Charting chicken wings’ flight path

Fifty years ago, when Jane Stern and I wrote the first edition of our guidebook Roadfood, we wanted to tell travelers about places in the U.S. where they could find unique regional specialties. We paid little attention to the bars in Buffalo, New York that served chicken wings because we thought chicken wings were too unimportant for anyone to care about.

Seven years later, about when the word “foodie” entered the language, our follow-up guidebook, called Goodfood, did list places that served them, suggesting that wings were worth a try if you found yourself in western New York.