Walk-On’s adds bone-in wings for the first time

Dive Brief:

Walk-On’s Sports Bistreaux will add bone-in chicken wings to its menu beginning Aug. 28, the company said in a press release Wednesday. The wings will be available for an unspecified amount of time as an LTO, Walk-On’s wrote in an email to Restaurant Dive.
The brand will offer three flavors — buffalo, sweet chili and lemon pepper dry rub — in orders of eight wings, eight wings with fries or 12 wings. An additional flavor, Louisiana Kick, which was inspired and selected by franchisee and Dallas Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott, will be available exclusively in Dallas markets.
This menu addition marks the first time the company has added bone-in wings in its 20 years of operation. It has previously only offered boneless wings.

Dive Insight:

While bone-in wings are currently a limited time offering, they could be elevated to Walk-On’s permanent menu in the future, the company said. Menu development has been a key focus at Walk-On’s from its early days. After it unveiled a revamped menu in 2011, which included crawfish etouffee, jumbo gulf shrimp and fresh seafood, ESPN voted it the best sports bar in America in 2012. It only had four locations at the time.

In June, the company added several menu items, including Ragin’ Redfish, Mango Tuna Bowl, Cajun Press, Chicken Bomber, Buffalo Gater Tacos, Surf & Turf Melt and half-sized poboys, the company said. Walk-On’s has always considered itself more than a sports bar and wanted to bring wings to the public in an “elevated, chef-inspired Walk-On’s way,” the company said, adding that its 20th anniversary celebration was the ideal timing for this launch.

Adding bone-in wings is a slight departure from its early menu, but the popularity of wings in general should help bring more customers into its doors. The company has aggressive growth goals, with plans to double its store footprint through a 100-unit pipeline. Walk-On’s recently came under new leadership with CEO Chris Dawson joining the chain in June, followed by Kendall Ware as COO in August.

Bone-in wings have been returning to restaurant menus of late, likely due to decreasing costs after a spike in 2021. The cost of bone-in wings at Wingstop is down by almost 40%, Wingstop CFO Alex Kaleida said during an August earnings call. In May, Popeyes brought back Ghost Pepper Wings for a limited time. Pei Wei launched Wok-Fired Wings in August. Zaxby’s promoted its bone-in wings offering with a buy-one,-get-one wings offer in late July to Zax Rewards members as part of National Chicken Wing Day.