By BJ Thomas, Associate Manager of Marketing at Pizza Hut

Once again this year, WingStreet attended the National Buffalo Wing Festival in Buffalo, NY and it was a HUGE success. One of the highlights of the event for our team was our new Jim Beam Devil’s Cut® Spicy Bourbon BBQ sauce winning FIRST PLACE in the creative BBQ category!! Not only was it a hit with the judges, but the people who attended couldn’t get enough of it either—and from a discerning crowd of wing fans, the team was exhilarated by the buzz around the newest WingStreet flavor!

The National Buffalo Wing Festival originated 14 years ago in response to an infamous movie scene where the main character, a wing addict, travels to Buffalo, New York to attend the National Chicken Wing Festival. A local news columnist, in response to the movie, was baffled that such a thing did not exist, and since then the Festival has become one of the best recognized events among foodies all over the country.

With more than 80,000 people in attendance at this year’s event, WingStreet received a ton of enthusiasm, and once again blew everyone away with great wings from Pizza Hut. We had many people come to us at the end of both days saying that we had the best wings at the festival, while they loaded up boxes of wings to take home.

The icing on the cake (sauce on the wing?) was the result of the creative BBQ category—taking out some serious restaurant heavyweights with the amazing flavor of our Spicy Bourbon BBQ sauce. The best way I can describe the amazing taste of this sauce is all the bold flavor of Jim Beam Devil’s Cut® Bourbon infused into a Spicy BBQ sauce. Heat, sweet, and bourbon- the perfect trifecta!

This event would not have been the success that it was without the incredible support of our partners in Albany, NY. There were six team members who made the more than four hour drive from Albany to Buffalo to support the event. Their positive attitudes and relentless hard work were GREATLY appreciated as this festival requires two long days of very hard and tiring work. We cannot thank Andrew Prescott and his team of rock stars enough for all they did!!

This wraps up another successful wing festival season, and I can’t think of a better way to cap off the season than with a first place win on a new sauce.