BUFFALO, NY (WKBW) — As you break out the blue cheese to pair with your chicken wings for Super Bowl Sunday, we have a story you can share at your watch party.
The Buffalo History Museum has cracked the Anchor Bar origin of how blue cheese first got matched with wings.
Like a Nancy Drew mystery titled: ‘The iconic pairing, the History Museum’s Cynthia Van Ness has been able to unravel how the Anchor Bar started pairing blue cheese with chicken wings.
She bought an Anchor Bar menu on eBay from a seller in Orleans County that she says traces back to 1963 — just one year before the Anchor Bar invented their famous wings.
“We discovered from this menu that they were serving blue cheese—stuffed celery as an appetizer. It's like oh — that's how blue cheese and celery end up on the plate with Buffalo chicken wings. I always wondered why blue cheese dressing — why celery — how did that combination come together? Well, it's something their customers already liked and they're already serving,” Van Ness remarked.
In 1964 Anchor Bar owner's wife, Teressa Bellissimo, created the very first batch of the iconic chicken wing. But now Van Ness is like a chicken wing sleuth, piecing together why so many of us prefer blue cheese to dip them in.
“From the Anchor Bar — from around the time that they developed the chicken wings — very exciting, because we didn't have anything from this period before, so getting now before it goes in a recycle bin or something like that it's really great so we can actually document their history better,” Van Ness explained.
If you're a saver the History Museum is hoping that you might have some items from the Anchor Bar they can use in their collection.
“Well if you have more Anchor Bar menus, especially around 1980 or any other paper like Anchor place mats — did they ever sell postcards to promote the restaurant, matchbooks, receipts — if you ate there — a dinner receipt,” replied Van Ness.
You can reach out to the museum at library@buffalohistory.org.
I asked van ness that 'burning Buffalo’ question — does she prefer blue cheese or ranch dressing?
“Oh, you're going to hate this answer because I don't eat meat, so I have this chicken wing obsession even though I'm a vegetarian. I've had them once in my life — like 40 years ago,” chuckled Van Ness. “So if you were having vegetables, would you put some blue cheese?” Buckley asked. “I would absolutely have the blue cheese,” replied Van Ness.
