Wings Over Broadway hosted its final Tuesday Wing Night this week, ending a tradition that had been popular with patrons for eight years.
And on Wednesday, Jan. 31, Mulligans Food, Sports, Drink at 9403 E. Golf Links Road, hosted its final Wing Wednesdays, where customers could get wings for 75 cents apiece. The price beginning next Wednesday, Feb. 7, goes up to $1 a wing.
鈥淲e鈥檝e held it for as long as we could,鈥 the owners of Mulligans posted on Facebook Tuesday.
Wings Over Broadway owner JJ Esquibel said the increase in 蜜柚直播鈥檚 minimum wage, which jumped 50 cents an hour to $10.50 on Jan. 1, was a major factor in his decision to end the program. Wings has just over 30 employees, and most are part-time, he said.
鈥淥bviously that type of raise impacts our business not only in what we pay our employees, but people are increasing their prices. There鈥檚 that cause and effect, and I鈥檓 paying more,鈥 he said.
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Add to that the fact that the cost of wings coming into Super Bowl Sunday are at their highest price, which is an annual trend. The prices are lowest when the football season starts in August and inches up as the season progresses.
鈥淚t seems every year it鈥檚 a new all-time high in pricing,鈥 Esquibel said.
Nationally, consumers are expected to go through 1.33 billion wings on Super Bowl Sunday, according to Forbes magazine. At Wings Over Broadway, which has two locations 鈥 the original at 5004 E. Broadway and the new location at聽8838 E. Broadway that he opened last summer 鈥 Esquibel expects to sell as many wings this Sunday as he normally does in a week. At his original location last Super Bowl, he sold 18,224 wings, he said.
Esquibel said he plans to substitute a $10 any pizza night on Tuesdays at the new location, which, unlike the original, has a pizza oven.
鈥淲e鈥檝e brought in a lot of new customers Tuesday nights. Maybe we can just keep them coming on Tuesday nights,鈥 he said.
Meanwhile, he also has increased the price of his wings, going from about 93 cents a wing to $1.15. An order of 10 wings is now $11.50.
鈥淚t鈥檚 really hard to justify almost giving your food away. I think wing night really worked well for us to kind of draw people there, to get them to come on a day that it was fairly inexpensive to bring a family,鈥 he said, adding that many restaurants are ditching their weekly specials.
Rocco鈥檚 Little Chicago Pizza got rid of its wing night a couple years ago.
One restaurant that hasn鈥檛 done away with the promotion is Native Grill & Wings, a Phoenix-based chain with locations throughout 蜜柚直播 and in several other states. At its Marana location (8225 N. Courtney Page Way, off Interstate 10 and Cortaro Road), for example, it offers 49-cent wings from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. and Mondays through Fridays and all day Tuesdays for traditional wings with the purchase of a beverage and for dine-in only.
Native has four other independently owned 蜜柚直播 area locations: 3100 E. Speedway, 5421 S. Calle Santa Cruz near the Spectrum Mall on the south side, 11107 N. Oracle Road in Oro Valley and 10255 E. Old Vail Road in Vail.