Buffalo Wild Wings has plucked the feathers off its weekly cheap wings promotion after hordes of rowdy students descended on the sports bar, resulting in two separate shooting incidents on Tuesday night.
The three teens caught in the crossfire were not seriously injured, but that did not stop some local leaders from calling for a crackdown on the spicy appetizer emporium inside the Atlantic Terminal Mall.
Councilwoman Letitia James (D–Fort Greene) pointed the finger at the management of the sports bar for recklessly promoting its 50-cent “Wing Tuesdays” to students.
“I want this Tuesday restaurant promotion stopped, or the lease of this business revoked,” James said.
Within hours, the wingery responded by announcing the indefinite suspension of the promotion, which was long popular with students and even the ever-economical sluggers from the Brooklyn Cyclones.
As such, the joint was packed on Tuesday evening with students — many from outside Fort Greene and Clinton Hill, police said — swarmed the mall.
Most of the students did not actually make it into the packed restaurant, and instead congregated at the mall, where things quickly became out of hand. The restaurant closed its doors early, and the cops were called to restore order.
Outside the mall, gunfire erupted, though details are sketchy. One shooting was at Hanson Place and Flatbush Avenue, and the other was near the bow-tie intersection of Fulton Street and Lafayette Avenue.
“Although there was a huge police presence at the mall to address the condition and turn the thousands of students away and send them back home, apparently a few rogue groups managed to cause trouble while heading home,” Capt. Anthony Tasso of the 88th Precinct said in a statement.
A spokeswoman for the sports bar, which has 635 locations nationwide, said that the “Wing Tuesdays” promotion was not directed solely at students.
More likely, the crowds were driven by circumstance: this week’s 50-cent wing night fell on the day before Veteran’s Day — when schools were closed.
“It’s an unfortunate situation, but we weren’t enticing kids to come,” Liz Brady, the spokeswoman said.
Then again, it’s not the first time a buffalo wing binge has gone haywire at that location. James said that other promotions at the eatery have required police intervention.
She added that cops had approached her after the incident and said, “We got to do something about Wild Wings.” Of course, crime at the Atlantic Terminal Mall doesn’t only occur at the wing joint. Just last week, a man entered a candy store, brandished a gun and made off with the cash in the register — and the money in the tip jar, too.
Perhaps that’s why Capt. Tasso declined to characterize the three-year-old restaurant, which actually serves other things than wings, as a troublespot.
If there is any good news to come of the suspension of the cheap Tuesday wing promotion, it is this: a recorded phone message at Buffalo Wild Wings still says that the 60-cent “Boneless Thursdays” will go on as scheduled.
