Buffalo Wild Wings is coming to Canada.....

http://www.torontosun.com/news/torontoandgta/2010/08/28/15173551.html

First question to you Yanks: are their wings any good?

Are the restaurants sports bars/roadhouses/family restaurants or one of those weird hybrids?

There's a chain up here called Wild Wings who will be suing BWW for trademark infringement if they try and open here under that name. BWW was about a month late in registering their name in Canuckistan.

Nothing like a good corporate pissing match

 

And nothing of value was gained.

The wings are mediocre on most days and wildly inconsistent on Tuesdays, when they have 40-cent wing day. But the sauces are pretty decent, they have a good array of appetizers and usually a good number of TVs on (the newer ones are better for this, as you'd imagine).

It's a cleaner sports bar, though not a family restaurant, per se (kids are welcome, but it's not like they have cartoon mascots, and I'm not sure if they even have a kids' menu, though I'm sure they do).

Like many chains, you wouldn't set out to go there, but in a pinch, it serves its purpose.

 

There's a Wild Wings up the street from the office but I have never been there. To me this is a risky move, there are a lot of good wing joints in Toronto. Everybody has their own fave place and it'll take a lot to get people to frequent the new places more than the local place where they've probably been eating wings for years.

Hooters made a big splash in the Toronto area a few years back but once people realized the place was branded as a family joint (two pitchers and it's time to go) the food was awful and overpriced - and they didn't serve hard liquor - the novelty wore off in a real hurry and people returned to their regular haunts.

 

To me this sounds a lot like Krispy Kreme's invasion of Canada a number of years back. There was lots of hype, the lineups were something else for the first week, then they sank into oblivion. Awful donuts and terrible coffee. There's this chain called Tim Hortons which they overlooked.

The thing about wings is that a lot of people are fiercely loyal to their local pubs' offerings. With a new cook in the kitchen the wings at the Goose are terrific (50 cents each on Mondays and Wednesdays) and another place in the area, Sloppy Joe's has the biggest damn wings of any place I've ever been.

Have never been to Wild Wings--they claim to have 100 choices which strikes me as a little silly

And Huggy, Wild Wings just opened one on the Queensway near Kipling in a small power centre with Future Shop, Golftown, Cora's and a mattress place.

 

BW3 is a wing place (it says so in the title) but it really markets itself as a place everyone can go watch the game. The food is ancillary to the experience; it's almost like woodwork. In the city, I'd never go there. In the suburbs, when chains are your only option (at least the one where my mom lives), I'd go. I just wouldn't pee myself with excitement.

 

The Krispy Kreme analogy is a good one, even if there is no one wing behemoth here like Tims is in their field. There are hundreds of wing options here and you're right, people are very loyal to their local place where they go to scarf some wings, have a few beers and watch the Leafs or NFL.

And, JR, Cora's is worth the drive. Great, great breakfast.

 

I think the Wings are ok. There's one near me that always has street parking available, so the gf & I will go every once in a while.

I would not go to this one to watch a game. It's TVs need to be replaced -- the color is all of on them. And there's no effort to put the right game on.

They'll be running ESPN or a repeat of the previous night's Blackhawks game instead of a live game half of the time & a request to turn the channel -- away from a repeat -- is usualy met with blank stares.

But a good GM would take care of all of that, so your experience may be very different.

 

Cora's sucks. That is all.

 

I used to be a Bdubs regular, but the portions have gotten considerably smaller and the prices have been increased.

Pints of beer are like $4.25. I can go anywhere else and get them for two. The wings used to be like 25 or 30 cents each, now it's like 45.

And the thing I dislike the most: during playoff season when they are packed, there's a $20 table minimum per hour. So if you are sitting with one other person for a 3 hour game, you have to drop $60. (Although this practice varies by location and I've never been kicked out for not spending enough. Still, it pisses me off.)

Oh and the sauces are decent, but the chicken itself sucks. Certainly better than the wings you get at Hooters--- that stuff is shit. But I can go to a local joint and get something crispier, greasier and better.

 

Subtraction by addition

These places just suck. I have heard they treat their employees like shit, and Mustang, that $20 an hour on the garbage they serve should be a crime.

 

BWW is one place I'll never get. There are three locations in my area, and they are always packed for the games. They still don't have plasmas, only tubes and big projection screens. Nothing in HD. The wings are decent and the beer selection is pretty good for the area. The prices are a bit on the high side. I'll go there, but it's rarely going to be my first pick.

 

I've never heard of a place in the Toronto area with a table minimum. Doubt that would fly in Ontario where happy hour was outlawed in the mid-80s.