Yum! Brands launched WingStreet in combination with Pizza Hut franchises in 2003.
WingStreet was created as a chicken-wing concept attached to existing Pizza Hut restaurants, allowing the company to expand into the growing wings market without building an entirely separate chain from scratch. Yum! Brands was the parent company of Pizza Hut, along with KFC and Taco Bell.
The timing can cause confusion because Yum! Brands was known as Tricon Global Restaurants until 2002, when it adopted the Yum! Brands name. WingStreet initially operated mainly as a Pizza Hut add-on rather than as a large network of independent restaurants. A standalone pilot store later opened in Denton, Texas, but it was unsuccessful and closed the following year.
WingStreet is therefore a Yum! Brands and Pizza Hut story—not an Inspire Brands, Brinker International, or Darden Restaurants venture. Pizza Hut still uses WingStreet as the name associated with its chicken-wing offerings.