Demise of the House of Wings

[Winghouse is Now CLOSED. RIP]

Its a sad sad day in the land of wings.

Yes folks, the sun has set on The Original WINGHOUSE. I first got wind that this might be the case several weeks ago when Nee told me Rayzor had been by and it had seemed closed. I then followed up with a couple of phone calls to which I got no answer and no answering machine. Then, this past week, I decided to take a peek, and my worst fears were confirmed:

"For Rent" posted in the window. I was really disappointed because this was a great wing joint. Great tasting wings, perfect crispness, lots of flavour choices. As I always said, these guys loved wings and it showed.

But from this great sadness, we can possibly learn some lessons about having a chicken wing joint and keeping it successful.

1. Advertise Advertise Advertise: these guys did no promotion what so ever, relying totally on word of mouth. Don't get me wrong, word of mouth is how I got there and brought people there, but that's just not enough
2. Stay open longer: the business wasn't open for lunch most days, leading to the feel this was an after school project rather than an important food destination
3. Appeal to everyone: I love the wing, but there are some crazies out that that don't. So you have to appeal to them to. Frozen chicken fingers from the grocery store doesn't cut it. Go fresh or not at all.
4. Beer: I don't drink it, but most people do. Serve it on tap, not in the bottle. Same goes for coke (although they did have the perfect temp for canned coke).
5. Seating: those wicker chairs are great for relaxing in but terrible for eating in.
6. Money: invest in DEBIT (this goes for ALL Toronto restaurants) and at the very least, VISA. I don't carry much cash on me so don't make me.
7. Know Your Product: These guys knew their wings, but they didn't know their sauces. I know its difficult when you have 90 flavours, but when you list just the name and not what it tastes like, and the server/owner doesn't know, thats not good.

Hopefully other places can learn from the tragedy that befelled Winghouse.

Goodbye new friend . . . you will be missed.