Norwalk Sports Bar Wins Big At National Buffalo Wing Competition

NORWALK, CT — While one might imagine the best place to get buffalo wings would be in none other than Buffalo, N.Y., one South Norwalk sports bar recently took home gold for Connecticut in two key categories of a national wing competition.

The Blind Rhino, which also operates a location in the Black Rock area of Bridgeport, won four awards at the 2021 National Buffalo Wing Festival, including top prize in both the "traditional hot" and "best of show" categories.

According to Casey Dohme, who co-owns Blind Rhino with Matt Bacco, this year marked the second time the team was invited to compete in the national competition, which took place over Labor Day weekend at Highmark Stadium, the "Home of the Buffalo Bills."

The first time the team competed in 2018, they took home a second and third place prize in two separate categories. This year, the competition was just as fierce.

In addition to New York restaurants, representatives from Pennsylvania, Ohio, North Carolina and even Mexico were among those invited to serve up wings for the huge crowd of fans and judges.

"It's truly a national competition," Dohme said. "You're competing against people from literally all over the country. It's a lot of fun."

Dohme said the atmosphere was fun but intense, not to mention busy, with each restaurant working hard for 7-9 hours over two days and serving up thousands of wings.

This year, the Blind Rhino's spicy buffalo sauce won top prize in the "traditional hot" category, moving up a slot from the last time they competed when it won second place in the same category.

"That was the award that really got us," Dohme said. "To be in Buffalo and for their traditional hot sauce, a couple guys from Connecticut came up and won. That was really special to do and be recognized for in basically the birthplace of buffalo sauce."

Plum sriracha, a new favorite sauce at the Rhino, won second prize in the "creative spicy" category and garlic parmesan won second in the "creative sweet" category.

The biggest surprise of all came toward the end of the competition, however, when the Rhino's plum sriracha sauce also took home top prize in the "best of show" category. According to Dohme, the judges noted how unique and tasty the fairly new sauce was.

"At that point, we had won three awards," Dohme said. "I wouldn't say we were even expecting that, and then if you even place for the best of show category, that's cool too. That's everybody putting their best wing sauce out there though, so that's kind of a tough [category]. You have to have the best sauce there, and I guess the judges thought we did because we walked away with one more award. We were already on cloud nine, but that just put us over the edge."

The plum sriracha sauce was created by the team's head chef in Norwalk, Silbino Perdomo. It began life as a special menu item but quickly found its way onto the regular menu following rave reviews from customers and staff.

Heading to the area often considered the birthplace of the buffalo wing and winning top prizes in two key categories meant a lot to not just Dohme and Bacco, but their staff as well.

"A lot of these guys have just been going through the trenches of [the ongoing coronavirus crisis] with us," Dohme said, "and it wasn't exactly the best time...this rejuvenates the staff a little bit."

Given that they run a sports bar, Dohme and Bacco are no strangers to a competitive atmosphere, so the national wing competition could be considered their version of the Superbowl.

"We've said that kind of in jest," Dohme said, "but what else is there really? It's the national wing competition. This is our Superbowl."

The Blind Rhino in South Norwalk will celebrate its sixth year in business in October and, if the crowds of fans present on the past few football Sundays is any indication, still remains a popular spot to grab a beer, sit down for a meal and catch the game.

Norwalk Chamber of Commerce president Brian Griffin noted he was very pleased for and proud of the Blind Rhino following their stellar performance during the competition.

"We always like it when trophies are brought back to Norwalk," Griffin said in an email, "and kudos to them on creating a special niche within the overall SoNo restaurant and bar scene."

Dohme noted there are "a lot of fun things" still on the horizon for the Rhino, however fans can always expect to enjoy high-quality products, especially when it comes to wings, once they step through the doors in South Norwalk or Black Rock.

"We can just put basic wings out there and still probably do alright because we're a sports bar," Dohme said, "but our thing from the get-go was really focusing on making all the sauces in house, having fresh wings and putting out really good food at a sports bar. That was always the goal, so I guess we're doing alright."