While Buffalo Wild Wings promises “Wings. Beer. Sports,” one person alleged that at least one-third of that slogan is going unfulfilled.
Aimen Halim first sued the restaurant franchise in 2023, alleging that B-Dubs deceived customers by labeling its boneless chicken wings in the “wings” section of its menu.
“Unbeknownst to Plaintiff and other consumers, the Products are not wings at all, but instead, slices of chicken breast meat deep-fried like wings,” the suit read. “Indeed, the Products are more akin, in composition, to a chicken nugget rather than a chicken wing.”
Fast-forward three years, and U.S. District Judge John J. Tharp, Jr. has made a ruling on what is undoubtedly the case of the century.
In the ruling, obtained by ABC News, Tharp came to the conclusion that Halim’s complaint “has no meat on its bones” and “did not ‘drum’ up enough factual allegations to state a claim.”
“Words can have multiple meanings–indeed, the term ‘buffalo wing’ refers to the type of sauce on the wing, rather than indicating it is made of buffalo meat,” Tharp wrote.
Additionally, Tharp points out that Buffalo Wild Wings also sells cauliflower wings under its menu’s “wing” section, noting that a reasonable consumer would not “think that cauliflower wings are made (at least in part) from wing meat.”
“‘Boneless wing’ is also clearly a fanciful name, because chickens do have wings, and those wings have bones,” Tharp wrote. “A reasonable consumer would not think that BWW’s boneless wings were truly deboned chicken wings, reconstituted into some sort of Franken-wing.”
While that case is now solved, the debate of drums vs. flats rages on