New Thing #234: Buffalo Wild Wings
I probably gave you the impression a couple of days ago that Jacksonville was a mere necessity on my trip through Florida - the city from which I flew home and nothing else. Well, that's mostly true.
But we did do one New Thing in Jacksonville before heading to their beautiful airport.
For the first time in my life I went to a Buffalo Wild Wings.
I'm sure you're aware, if you've ever watched a sporting event - or television of any kind, really - of Buffalo Wild Wings. Their commercials are all over the place.
But there are none near me, so I've never been. (Surprisingly, there are at least 4 in Massachusetts. I just did a search on their website - it's one of those 'within ___ miles of [zip code]' searches, and there are 4 within 50 miles of my home. 3 within 30. There doesn't seem to be a list of locations anywhere on the site. I'm shocked there are 4 in Massachusetts - I didn't even think there were any in this region. Which always surprised me because of how many commercials are on. But I guess now all the ads make sense...even though I've never been, I certainly knew the brand.)
The only bad thing about the timing of our visit was that it was last Saturday afternoon, and there were hardly any sporting events on. There was the Little League World Series when we were there, and the Arena Bowl. I kind of wanted to get the full experience by watching some games while we were there...but I could also see it being one of those totally overwhelming game-watching experiences because of the quantity of TVs. (There was a fantasy football draft happening in the bar area while we were there. And Buffalo Wild Wings seems to cater to the fantasy football crowd - they are celebrating 'draft weekend' this coming weekend and inviting fantasy leagues to have their drafts there by reserving tables and such. Me from 10 years ago thinks all of this is very, very cool.) There were also a couple of trivia games on a few of the TVs. That seemed to have potential, though I didn't play.
Of course I had the wings. I went with the boneless option per my friend Kevin's suggestion, and I had a teriyaki sauce. It was delicious.
The service was great too. Very accommodating staff. (Interesting thing about Florida - they always ask if you want checks together or separate. In most other places I've been that feels like a burden. Every place we went to in Florida they offered to split the check. Buffalo Wild Wings even went a step further and rang up our order itemized so we could see exactly what we owed - so we paid a total bill but we could see it broken down by what we ordered.)
Overall a great experience...worth the drive if I was so inclined to visit one of the Massachusetts locations. But I don't know if I'm so inclined. (There are 8 locations within 20 miles of my parents' house in New York....)
The only other drawback of no games on TV while we were there - I couldn't employ the bartender to press the secret button that results in the delay of game so we could stay out longer.
I always wondered if that was a real thing.