Ten-Cent Wings

“The boys are going to go out to dinner with us tomorrow. Well, Jake & Maggie & Sam are - we’re going to Nine-Eleven. Jake says that their wings are close to the best in the area.”

My mind immediately shifted to The Johnson House - Wednesday 10-cent wing nights. 

Those were the best wings I ever had.

I was in high school and Jeffy was my constant companion and Uber. 

He’d pick me up and we’d head up there and order 20 wings (or 30 wings apiece).

They were always perfect - or seemed that way to me - and we’d eat them at a table surrounded by all our friends and the girls we were chasing (and hardly ever quite catching).

“You’re all right with wings, right?” Kathy asked.

“I’m from Buffalo,” I answered.

We ordered 50 wings for the 5 of us - (Back when I was 17, I could take a pretty good run at eating 50 myself).

We also ordered 2 plates of fries - and we got those about 15 minutes after we ordered them - and they weren’t your usual fries - they were hand cut potato wedges that were hot and seasoned and man…

…they were great!

(I never order fries).

Then we waited.

Visions of the Johnson House wings dancing in my head. We talked, told stories about our trip to Hollywood, and waited some more.

An hour after we placed the order I started wondering.

“Where the hell are the wings?” Jake asked.

Then we saw them coming, and the Johnson House memories were front and center.

They were certainly excellent.

I had to dig deep to eat the tenth one. Kathy and Maggie had 4 each.

We had to get a damn box for the 20 or so wings that were left and then the bill came my way.

Ten cent wings have given way to nearly two-dollar wings.

“They were great, right?” Jake asked.

He’s actually in a wing club where they go around and eat wings at restaurants and bars and rate them.

“We have these wings as the 3rd best in Buffalo.”

“I have them slightly behind the ones I had at The Johnson House,” I said.

“Never heard of that place.”

“They were ten cents each when I had them there,” I said.

Jake laughed.

“Oh back around WWII time.”

(I do highly recommend Nine-Eleven Tavern in South Buffalo).