From the start, Buffalo Boss was going to be bold. There was no chance they were going to do it any other way.
“All of our wings have really explosive flavors,” said Jamar White. “The hot is hot, the sweet is sweet. We really wanted to attack it from that vantage point. You go to a few places and the wings are a little bland. They say that these are the extra hot ones, and you’re just like, ‘where is the flavor?’ We wanted to definitely have powerful flavors.”
Buffalo Boss delivers on that promise, and Brooklynites have been devouring their wings since White and partner Ronald Lee opened for business in 2010 in a 450-square-foot shop on Fulton Street.
It took a little bit of fate to bring this partnership together, and to bring these wings to Barclays Center. After years working in wing joints in New York, Lee had gone back to Hawaii, where he’d opened up and then sold a traditional Hawaiian plate lunch spot that added wings to the mix. The Brooklyn-born White was a graphic designer, a graduate of Pratt Institute with a passion for wings and a dream of opening up his own place.
“The wing landscape was pretty bar-food oriented and I just thought we could elevate the wing experience, add a little hip-hop flavor to it and bring it into the modern day,” said White.
A friend knew a cousin, a phone call was arranged, ideas were exchanged, and now White and Lee’s fryers are churning out a couple of tons of chicken every week.
They opened up on Fulton Street before moving a few blocks away to Jay Street in 2013 after their original building was torn down. They’ve recently updated the Jay Street store with a quick renovation that included self-serve kiosks. Along the way they also secured a spot at Barclays Center as part of the arena’s Brooklyn Taste program upon the building’s 2012 opening.
The addition of the Barclays Center location helped pushed the partners into a menu expansion that they’d already been considering – boneless wings. The boneless wings were more manageable for fans in an arena setting, and they’ve been a hit since they were added to the core restaurant menu that includes original wings, Japanese Panko breaded tenders and fries.
“It was something that we were starting with,” said Lee. “It was good timing. It was interesting. We had been doing the boneless. It was something that was becoming part and parcel on everyone’s menu that serves buffalo wings. It was fortuitous that Barclays asked us to go a little bit larger scale on the boneless wings.”
Whether boneless or traditional, the wings are available with a choice of 12 sauces – a half-dozen hot & spicy sauces rocketing up the heat scale to sweet & savory options that include Honey BBQ, Honey Mustard and Garlic Parmesan.
Buffalo Boss is located in downtown Brooklyn at 400 Jay Street and Harlem at 17 West 125th Street