Best Wings in Colorado Springs

[This was previously published in Side Dish with Schniper. Also SpringsMag.com just wrote about wings and this weekend is the Super Bowl Big Game so now is a good time to talk about it!]

They used to just throw chicken wings away! Customers would order chicken and chefs in the kitchen would hack the wings off and throw them straight into the trash. Maybe they saved them for stock? What a tragedy. 

Then one day in the 70s in Buffalo, NY, several rowdy folks walked into Anchor Bar a few minutes before closing and demanded some food. In desperation, the owner threw some leftover wings in the still-hot fryer, then doused them in hot sauce before serving them to her patrons.

Is that actually true? The claims vary. What I know for sure is that I love Buffalo wings. It’s almost embarrassing how well-known I am as The Wing Guy among friends and acquaintances. And now that reputation led me here, where I’ve duped our favorite local foodie into asking me to write a whole column about wings in Colorado Springs. Clearly, I’m embracing the reputation.

The Best Wings in Town

I won’t bury the lede: it’s Springs Wings. OK bye now, thanks for reading! When you go, tell them I sent you so maybe I can get a discount next time I go. I actually don’t visit too often because of the price. But it’s not their fault! Wings are expensive, and the prices fluctuate often. It’s the reason why lots of places push cheaper “boneless wings” aka chicken nuggets instead of “bone-in” aka normal wings. 

But boy is it worth every penny. Springs Wings nails the basics: their wings are a decent size, crispy, and have standard-but-perfectly-executed buffalo sauce. As a bonus they also have deliciously seasoned crispy fries.

The Wings I Get the Most

Hatchcover still has wings for under a dollar apiece at only 75 cents 80 cents (as of 2025) per wing. Once upon a time, they were 50 cents per wing, and they mailed out coupons for 50% off your meal! I may or may not have ordered 40 wings for $10 with that coupon. The following month they mailed those same coupons with large, bold, red text stating it “EXCLUDES WINGS.” 

Sorry for ruining a good thing, everybody, but I promise I tipped really, really well. And now look, it’s paying off for them because I’m writing about it here!

I focused a lot on the price here, but the wings are also pretty good. Decent size, good sauce, could be crispier, but the price-to-quality ratio forgives all.

Honorable Mentions

O’Malley’s - Incredible sauce, but the wings are on the smaller side

Deluxe Wingz - Only reason I don’t go here more is because it’s carryout only, which means eating in your car otherwise the wings will be soggy by the time you get home

O’Furry’s - Oh hey another Irish name. Giant wings, good sauce, and I prefer the traditional wings over their “double dipped” specialty stuff

Dishonorable mentions

I don’t understand why people get wings at Wingstop, Buffalo Wild Wings, or fast-food pizza joints. I kinda get B-dubs because I also enjoy sports, but Wingstop is a full-stop for me. Pizza joints make over-sauced, non-crispy wings that are a disappointment every single time. Pizza places don’t have fryers! They deliver wings in foil-lined boxes! Those poor wings never stand a chance.

That said, I recently discovered Joey's NY Pizza in Templeton Gap with very good wings… just don't get them delivered! Crispy wings NEVER stand a chance sitting in a steamy box before they get to your house. So consider my dishonorable mentions to only include nationwide pizza chains.

Speaking of fryers, let’s talk about how to make great wings at home without a fryer. 

How to Make Your Own Amazing Wings

I make amazing wings. Ask any of my friends. Or enemies. There’s a LOT of wing recipes out there, but I’ve boiled it down to two different methods: the easy-and-good way, or the laborious-but-better way. The vast majority of the time, I’m doing it the easy-and-good way because it perfectly nails the labor-to-quality ratio of being delicious without a ton of work. Plus it’s essentially just grilled chicken, which is healthy for you! 

The easy-but-good way

1. Up to 24 hours before you cook, prep your wings by drying them out in a bowl with a paper towel at the bottom. Put the bowl in the fridge.
2. Get your grill hot with all the burners on High.
3. Put the wings on the grill, nicely spaced out. Close the lid.
4. Flip them every five minutes (about four/five times) until they look like this

5. Toss them in your favorite sauce and enjoy! Don’t overthink the sauce; even just a bottle of Frank’s Buffalo is pretty great.

The laborious-but-better way

These are the wings I’d enter into a competition. I can’t believe I’m out here spilling secrets, but here we go.

1. Up to 24 hours before you cook, prep your wings by drying them out in a bowl with a paper towel at the bottom. Put the bowl in the fridge.
2. 2+ hours beforehand, season them with your favorite BBQ chicken seasoning
3. Fire up a charcoal smoker and start cooking your wings in the 275F-300F range
4. After half an hour, flip em, then give them another half hour on the smoker
5. Get a separate grill hot, all burners on high
6. Put the wings on, and pull them off when the wings are crispy (10-ish minutes)
7. Enjoy them as-is, or toss them in a buffalo sauce

Buffalo Wing Festivals

In 2001, the movie Osmosis Jones released, and in that movie Bill Murray says he’s traveling to Buffalo, NY for the Buffalo Wing Festival. Before that movie was released, that festival didn’t even exist! Fortunately, the city rectified that situation the following year. 

But you don’t have to go to New York for a wing fest because we have one right here in Colorado Springs! Best of the West Wing Fest usually takes place in September, and it’s getting better every year. Mr. Schniper even chatted with the founders recently.

Over in Huntsville, Alabama, I helped my fraternity start the Battle of the Buffalo. What began as a bunch of folding tables on top of a parking garage in 2009 has turned into a premier downtown event raising hundreds of thousands of dollars for cancer research. Proud of what those guys have achieved! 

Final Thoughts

Ranch or Bleu Cheese? Ranch, and it’s not even close. Flats or Drums? If you don’t like flats it’s because you don’t know how to eat them.