Wings Etc. set to open June 5

The bar at Wings Etc. features items from Kevin’s own collection of sport memorabilia and ticket stubs in addition to the replications supplied through the franchise. Kevin love the NFL and is a diehard Packers fan but as a Hoosier resident, is a Colts season ticket holder.

Kevin Chance knew he wanted to open a Wings Inc. restaurant as soon as he pulled up a stool at the one located in Plainfield, Ind.

“I liked the feel and the food was great,” he said. “It was just what I was looking for.”

Kevin had been looking at franchise opportunities in his quest to return to the restaurant industry after he was downsized from his position with Walgreens. He grew up in the iconic diner his family owned in his Milan, Ill. hometown. According to Kevin, the Scamper In was a place everyone went to.

“My mother started the restaurant in 1958,” he explained about the former 24-hour diner that he worked in and eventually his sister and brother operated until it closed. “It was one of those places that little kids loved to go to. It was neat.”

Seeing Wings Etc as a perfect fit, the sports fan reached out to the South Bend based company and Jasper was posited as a potential new location. The 51-year-old visited and found that he loved the area. The updated Germantown Shopping Center on Jasper’s north side was a good location and in January, Kevin began the process of renovating the 4,500 square foot space for the restaurant.

He’s recently moved down in anticipation of the new restaurant opening the first week of June.

Besides the given— great wings, Wings Etc. also features fresh-never-frozen burgers, hardwood smoked ribs and rib tips, a legendary 11-inch hotdog called the Homewrecker and even salads and wraps.

Kevin of course loves everything on the menu. “I love the wings and our tenderloin is pretty nice,” he said. “Everything is really good.”

The restaurant will have 20 taps that will include craft beers in addition to 40 bottled beers that will always be available ice-cold.

For those seeking a bit of alimentary excitement, the Wall of Flame could be the challenge for you. The restaurant’s hottest sauce is simply labeled Wall. Anyone able to eat 16 bone-in wings covered in the habanero-based sauce without a drink or any other food will get their picture on The Wall of Flame. Besides the public display of gastric greatness, surmounting the Wall also affords you an opportunity to purchase a commemorative shirt set aside for the few that accomplish the feat.

According to Kevin, it isn’t an easy task that has to be accomplished in 30 minutes. “I’ve tried the sauce but it’s a little hotter than I like,” he said. “I can’t imagine doing 16 of them. Even in the kitchen, sometimes when you are making that sauce, the cooks are coughing a little.”

In addition to great food, there isn’t a seat in the restaurant that can’t see one of the 32 televisions featuring sportscasts. “Is there anything else than sports,” Kevin joked when asked if anything other than sports would be shown.

Besides the professional and collegiate sports decor, the store will be localized with Dubois County high school team memorabilia as well.

A full menu can be found here. The new restaurant located at 3683 N. Newton St. opens June 5 and Kevin can’t wait. Currently, he is taking applications for the estimated 70 positions he needs to fill. See the ad here.

“How much more fun can you have than coming in here and watching sports all day and talking to people? Perfect,” Kevin said.

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4 Comments

  1. Well, I don’t venture out much anymore and too old for food like that, anyway, but I like the incorporation into the sign of the bi-plane from my by-gone days – and apropos for the first movie ever to win the Best Picture award way back in 1927: “WINGS” !

  2. Wings Etc. is the only place I’ve been to that sauces wings the right way. They’re napped and not thrown into a bucket of used sauce and shaken to death.

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