Sixty Years Ago, Teressa Bellissimo Birthed The Idea Of Buffalo Wings In Upstate New York And Changed American Bar Food Forever

Did you know that Americans ate a record 1.42 billion buffalo wings during last year’s Super Bowl?

Since being introduced to the market nearly sixty years ago, the bar food has reigned supreme as Americans’ favorite finger food.

Who would have guessed that the delicacy was actually created by accident on a cold winter night in 1964?

Buffalo wings’ creator, Teressa Bellissimo, was born in Sicily in 1900 before she moved to Buffalo, New York.

Then, she and her husband, Frank, opened a bar near Lake Erie’s shores and named it the Anchor Bar in 1935.

The bar was doing great at the time, but nothing could have prepared the Bellissimos for what happened after March 4, 1964.

That evening, Teressa’s son Dominic had been tending the bar when some patrons visited for a late-night snack.

Teressa had been preparing food for the following day, and, at the time, she would often use chicken wings in soup.

But, Teressa had no soup to serve the patrons that night; in fact, she had nothing but the wings themselves.