WASHINGTON — While the New England Patriots and Seattle Seahawks are getting ready to take the field, Super Bowl partygoers are getting ready to eat and drink. Chicken wings and pizza are among the most popular foods served at Super Bowl parties.
Few places will dish out more wings than the little storefront in Georgetown called Wingos, and few places will serve up more pizza than the 75 Domino’s locations in northern Virginia, D.C. and suburban Maryland.
“This is, for us, the Christmas of the chicken wing business,” Michael Arthur, owner of Wingos, says about Super Bowl Sunday.
“It’s our busiest day of the year, all of our employees, all hands on deck, everybody works that day,” says John Roadas, vice president of Domino’s Team Washington. The aroma of pizza fills the air inside one of Domino’s newest locations at 20th and K streets, NW. Employees prepare the pizzas behind clear plexiglass for all to see.
Wingos prides itself on fresh chicken, delivered daily from Perdue Farms on Maryland’s Eastern Shore. And the wings are cooked the old-fashioned way.
“Everything is fresh made and we’re one of the few places that still fry our wings,” Arthur says, as a team of employees plunges the latest batch of wings into the deep fryer. “Everything’s homemade here.”
Wingos expects to serve up to 40,000 wings for Super Bowl parties. Domino’s estimates it will deliver up to 200,000 pizzas.
Wings and pizza may be the common ground between “one percenters” and the working class. It’s food that could be found on the tables of parties inside elegant homes and in humble one-bedroom apartments.
“Everybody loves pizza,” Roadas says.
As for chicken wings…
“You know what it is? It’s a comfort food,” Arthur says.
Wings might even bridge Washington’s notorious political divide. Arthur says Former President George W. Bush enjoyed his wings from Wingos, which has been in business 12 years.
“Right now we have an order going to 1500 F Street, which is part of the White House. They ordered 2,000 wings,” Arthur says.
Plenty of pizza orders are alos in place.
“People have already called in their orders for a lot of our locations, a ton of pizzas, a ton of wings,” says Roadas, who points out that Domino’s also sells chicken wings, pasta and sandwiches.
While many people are partying on Super Sunday, the folks at the pizza parlors and wing joints will be working hard.
“We stop answering the phone at 4. All of us will start delivering the food or shaking the wings. Everyone, it’s like a family, we all do it together,” Arthur says.
