By Elie Fortune and Nikita Singh
Bengal News West Reporters
A
Hertel Avenue restaurant will bring its specialty chicken wing flavors, which
include Cinnamon Toast Crunch, Nutella and peanut butter and jelly, to the West
Side.
Wing
Kings, 1281 Hertel Ave, is set to arrive in Elmwood Village at 484 Elmwood Ave.
Jeremie Jones, owner of Wing Kings,
is a Buffalo native who believes the success of his business served as an
opportunity to move forward from his troubled past.
Before
he became a restaurant owner, Jones was arrested and charged with illegal use of a cell phone for a felony
act. For a year, he was required to wear an ankle monitor and was placed on
probation for a few years until he got off early due to excellent behavior.
Jones’
record could interfere with the progress of Wing Kings but he was determined to
leave his past behind him.
Jones
attributes much of the restaurants success to social media. On Facebook, Wing
Kings has over 3,500 likes and a 4.9 out of 5 rating. On Yelp it received 4 out
of 5 stars and on Seamless, 5 out of 5 stars.
“With
social media, “Jones said. “We were able to tap into our old clients from the Buffalo Summer Club and staying in
contact with those people. I just think that our chicken following from our
crazy flavors, and the neighborhood that we’re in, it’s a perfect, right in the
middle neighborhood in Buffalo.”
Jones
also believes much of Wing Kings’ popularity derives from his unique list of flavors.
For Jones, operating in the home of the buffalo wing, served as a stepping
stone for creativity.
“The
buffalo wing only consists of a hot wing. With us, we bring all the original
flavors and then mix and match with exotic flavors, making them homemade,”
Jones said.
Aaron
Osbourne, Jones’ cousin and percentage owner of Wing Kings, believed his skills
along with Jones’ could create something special if they went into business together.
Jones
and Osbourne chose the West Side for their business because they saw an opportunity
to expand and viewed it as the perfect location.
“We
didn’t really want to go downtown with the just the regular take out, small sit-down restaurant,” Jones said. “Elmwood to
us was like the most popular street in Buffalo when it comes to bars and food.
So, I felt like Elmwood for the second location was going to help us in our
goal to open up a sports bar with Wing Kings in the near year or so.”
