Local restaurant headed to National Wing Festival

SAYRE, Sep 04, 2009 (The Daily Review - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- WIGN | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating -- Representatives from a local restaurant are headed to a national festival this weekend to see how their product holds up to competition.

Alliger's House of Wings Inc., located on Spring Street in Sayre, will send a delegation this year to the National Buffalo Wing Festival for the first time, according to Manager Jennifer Wilson.

The National Buffalo Wing Festival is held Sept. 5 and 6 at Coca-Cola Stadium in Buffalo, N.Y., Wilson said. The event was founded in 2002, according to the event's Web site.

Wilson's parents, Henry and Karen Fratarcangeli, have owned the restaurant for 26 years, she said. In addition to selling chicken wings flavored with their own sauces, made on the premises, the restaurant bottles their sauce and currently sells their sauce in all 50 states and internationally in a few areas, including Spain, Malaysia, Mexico and Canada, she said.

The restaurant has bottled in excess of 8,000 gallons of sauce so far this year, and that's not counting what they've made for their own use in the restaurant, Wilson said. The demand for the product has been so great, she said, that their capacity to produce sauce can't keep up. Alliger's is currently working with the John Zidian Corporation of Youngstown, Ohio, to outsource the production of the sauce, Wilson said. The outsourcing might mean a new bottle and a new label, she said, but the taste will remain the same and the sauce will still be crafted using Alliger's recipe and specifications.

This is the first year Alliger's has entered to participate in the National Buffalo Wing Contest, Wilson said. Wilson met the founder of the event, "Wing King" Drew Cerza, at a food show in Buffalo, and he invited her to enter for the event, she said. The top wing restaurants from around the country are chosen for the event out of those who enter, she said, and Alliger's was among the 26 restaurants invited this year.

Alliger's is taking six of their sauces to the event, she said, and will enter three into competition. If one of their sauces places first, second, or third in its category, the restaurant will earn the right to use a National Wing Festival Award Winner logo on their products, she said.

"Our customers are what keeps us going," Wilson said, adding that quite a few people from the Valley are making the trip to the festival to support the restaurant. Also, some customers from all over the country, some whom they have never met, are flying in to the festival, she said.

"It's nice that we have our faithful and loyal customers to come up and support us," Wilson said.

Bragging rights aren't the only thing the restaurant stands to gain from the event, Wilson said, but also a chance for a bit of exposure at the nationally televised wing festival. The event also offers a chance to get different people to try their product and see what makes it unique, she said. Part of that uniqueness comes from the fact that the family-owned and run business doesn't use any fillers, such as corn syrup, in their products.

Brian Bishop can be reached at (570) 888-9652; or e-mail: bbishop@thedailyreview.com.

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