CT Sports Bar Places High In National Buffalo Wing Competition

NORWALK, CT — Casey Dohme and Matt Bacco knew their competition would be intense when they saw one group had driven all the way from Mexico to Coca-Cola Field in Buffalo, N.Y., just to have a shot at a few trophies.

Though the owners of The Blind Rhino, a still relatively young sports bar in Norwalk, were familiar with fierce competitions after showcasing so many on the TVs at their bar, they both agreed they had never seen anything like the National Buffalo Wing Festival.

"Rookies in that festival have to be pros at every other wing festival," Bacco said. "They go there for the rush. This was like nothing we’ve ever done."

Those who know their wings know they were born in Buffalo, that is if the name wasn't already a big enough hint, so it was no surprise for the Rhino team to find that those who attended the festival take it very seriously. Besides, they had taken part in a number of festivals and competitions before.

That said, Dohme was still surprised to find this particular festival was invitation only.

“We found out that they basically just invite the best of the best," Dohme said. “Connecticut’s probably not really on their radar.”

After providing a resume and highlight reel of sorts and a 30-minute roadside phone interview to convince festival officials they could handle the elite heat, a seven-person team that included Dohme, Bacco and the bar's Executive Chef Angel Rodriguez hopped in a van and drove over six hours down back roads filled with cows and dive bars to downtown Buffalo.

They would be the only team competing from Connecticut.

They brought with them some of their strongest players: the surprisingly creamy Garlic Parmesan, the "sweet and heat" Mango Habanero, the arguable Connecticut favorite Togarashi Brown Sugar Dry Rub and the tried-and-true Spicy Buffalo, a flavor the Rhino team was unsure about calling off the bench.

"We knew it was very much a sauce competition," Dohme said. “I think the masses would say to bring stuff like Mango Habenero. So we had a literal meeting about this and decided Spicy Buffalo was the sauce to go with for a reason.”

Bacco backed up the decision.

“I told [Rodriguez] before we left that I thought Spicy Buffalo was one of our best sauces," Bacco said. "I think that’s how we’re gonna get ‘em.”

The atmosphere on the field was as hot as the scalding weather, and when the Rhino team got started they knew there was no stopping...literally.

“It was nuts," Dohme said. "It was 15 hours of literal non-stop slinging. But we love that stuff.”

The field quickly filled with hungry Buffalo natives and frequent festival-goers, many wearing white shirts they would use as napkins. Dohme remembered at one point he thought he saw someone who had been badly injured and was ready to help, only to realize they were simply covered in sauce. Despite the distractions, the team kept slinging.

“We definitely went through 12,000 wings at least," Bacco said. "On the safe side, if you’re talking 30 vendors at 12,000 wings, that’s 360,000 wings. That’s a lot of wings!”

To aid in pumping out such large volumes of wings with such a small team (Bacco said some teams had 20 people and two bays working), the Rhino team developed code names for different wings and combinations. For instance, if someone were to order both garlic parm and brown sugar, the person taking the order would call out for "the classic."

That shorthand played a huge part in keeping their time per order down. After timing themselves, the team found they served 45 people in 2.5 minutes. For comparison, Bacco said it took a team near them 13 minutes to serve 45 people.

“You can’t see the end of your line so you have to figure out how to get through it," Dohme said, "and they weigh your tickets, so that’s how you win Festival Favorite.”

While they ultimately missed out on that particular trophy, the team still walked away triumphantly. Garlic Parmesan placed third in the Creative Sweet category, while Spicy Buffalo ended up placing second in Traditional Hot.

“Which is wild for a couple boys from Connecticut to jump in a Buffalo native category and take second place," Dohme said. "That was when we really felt like we belonged.”

Bacco agreed that both trophies were an honor, even if the rookie sensations didn't end up taking top prize in either category.

“Obviously a first place trophy would be sick," Bacco said, "but even second place is so much respect for our traditional-style sauce. We brought hot sauce to Buffalo and got a second place trophy. That’s pretty kick-ass.”

The response from festival-goers was even more validating.

"“We had people coming up to us and asking for like 15, 30 wings to go," Bacco said. “I think we opened some eyes to flavors people hadn’t thought about.”

Dohme agreed, adding they were able to break through some people's perceptions of what a rookie sports bar from New England could offer.

“Those Buffalo natives could walk up to us and go ‘Connecticut? Pssh, not possible’, but they were open-minded and when you get them to try it they’d walk like five feet, then turn around and say stuff like ‘wow, those are epic’. You don’t get a trophy for that kind of stuff, but we take that to heart,” Dohme said.

When asked about what makes their wings so appealing, the pair quickly pointed out the ways they take care of their chicken before it even gets into the 400-degree oil and the methods they use to test different sauces and find what works best.

"Where we live, Fairfield County near New York City, you need to really concentrate on the full experience," Dohme said. "We’re not a sauce joint. There’s a lot of places you can go and they’ll have a laundry list of sauces. We go tight, so a lot of our sauces are manager, owner, staff and customer-approved. So they kind of go through the ringer, being first served as specials and such, so we have about 10 tight sauces that we all really like.”

The Blind Rhino's wings are big and fresh, never frozen, and Rodriguez adds a custom rub of fresh herbs to each piece of chicken before it's baked. They are later flash-fried when people order them, so all the prep is done before a customer even makes an order.

In all the pair said they were really impressed by the festival and learned a lot from the competition, something they would like to apply to the competition next year if they are invited back. One thing the pair is certain of is that next year's batch of wings will still be as delicious as the ones they're serving at The Blind Rhino today.

"I remember after the competition I was like ‘I’m never going to try garlic parm again’," Dohme said. "Then I had one last night and I was like ‘those are insane’. It’s a really good sauce.”

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Photo credits: Dayvon Smith