Chicken wings in mambo sauce became the specialty at his Buffalo restaurant in the mid-sixties. He registered the name of his restaurant, John Young's Wings 'n Things, at the county courthouse before leaving Buffalo in 1970. Trillin checked with a local poultry distributor and found that both John Young and Frank Bellissimo were buying a lot of chicken wings in the middle sixties but no sales receipts were saved. The wings Young sold, however, were prepared a little differently. No telephone listings for either restaurant could be found in 1997.
Nobody seems bothered about the variations in the stories of how things happened, though.
Like some of the other foods that may have originated in the region, the point of origin has become almost a shrine to the item. While the Anchor Bar still serves a local clientele, it's place in food history draws visitors from around the world. Many leave one of their license plates which they have attached to the wall. There is a small glass case where they sell T-shirts, baseball caps and other memorabilia such as you might purchase at a baseball stadium. And the takeout sales of Anchor Bar Buffalo wings sauce are very brisk and lucrative.