wing sauce the day before they opened their doors, so 15 minutes before the restaurant opened, he created a hot, wild and mild sauce.
The original location barely sat 50 people and started with a 10-cent wing special on Tuesdays. Unfortunately, each wing was costing the restaurant 11-cents.
“We struggled,” Lowery said. “We adjusted our prices. We had to go through a lot of learning curves.”
How the brand grew
Lowery credited his brother for wanting to grow the brand since day one.
They opened a second location in Westerville, but after 18 months of not having the sales they expected, they closed the restaurant.
They then opened another restaurant near Ohio State and after paying off debt from the Westerville restaurant, opened a third in Cincinnati.
This was followed by a restaurant in Indiana and another in Colorado.
“We were growing basically at a pace of about one store a year,” Lowery said. “The very first franchise opened in 1992 in the Flats up in Cleveland.”
From that point on, they experience exponential growth.
“The company went public in 2003,” Lowery said. “As everybody kept saying, and I figured rightfully so, when the company goes public, the founders usually retire.”
Lowery retired in 2004 when they had more than 200 restaurants. Since then, he’s been a family man — raising his two kids.
Advice for restaurant owners
His advice for those thinking about developing a chain is to make sure they have enough managerial staff.
“You need what I call, ”a bullpen of managers," because as you develop, you need them to slide in the spot," Lowery said.
Many people want to improve the bottom line of their business, but Lowery is the opposite. He encourages people to choose their bottom line and stick with it.
Something he’s proud of is how they treated their employees.
“I am so proud of the benefits I gave originally because it’s unheard of. I paid 100% of their health benefits,” Lowery said.
He looked at his business as the seat of a stool with employees, customers and suppliers as the legs holding the business up. He made sure they were all “fat and happy.”
Continues to make the original sauces
Lowery continues to eat at Buffalo Wild Wings. His favorite sauce to order, when they have it, is one he invented — hot barbecue.
“The reason I really like hot barbecue is I learned that barbecue, when it hits your taste buds, opens up your taste buds, and hot does the complete opposite,” Lowery said.
He told this to a coworker, while alternating between eating hot and barbecue wings, who suggested combining the sauces, and the rest is history.
Today, he continues to make his original sauces at home from scratch as a hobby. He likes to bottle them up as gifts for family and friends.
He and his wife, who grew up in Dayton, live in Willoughby. They come to the region about once a year. Lowery’s favorite place to eat is a K’s Hamburger Shop in Troy.
“It’s a step back in time,” Lowery said. “It is the most unique hamburger I’ve come across, I’d say in my lifetime.”
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