Fast food industry gears up for Super Bowl weekend
Posted January 29, 2013 5:07 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
The fast food industry is gearing up for Super Bowl weekend, one of the busiest days of the year for purveyors of one particular greasy snack.
“It’s chicken wings and more chicken wings,” Stephanie Coones of the Crown & Dragon told Citynews.ca.
“That’s major. Sometimes we do some chili, sometimes we do hot dogs and what not, but it’s chicken wing mania here,” Coones said, adding that it’s best to call in your order ahead.
The Crown & Dragon, near Yonge and Church streets, offers over 30 flavours of wings and is packed throughout the regular football season. Feb. 3 will bring extra crowds and more delivery orders to the bar.
Duff’s restaurant manager Richard Erlich said, “We’ve had people calling for weeks and weeks already.”
“We also offer our full menu but 90 per cent of the stuff that leaves the door is wings.”
Erlich said that customers are familiar with the system and know that they need to place an order in advance and book a time slot for pickup.
“It’s ten times the volume of a regular busy day. We have a unique system in that we shut down all three of our restaurants to customers, but everyone is working on orders for pickup,” making for a busy day for staff.
“People aren’t allowed to not work. Obviously within reasons, but it’s like our Boxing Day,” he said.
Super Bowl Sunday is Pizza Pizza’s second-busiest day of the year, falling behind only Halloween.
Last year, the chain processed nearly 70 orders per minute during peak times, selling more than 49,000 pizzas and 156,000 wings on one day.
That’s nearly twice as many wings as the week before: The Sunday before the 2012 Super Bowl, Pizza Pizza sold 75,391 wings.
And if you don’t want to spend the Super Bowl at home, four Toronto food trucks are competing to see who has the best chicken wings at a Liberty Village showdown.
The Feisty Jack, Fidel Gastro’s, Hogtown Smoke, Food Dudes and Chef Michael Pataran will face off at The Gym at 99 Sudbury St.
There will also be beverage vendors on hand and large-screen TVs for all the football action.
