Lord of the Wings: East Coast Wings & Grill ‘Blazes’ Past the Competition at National Buffalo Wing Festival

Posted on September 20, 2010 by Jessica Dees

Winston-Salem, NC – It took nine years for East Coast Wings & Grill to finally attend the National Buffalo Wing Festival, but the wait paid off as the North Carolina-based chain took home top prizes in two of the annual event’s more popular competitions.

Held over Labor Day Weekend in the namesake’s birthplace, Buffalo, NY, the 9th annual festival attracted an estimated 71,000 visitors and featured a potpourri of local and national restaurants competing in various categories, including the highly touted \"best wing\" category, which rates sauces ranging from traditional hot, traditional X-hot, creative spicy, creative barbeque and traditional medium.

East Coast Wings & Grill submitted recipes in the creative spicy, traditional and sweet sauce categories, taking first place for its traditional hot sauce and second prize in the creative spicy category with its Santa Fe Inferno wing. Contestants were judged solely based on taste by 12 blindfolded judges.

\"Being a first time contestant, we specifically wanted to place entries in categories that would allow us to compete with some of the other brand giants in the industry,\" said Sam Ballas, CEO of East Coast Wings & Grill. \"We couldn’t be more pleased about our showing at the festival and truly establishing ourselves as one of the premier concepts in the industry.\"

Today, East Coast Wings & Grill continues to outperform others in the casual dining segment with 26 consecutive quarters of positive, double-digit same-store sales. Serving 75 flavors and 675 combinations of buffalo style wings to chicken wing lovers at its 15 restaurants throughout North Carolina, the burgeoning brand further differentiates itself from other wing concepts by offering a six-page menu that also includes such casual dining fare as Buffalajita’s ® (East Coast Wings & Grill’s version of fajitas), burgers, salads and Southwestern-style appetizers.