Duffs or Anchor Bar?

Did any of you tune in last night to the Travel Channel's Food Wars? We did to see if they could settle the score. Who has better wings, Duffs or the Anchor Bar? Well, in Buffalo people are pretty loyal and partial to their wings. Anchor Bar is the home of the original so if you are in the area I would be lying if I said it is not a must. However, Duff's is the Bell favorite.

When we first moved to the Arctic (three years ago this summer !?!?!) we stumbled upon the Anchor Bar while apartment hunting. Side note-- The Anchor Bar is not in the safest neighborhood. We stopped to eat and realized, we defiantly do not want to live anywhere near the Anchor Bar. Our experience was OK. The wings had a lot of meat on them and you could order them in orders of 10, 20 and then some other ridiculous amounts. The problem is that I like a medium sauce and Aaron likes to loose all feeling and shed 10 pounds while eating (from sweat) and you cannot split the order and do some hot and some mild. We ordered medium and Aaron order a side of Death (hot sauce) and tailored it to suit his needs. Also, another note able factor in our experience was the price. Not the most expensive bill we've ever had, but not really all that cheap either for chicken wings. But, it's a landmark so they can get away with it, right?

A few weeks later and after we had talked to the local Arctic folk, they said you must try Duff's. So we did. And this is a story for the grand kids. We sat down and noticed right away, this is a wing joint! Three types of beer on tap and pretty much just chicken wings on the menu. OK by us. We like beer and we like wings. Then, we see the menu and it had something called the Shu Scale. It is a way of measuring how hot the sauce will be. Aaron was so excited! So together we ordered the meal of 20 wings, french fries and a pitcher of beer. I know, totally artery clogging, but once in awhile it's OK. You can split the order and do whatever sauces you want. They have like 12 options from plain to Suicide and their medium is hot! So I ordered medium light and Aaron ordered a variation of different wings from hot all the way to Suicide. I thought he was nuts! The wings came out and my 10 were in a bowl together. Aaron had 4 different bowls, with 4 different sauces. He started with the lesser of the evil and worked his way to the Suicide. As he was about to try the Suicide, a group of college kids were behind us and trying to do the same thing. All we hear is a whole lot of commotion as the waitress comes running with a glass of milk and a loaf of bread. Aaron looked a me, all bright eyed and went in for the kill. He had 2 Suicide wings. He ate the first one and the sweat was immediately dripping off of his head. He then ate the second one and the next ten minutes Aaron has no recollection of. He literally was in a heat comma and ate a huge bowl of french fries and drank the whole pitcher of beer! I watched in amazement (mostly grossed out). Ten minutes later he started to come back to life and was so out of it. It was hilarious!

So, we like Duffs. Aaron does not order the Suicide wings anymore, but we like it because we can try wings of all different levels on the Shu scale.

Who wants wings?