Takeout Demand for Signature Sticky Fingers and Wings Expected to Surge During the Big Game
The Super Bowl is about much more than football – or even the halftime show or the creative TV commercials. It’s about food, friends and celebrations. And that means takeout!
An estimated 48 million Americans – one in seven – order takeout on Super Bowl Sunday, which is the second most popular day of the year for restaurant takeout, rivaled only by Thanksgiving, according to Restaurantware.com. In fact, according to VisionMonday.com, 16% of those surveyed by the market research firm Zinklar said food and snacks were what make the Super Bowl most exciting!
For Wingers Restaurant & Alehouse, which boasts 23 locations in five states in the Mountain West, with others in development in Texas and Oklahoma, Super Bowl Sunday is the biggest Sunday of the year, with 80-90% of the restaurants’ business in takeout, says co-founder and CEO Eric Slaymaker.
“For our restaurants, it’s all hands on deck, and we are just rockin’ and rollin’ with platters of Wingers Original Wings and our signature Sticky Fingers chicken fingers, in addition to our sandwich platters, salad platters, platters of chips and salsa and chips and queso. Super Bowl parties dominate, obviously!” Slaymaker anticipates that Superbowl 2024 will be no exception, with an exciting matchup planned between the San Francisco 49ers and the Kansas City Chiefs on Sunday, February 11.
The Chicken Wing Phenomenon
Founded in 1993 by brothers Eric and Scott Slaymaker, Wingers Restaurant & Alehouse is renowned for its chicken wings and Sticky Fingers coated in the Wingers Original Amazing Sauce, but the menu is diverse, including a variety of burgers, pastas, salads, Southwestern favorites, and vegetarian and gluten-free options – plus 40 beers on tap.
“We’re an alehouse and we have a big variety menu, but we also have the best original wings on the globe, and people know that,” Eric Slaymaker says. “And it’s kind of a cultural phenomenon that chicken wings have become associated with the Super Bowl. It seems like Wingers Alehouse has been around so long that we’ve experienced that evolution. It feels like people can’t throw a Super Bowl party without chicken wings, and we’re fine with that!”
The National Chicken Council agrees (of course) that “the wing is still king.” In its 2023 Chicken Wing Report, the council reported that some 1.45 billion chicken wings were devoured during Super Bowl LVII weekend, representing a 2% increase over the amount consumed the previous year. That number equates to four wings for every man, woman and child in the United States, according to the report.
Superbowl Pre-orders
Eric Slaymaker says a successful Super Sunday hinges on preparation and organization. “Luckily, we’ve been doing this a few years, so we really have the system down,” he says. Starting about 30 days prior to Super Bowl Sunday, Wingers Alehouse begins promoting Super Bowl pre-orders with information posted in-house and online.
“We really encourage people to pre-order and lock in a time to be picked up. That certainly helps because our restaurants are so busy,” he says. “But it seems like every location will get a flood of orders on Sunday morning. So, we plan for that, too.”
On Super Bowl Sunday, every team member is working at every location. “We have all the positions we need to make sure all phone calls are being answered, and people working on our cook lines are constantly going all day and even before – obviously we start prepping days before in our kitchens. Then we have people just packaging, bagging products and checking on orders. Then we have those helping with guests who are coming in to pick up their orders. It is quite a machine.
“That one Sunday is like a completely different operational day because we have different positions and everybody has their role,” he says. “And all of that being said, it’s a lot of fun, too.”
On the Big Day
Super Bowl competition isn’t limited to the gridiron. “All of our stores like a friendly internal competition,” Slaymaker says. “Who’s going to have the best Super Bowl Sunday is kind of a big thing among the Wingers community.”
A few hours before the game, Slaymaker visits as many stores as possible near his home base in Salt Lake City. “I’ll walk into a store and team members are asking how busy are the other stores. It is friendly, but they’re all interested to see how the other stores are doing, if they’re ahead or if they’re behind.
“It’s kind of crazy and a lot of fun. They’re just rocking out and having a blast. It’s like a big party where they’re helping out and working at the same time at our restaurants.” For more information, visit https://wingerbros.com/franchising-opportunities/.
