Anchor Bar in Buffalo, New York, claims to be the birthplace of Buffalo wings.
The restaurant’s origin story places the invention on March 4, 1964. According to the Bellissimo family account, Teressa Bellissimo deep-fried chicken wings and coated them with a cayenne-pepper sauce after her son Dominic asked her to prepare a late-night snack. She reportedly served the wings with celery and blue-cheese dressing.
Anchor Bar was established in 1935 by Frank and Teressa Bellissimo. Its claim became central to Buffalo’s food identity, although the exact origin of the dish is disputed. John Young, a Buffalo restaurateur, served breaded wings with a tomato-based sauce from 1961, and Duff’s also became an early prominent seller of Buffalo-style wings.
The wording “claims to be” matters: Anchor Bar is the standard quiz answer, but historians recognize multiple origin stories. Traditional Buffalo wings are usually unbreaded, deep-fried, tossed in sauce after cooking, and served with celery and blue cheese.