A fowl affair they just gobbled up
Ask Mark Wood where you find the best wings, and he’ll tell you that answer is based on emotions.
“Most people when they say, ‘These are the best wings,’ it’s because it’s the place where their father took them when they were seven,” said the owner of The Grantham House. “You have an attachment to where you like to go to eat chicken wings, it’s only a couple of small things that you can control. One of those is where the chicken comes from. Everyone’s got the same fryers, same everything. We use fresh, not frozen product, that makes them taste better and cooks quicker.”
This weekend was the first time his business participated in the Niagara Wing Fest, which is now in its fourth year, in Port Dalhousie.
“The event is much more organized and laid out better than I thought, I give them credit,” said Wood.
Organizers were forced to relocate to Rennie Park after high-water levels on Lake Ontario made Lakeside Park unavailable.
The weekend-long festival included a five-kilometre fun run Sunday and was created by a group of young professionals who came together to promote and support an organization that needs some help, Community Care of St. Catharines and Thorold.
“We wanted to do something that made sense in the community,” said Jeff McGuffin, former chair of Niagara Wing Fest.
Working the fryers, Wood was managing to keep up with orders as visitors lined up.
“People don’t understand what it is to operate what would be considered a small restaurant in the middle of nowhere,” said Wood. “It’s almost impossible trying to maintain temperature.”
He said getting wings of a good size can be challenging.
“People don’t realize how many hundreds of thousands of chicken wings get served every day.”
It was the wings that attracted Jacob Tuck and a couple of friends to come to Rennie Park Saturday.
“They’re huge. This is awesome,” he said as he dug into the last few on his tray.