Upstate New York snowbirds and transplants have quickly discovered the newest Duff’s Famous Wings restaurant, which opened Feb. 9 in Sarasota.
Duff’s Famous Wings has been producing award-winning Buffalo wings for nearly six decades.
Many of those patrons who now live or vacation locally have found the Sarasota location, in the Lakeshore Village Plaza spot once occupied by Chianti Ristorante Italiano at 3900 Clark Road.
Holmes said most of the tables he or his assistant manager have spoken with fit that description.
“At least 70% of the tables we talk to are actually from Western New York or Buffalo,” Duff’s Sarasota General Manager Steve Holmes told the Herald-Tribune. “Before we were even open, when we were doing construction, we constantly had people coming up to the front door, asking when we were going to open because they were from the area that the original Duff’s is.”
The location is currently open from 3 p.m. to 10 p.m.
It will eventually add lunch and takeout service once it has enough staff to offer quality service throughout the day.
“For us, first impressions are everything, so we just want to make sure everybody that comes in now gets the service, the quality that they deserve,” Holmes said. “As soon as we are ready, we will be doing 11 a.m. to 10 p.m.”
The layout of the establishment is similar to Chianti’s, with two service bars and two smaller dining areas that create an overall seating capacity for about 130 people.
Still, as the staff gets up to speed, food service is limited to the front seating area, with the back bar area limited to bar service for those who want to watch their favorite game on one of Duff’s 29 televisions.
The easiest way to find out when takeout will be available is to visit duffswings.com/sarasota-florida.
What makes Duff’s unique?
According to lore documented on the Duff’s Famous Wings website, in 1946, Louise Duffney opened a “corner Gin Mill” at Sheridan Drive and Millersport Highway in Amherst, New York, just north of Buffalo.
The first batch of chicken wings was served in 1969 and its reputation spread.
In 1985, as the notoriety grew, the restaurant was officially christened as Duff’s Famous Wings.
That original location, roughly 1,300 miles north of Sarasota, is still serving wings.
In March 2010, “Food Wars,” a program hosted on the Travel Channel, compared Duff’s wings with the wings made by the Anchor Bar — creator of the traditional Buffalo wing — with Duff’s earning acclaim for having the “Best Wings in town.”
In May 2010, President Barack Obama stopped in at the Buffalo location and ordered 10 medium wings to go.
Since then, “The Daily Meal,” a national food and beverage website, awarded Duff’s Famous Wings the No. 1 spot for “America’s Best Buffalo Wings” in 2017, 2019 and 2020.
According to that website, the keys to Duff’s success lie both in its sauce and the crispiness of each wing.
A longtime Buffalo area resident, Ray Sopczuk, told a Herald-Tribune reporter to order wings crispy and one heat level milder than elsewhere.
That mirrors advice on Duff’s website, which notes, “medium is hot, medium hot is very hot; hot is very very hot.”
The hottest option is “Duff’s Death Sauce.”
Sopczuk, who sampled the wings at the Sarasota location on Feb. 11, suggested mild-medium as a good starting point.
Duff’s offers a variety of menu options
In addition to seven heat levels of the original Buffalo sauce, Duff’s offers seven specialty sauces ranging from a Cajun dry rub to spicy barbecue, and spicy garlic parmesan on both traditional jumbo wings and boneless wings.
The boneless wings are cut daily from chicken tenders and house-breaded.
Smashburgers and other hand-held sandwiches are offered too but the other Buffalo treasure on the menu is the house-made beef on weck — thinly sliced roast beef piled high on a seeded roll with salt and caraway seeds.
“We’re actually out doing Tampa with the beef on weck right now,” Holmes said, referencing Duff’s other Florida-based restaurant.
Caraway seed and kosher salt on the bun help make beef on weck different from other similar sandwiches.
“I can really taste the difference,” Holmes said.
Duff’s offers a variety of menu options
In addition to seven heat levels of the original Buffalo sauce, Duff’s offers seven specialty sauces ranging from a Cajun dry rub to spicy barbecue, and spicy garlic parmesan on both traditional jumbo wings and boneless wings.
The boneless wings are cut daily from chicken tenders and house-breaded.
Smashburgers and other hand-held sandwiches are offered too but the other Buffalo treasure on the menu is the house-made beef on weck — thinly sliced roast beef piled high on a seeded roll with salt and caraway seeds.
“We’re actually out doing Tampa with the beef on weck right now,” Holmes said, referencing Duff’s other Florida-based restaurant.
Caraway seed and kosher salt on the bun help make beef on weck different from other similar sandwiches.
“I can really taste the difference,” Holmes said.
What’s next for Duff’s Famous Wings in Florida?
Now that Tampa and Sarasota are open, Holmes said the owners of the Florida franchise rights — Adrien Angelvy and Daniel Conway — are looking to expand to several areas in Florida south of Jacksonville.
The next franchise could be open in about six months.
“The goal is to expand and just continuously grow business here in Florida,” said Holmes, who was working as a manager at SALT Waterfront Bar & Grill on Shelter Island in Long Island when he was connected by one of his servers to Angelvy and decided to move south to Sarasota.
Holmes said that Duff’s currently has a nice mix of corporate awareness and a family atmosphere for staff.
“We still kind of have that family love that goes into it as far as the owners and all of our management,” Holmes said. “Since we’re just getting off the ground, we are very, very focused on making sure that the quality goes out correctly.”
Earle Kimel primarily covers south Sarasota County as well as land development and environmental issues for the Herald-Tribune. Follow him on Facebook, and X. He can be reached by email at earle.kimel@heraldtribune.com. Support local journalism by subscribing.
This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Duff’s Famous Wings brings its award-winning recipes to Sarasota
Reporting by Earle Kimel, Sarasota Herald-Tribune / Sarasota Herald-Tribune
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