I know, it’s sort of a catchy title. . . ought to make for a lot of hits! But, with Easter, “March Madness,” spring break, and delightful weather, we’ve had an influx of folks to Bend. Aside from looking for homes, a lot of them get thirsty and hungry;
so what do we have in Bend? A great burgeoning spicy chicken wing controversy!
The Past in Bend
We’ve had issues in the past:
–Bend Named #2 “Death Defying City” in US
but never anything like this! Just as home prices are rising in Bend (February 2013 statistics), so too the weight of chickens (and their wings!) available in Bend has been moving inexorably upward. The former due to simple supply and demand economics, the latter due to breeding advances.
Sounds Like Good News
As Sally Smith (CEO of Buffalo Wild Wings) put it rather succinctly, “5 wings today yield more ounces of chicken than 6 used to.” That sounds good, doesn’t it? Unfortunately, the majority of wing purveyors in Bend
(spots like Baldy’s, Bend Brewing Company, Hardy’s, and Cascade Lakes Brewery) sell by the unit, but buy by the pound. You take just one wing (whether “drumette”
or “wingette”)
. . . oops! The wrong photo! Wrong “wingettes!” Anyway, you take just one wing away from a hardcore spicy aficionado and he’s going to be pissed.
Ranch or Blue Cheese?
It’s a little known fact that the average chicken (whether “layer” or “fryer”) today is, like an NFL lineman, almost 50% bigger than 30 years ago
. . . still they only have two wings. And therein lies the crux of the matter.
With the proliferation of breweries in “Beervana,” the demand for spicy chicken wings in Bend is rapidly escalating . . . doesn’t seem to matter if they are served with ranch or blue cheese. At the same time, wholesale wing prices were up a startling 76% in 2012 over the previous year. It’s a dilemma.
Where will it all end?
Oh well, Check out our Bend Map and Lifestyle Search
Note-some of the ideas for this post came from an article in the Minneapolis Star Tribune.
