Asheville Wing Scene

Seven years ago, I was new to Asheville and had at last begun to make some friends. Being from SW Florida, I was accustomed to cheap watery beer, two ingredient cocktails, and late night food that had been prepared exclusively in a fryer. At that time, Asheville was just on the brink of becoming the foodie utopia it is today and there were already half a dozen craft breweries and more popping up each week.

I was getting spoiled by late night snacks of locally sourced hot dogs from a vendor who's signage swore to never include lips or assholes in his hand made dogs. Or the exotic (to me) bahn mi sandwiches outside the late night hipster dance parties.

One night, while sitting at a bar sipping a nitro-stout and nibbling on house made pimiento cheese with my new pals, I had a craving for my old late night dining habits. "Where do you get some decent chicken wings in this town?" I asked.

The question was oddly puzzling. No one knew. Finding crispy, spicy, delicious wings became our new obsession over the next several weeks. We went to dive bars (real dive bars - not bars that look divey, but still serve $15 negronis). We went to the sports bars where we fought the crowds of capped and collared college boys shooting Fireball and drinking Bud Lights from the bottle. We scoured Yelp and Tripadvisor looking for the best Asheville had to offer. Some were good, most mediocre.

One night, while two or three old fashioned's deep on a snowy night, my buddy (who had become by boyfriend), lamented that he wished he could taste all the wings side by side in one meal.

Light bulb! "Why can't we?!?" I exclaimed. And in a slightly drunken haze, the Asheville Wing War was conceived. Several months later, the Inaugural Wing War was hatched into the world (see what I did there?) and the people rejoiced. It was as if a town that had become too cool for something as blue collar as a fried piece of scrap chicken breathed a collective sigh of relief, realizing they were not alone in their desire for cheap, greasy, spicy simplicity.

But why do I think that chicken wings are such a hit? You can only do so much to a wing to make it "bourgie" and you can't eat a wing with a knife and fork no matter how hard you try. Wing eating will require more than a single cloth napkin. You will need a roll of paper towels. And you cannot be sexy while eating a wing. But there are a million and one ways to make a wing taste deliciously unique. And you can also seriously screw this up (don't give me a wing with that soggy, gelatinous skin - gross!).

Wings are a great equalizer. I have had lemon pepper wings from a hole in the wall wing shack that rivaled the sumac and ramp dusted wings created by a classically trained chef. Whether the flavors are simple or complex, wings done right are just one of the perfect foods.

And simple foods like this are not just an equalizer in the kitchen, they can bring together people because they are liked by nearly all carnivores. Some of the best wings I have had were made my a soul food chef who was serving them hot and fresh from a fryer set up in a park on "the Block," a historically black neighborhood in Asheville. He served them with creamy, melty macaroni and cheese (another of my favorite foods), collard greens and corn bread.

That day a DJ was set up playing old school hip hop and people from all over ate this delicious food as we sipped sweet lemonade and nodded our heads to De La Sol. For a moment in the park, we were just all family - not black or white or rich or poor.

When I look back to the first Wing War in 2011, I think of it fondly, but with a little sheepishness at my naïveté. All the restaurants prepped their wings at their respective restaurants and brought them in hotel pans. I don't think I have to tell you how terrible a wing is after sitting in an unheated pan for two hours. But people still loved it and we sold every single one of our 200 tickets that day. And I made a whopping $186 for my trouble.

In 2018, the 7th Annual Asheville Wing War will take place on March 4 at the Asheville Crowne Plaza Expo Center. These days, we have about 800 people in attendance and the VIP tickets typically sell out in less than two minutes. The event has become one of the most sought after food events in the area.

I am so proud of what it has become. Interestingly, more restaurants in town seem to have wings on the menu and I love to watch the excitement in my community build each year as the event approaches. Through it, I now have a burger competition not just here in Asheville, but also in Colorado under my company All American Food Fights, we are looking to expand into other markets and even in the early stages of development on a television series.

But all this came from the love of the humble chicken wing.