Finding Chicken Wings: There’s an App for That

On Sunday night, I wanted wings. However, the only Buffalo Wild Wings (my generic/default choice) is too far away and they insulted me during a fantasy football draft (short version: draft was SPONSORED by B-Dubs and I went there to support the whole thing and they stuck me in a corner behind a trash can; don’t ever tell anyone that you’re a “very important blogger,” it will not pan out well).

So I Google-map’d “wings” and “Buffalo” but got a) nothing really near my house and b) some city in NY where they serve crappy football. Needless to say, an iPhone application built specifically for finding chicken wing locations would be pretty, pretty nice. Fortunately, there is one: Kluckr. Unfortunately, it’s not that simple.

“Guys always debate the difference between a good and a bad wing,” said [Mark] Gilmor, who heads up Kluckr Communications, the company created for the project. “We want to be part of the dialogue and engage the competitive nature of the debate.”

True ’nuff. However, Kluckr costs $0.99. I’m not “frugal” and much less “cheap” (I actually just ignored the fact that we were charged for two baskets of 10 wings instead of one basket of 20 wings on Sunday night rather than deal with the hassle) but before I go dropping a buck on an app that I’m only likely to use a few times, I like to know how resourceful it is to me. So I hit up the website.

Greensboro and Raleigh (the two places I’m most likely to eat wings, and the two places where I could accurately judge what kind of wing-review-action they were providing)? Mild Weak sauce. Seven Domino’s locations are listed, a few Outback locations (I didn’t even know they served wings), but not a single BW3’s.

Anyway, I’m still far more curious than I am cheap, so I downloaded the app while writing this “review” (plus it didn’t seem fair to review something I hadn’t actually used — that would be like the NCAA Coaches poll in football or something). Also, the Kluckr mascot is fucking awesome, so I kind of wanted his face on my phone. Anyway …

So I paid $1, downloaded the app, fired it up and there’s like a Wheel of Fortune kind of thing going on with various different categories — Atmosphere, Value, Heat, Variety and Service (Taste? Quality? Important Things?) — that the little mascot’s beak can click through to randomly select a wing place for you. My first three? Logan’s Roadhouse, Outback Steakhouse, and Longhorn Steakhouse. (Again, Greensboro, but really guys?)

Of course, you can also search by category, and you can add reviews — although you have to register, which I was unable to do because the server wouldn’t respond. Sigh. And honestly, I’ll give it another run (because I want to know how easy it is to review something on here; so many times people destroy consumer stuff like this because they make it difficult to write a review) but one more whiff from the server and I’m probably donecakes.

To sum up, it’s a brilliant idea; it taps into a niche demographic (Iphone users that eat wings) and — were it full of awesome reviews — would be the first place I went when I realized I wanted wings. But — and again, it’s only three weeks old, so I’ll cut it a little slack — right now there are too many bugs and holes in the way the app is setup for me to tell you to go out and spend a dollar on it.

Tagged as: Apple, Apps, Chicken Wing Finder, chicken wings, Food, Hmmmm, Iphone, Kluckr Iphone App, Reviews