During our weekend in Buffalo for the 2012 National Buffalo Festival, we had our fill of wings. Wings for breakfast, wings for lunch, wings for dinner. I know it sounds crazy, but when you love wings as much as I do and you are in the Buffalo wing capital of the world, you have to soak up as much as you can before that seven hour drive home. And seeing how the car was all fueled up, the only thing left to do was fuel up the bellies. So I took the advice of Mark from Wy’s Wings (a Buffalo native), and headed over to Bar Bill Tavern to get some quality grub.
Located in East Aurora, just on the outskirts of Buffalo, was this small pub that had a uniquely different approach to service. There is no host; if you are looking to find a table all you need to do is see the bartender. But make sure you’re polite because you’ll find out soon enough that he is also your waiter. The staff was super pleasant and we sat down in no time, which was good because the hangovers were hitting pretty hard and standing around was not the first thing we wanted to be doing. Especially because I hear that it is tough to get a seat normally due to how popular they are.
I could smell that great sauce smell in the air because every which way I turned there was someone eating wings, and all different styles too. The menu boasted a slew of flavors, but I just wanted to taste the classic. So I ordered up a 10 count of Medium with some Med-Hot and Suicidal on the side, and waited while I drank my beer to subside the hangover (still the best remedy, mind you).
When my wings arrived, I was amazed at the care that was given. The plating was gorgeous and that alone started to make my mouth water. The chef had the wingettes all on one side and the drums all on the other side separated by a celery/sauce divider. I’ve never seen this before, and it made me think that if this much time was spent in the look of the dish, then hopefully that much care went into the preparation of my food.
Only one way to find out, and that’s the easy part. I dove in and pretty much gobbled them right up. I was right, the wings were super tender and everything meshed so well. Though they were an average size, the wings were fresh and the flavor that the sauce brought was intense. It had a just-above-comfortable heat with this awesome goodness that practically invited me to suck them down in the course of five minutes, which is exactly what I did. I also tried the two sides, and even though the heat levels rose appropriately, the flavor did not get lost in that heat.
Over the four different places that I had wings while in Buffalo, Bar Bill was certainly my favorite. It’s amazing too, because I was expecting almost every place up there to be great in the wing department, but I was wrong. I guess it’s just like everywhere else… You get the good ones and you get the bad ones (Good thing we have a site to tell us which ones they are ;)). So, kudos to Wy’s Wings for the suggestion and kudos to Bar Bill for finally giving me a wing deserving enough to be called Buffalo.
Bar Bill Tavern
185 Main Street
East Aurora, NY 14052
(716) 652-7959