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Chicken wings are the go-to food for Super Bowl Sunday, along with pizza. Bubbarino’s Bites and Bubbles reported selling 1,500 pounds of wings on game day.
Chicken wings are the go-to food for Super Bowl Sunday, along with pizza. Bubbarino’s Bites and Bubbles reported selling 1,500 pounds of wings on game day.
With this season’s NFL Super Bowl now behind us, a question I always have about the day is, are fans more excited about the game or the party they are going to or hosting? Also, what does it mean for local businesses that cater to such events?
For yours truly, when I think of a Super Bowl gathering and what should be served, I quickly jump to chicken wings and pizza. That got me thinking about just how many pizzas and wings are prepared by local eating establishments in the Kanawha Valley.
I figured I would start with one of the largest pizza makers, not only in the valley but across the state, namely Gino’s Pizza and Spaghetti House, which has 38 restaurants.
What I found from Becky Cottrill, Gino’s director of operations, is not only is it Super Bowl Sunday on the football field, but also in each of the restaurant’s kitchens. “It’s a really big day for us, comparable to New Years,” Cottrill said. “The day starts with us coming in a little early to prep more than we normally do, doubling down on everything — dough, the toppings — because we know we are going to do double the amount of sales throughout the day.”
While most of us wake up in the morning just trying to figure out what time the game is going to start and how much of the pregame we want to deal with, for Cottrill it meant scheduling a full lineup of employees. “Everybody has to work that day, each person has to lock down at a station and get ready for the expected onslaught,” she said.
Unlike yours truly, who usually waits to the last minute to make our Super Bowl food order, Cottrill says people do plan ahead. “Orders can start coming in days in advance. People will call their orders in, which gives a good idea just how much we are going to have to prepare. We will have people picking up as early as noon on game day.”
Another restaurant putting out its share of wings in the valley on Super Bowl Sunday is Bubbarino’s Bites and Bubbles in Hurricane.
At the helm for the restaurant’s efforts was owner Zander Wagner, who understands what that Sunday in February means. “In terms of the rush and the hype it’s insane, because you are doing thousands of wings at a time and you have to prepare for that and make sure the staff is ready. When you have 500 to 600 wings at a time in the deep fryer, it’s fun,” Wagner said.
Wagner compares the owner of a restaurant to a team coach. “I just tell them, we are going to sell a lot of wings, we need everything that can be prepared ready to go — just be ready for show time,” he said.
Wagner and his staff ended up sending 1,500 pounds of wings out the door on Sunday. He said the biggest order this year was for 300 wings, with the average order being around 100.
Finally, I just had to know from both Cottrill and Wagner: was it fun?
“Heck yes, once after you know what you are doing, knowing how things are going work out, it is fun, but an insane fun,” Wagner said.
Cottrill agreed. “When you have 38 restaurants all doing the same thing, it can be crazy at times,” she said. “But at the end of the day you look back at it and think to yourself, ‘Wow, that was actually fun.’”
