I have been lucky to have been initiated into the cult of Buffalo Wings. But, getting a decent, authentic wing outside of Buffalo, New York, has been a difficult and sometimes frustrating crusade in Seattle, Washington, and elsewhere.

In Buffalo, Mary Jo and I feel that Duff’s Famous Wings (all locations) rules over the Buffalo Wing inventor, the Anchor Bar. Flavorful, crispy and substantial, we love these wings, which can be ordered in varying levels of heat — some even too hot for our Buffalo family but not for us! Some patrons must heed the mesage on the t-shirts of the restaurant servers: “Warning: Medium is Hot! Medium Hot is Very Hot! Hot is Very, Very Hot!” We were disappointed in Duff’s wings only one time we had them . . . well, they could be excused — the staff at Duff’s were making wings in the middle of a Buffalo snowstorm after hours without power in the neighborhood, and the place was still packed with customers. If you are ever in Buffalo, you owe it to yourself to experience the Buffalo Wings at Duff’s. Other Duff’s Famous Wings locations are open in Rochester, New York, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, Vaughan, Ontario, Canada, Southlake, Texas, and Newman, Georgia.

That being said, where do you go for authentic Buffalo Wings when you don’t live in Buffalo? You may have to go without, we have found. In our travels, we have sampled wings from dozens of eateries. Some are simply sold as hot wings, some profess to be Buffalo Wings. Some we have found are bang-on. Some were putrid.

The following is a short list of some of the places we have tried, from best to worst, and our thoughts on the wings. More examples and reviews will be added as we remember and encounter them.

In 2003, Mary Jo and I were in Las Vegas and tried the wings at the Hard Rock Cafe, and, damn, these were the real deal. The right cooking method, the right sauce, the right texture, with celery and blue cheese dressing (not ranch dressing!). I have also sampled the wings at the Hard Rock Cafes in Salt Lake City and Seattle — consistently good and authentic . . . that is, until some idiot at the Hard Rock Cafe corporate offices decided to change the wings recipe and add new flavors (probably to compete nationally against Buffalo Wild Wings) — none of which I would now recommend. It’s a shame.

Winger’s in Salt Lake City serves a tasty hot wing (but not an authentic Buffalo Wing) in a number of flavor varieties and levels of heat. Many SLC locals consider Winger’s to serve up the best wings in town. This is likely to be true now that Hard Rock Cafe effed up their wings.

Hooter’s has for years made hot wings a staple of their chain of restaurants. We like the wings (not authentic but still good) and occasionally travel to the last open Hooter’s in the Seattle area (down in Tacoma) to fill up. Mary Jo orders hers breaded, I order them “naked” — sauce only, no breading. We have to remind ourselves to order blue cheese dressing because we might be served wings with the dreaded ranch dressing.

Out of curiosity, and a little suspicion of a chain restaurant, Mary Jo and I tried the Buffalo Wild Wings franchise in downtown Portland, Oregon, and in Seattle, and were pleasantly surprised. Not an authentic Buffalo Wing, but close, and available in too many flavors and degrees of heat — we enjoyed the wings nonetheless in the carefully executed, corporate interpretation of a sports bar, which is always too frickin’ loud to sit and enjoy a meal. Take-out is the only option here.

In Seattle, there are a group of restaurants known as the Wing Dome (named after Seattle’s now-demolished sports complex, the Kingdome — an ugly concrete hamburger of a building). The Wing Dome features several different flavors of hot wings, and to their credit does not profess to sell Buffalo Wings. Of the varieties we sampled, and of various heat levels, all were disappointing. The results were all about the heat, but the wings themselves lacked flavor.

Along the same line is the franchised Wing Zone take-out restaurant in Seattle next to our beloved Scarecrow Video store near the University District. Flavor and heat varieties are on the menu, but the results we sampled were uninspiring and doubtful. The restaurant has since closed.

By far, the worst Buffalo Wing we ever sampled was encountered at the Red Hook Brewery in Woodinville, Washington. Bar none, this was the most stomach-churning experience in our search for Buffalo Wings. Cited on the menu as being authentic Buffalo Wings, we ordered a serving and, after perhaps too long a time, we were confronted with the most disgusting excuse for a hot wing we have ever tried to choke down. The wings were sickly pale and the sauce (the wrong type) slid off wings as if it were on an Olympic ski jump. Adding insult to injury, the wings were served with ranch dressing for the wings, celery and carrots! We couldn’t finish them and asked our waitress how the wings had been prepared. Because the kitchen did not have the required Halon fire-suppression system required for deep fryer cooking, the wings were boiled!

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