Buffalo Wild Wings Had A Different Name For 16 Years. Here's What The Chain Used To Be Called

Buffalo Wild Wings has become a staple of the restaurant industry in the United States in the 43 years since it first opened in 1982. Today, while some love Buffalo Wild Wings for its array of delicious appetizers and remarkable selection of alcohol — the latter of which makes up 25% of all sales at the restaurant — most fans of the sports bar chain that you speak to are likely to cite its titular chicken wings as the star of the show. However, its chicken wings were once forced to share the spotlight with another staple item as the restaurant was actually known as Buffalo Wild Wings & Weck for the first 16 years the chain was in business.

First opening near Ohio State University in Columbus, Buffalo Wild Wings & Weck was a way for founders Jim Disbrow and Scott Lowrey to bring food from their hometown of Buffalo, New York to the Midwest. While the chicken wings (which were once considered trash but rose to prominence as a staple of New York cuisine) became a massive hit, the same couldn't be said for beef on weck, which was left in the more popular menu item's shadow as time went on. Thus, Buffalo's take on a roast beef sandwich was slowly phased out from both the name and the menu at large as the sports bar began to franchise, eventually being removed entirely in 1998; putting an end to the BW3 era of the popular restaurant.

While the removal of "Weck" from Buffalo Wild Wings' name and beef on weck's removal from its menu came as a result of the restaurant's desire to standardize and cut out less popular items wherever possible, that doesn't mean the sandwich is unworthy of love and appreciation nationwide. The "weck" part of the sandwich's name is short for kummelweck — a type of bread roll that is topped with salt and caraway seeds — which acts as the perfect bun for the roast beef, horseradish sauce, and au jus gravy that resides within. Over the 100 years the sandwich has existed, beef on weck has become an iconic dish in Buffalo, New York, making its initial inclusion in Buffalo Wild Wings' name and menu all the more fitting.

Nevertheless, since beef on weck was removed before the chain grew to its more than 1,000 locations across all 50 states, it's not quite as easy to find as its former comrade on the BWW menu — at least, not outside the city of Buffalo. Some restaurants across the country, like Boeufhaus in Chicago and PB Local in San Diego, have been known to serve the dish on their lunch menus or during special occasions. If you can't find a restaurant near you that offers the dish, making it at home is surprisingly easy and certainly worth a shot if you want to see what modern BWW fans are missing out on.