These days, it is nearly impossible to avoid commercials for sports grills that specialize in chicken wings.
But Bob Baumhower can recall a time in which a wing-based restaurant was hard to come by. After all, he’s been in the restaurant business for nearly 30 years.
“When I first got the business in 1981, there were no other wing restaurants in the state,” he said. “We pushed wings. It was what we were.”
Now, the owner and head fry cook of the Baumhower’s Wings chain of restaurants has decided to change the name and menu of his establishment.
“We’ve evolved to where we’re a lot more than wings now,” Baumhower said. “All of these other restaurants, whether it’s Buffalo Wild Wings, Wing Zone, just call themselves wings right now. It’s a little confusing out there, so we’ve been working on this for a while and we decided to go with Baumhower’s Restaurant.”
The new Baumhower’s will feature a menu that is similar to what Wings served, but has added several regional dishes.
“We haven’t changed the menu that much actually,” Baumhower said. “We added a few Southern things like catfish, which we get from right here in Alabama, and a couple of other Southern dishes… But the core of the menu, whether it’s Buffalo-style chicken wings or our sandwiches or salads, is still here.”
Along with the additions to the menu, Baumhower said the restaurant will now feature only local meats and seafood.
“We’re buying our catfish from Harvest Selects, which is a state-of-Alabama-based company,” he said. “We get all of our shrimp from Bayou la Batre, only wild shrimp. It’s caught down in Forrest Gump land.
“We try as much as possible to buy local, and we’re doing a better job communicating that… We’re just trying to feature more Southern things on the menu and a lot of local stuff we buy in the state of Alabama. All of our meats are fresh and come from Birmingham.”
Also being changed are the menus themselves. The Tuscaloosa location will feature a special new menu cover designed by Chad Martin of Action Sports Art, a design group focusing on athletics, and will feature scenes of Crimson Tide football.
Will Clark, a sophomore majoring in history, said he is very excited about the new menu items.
“I like [the changes],” Clark said. “It’s hard to find good soul food up here. I’m definitely going to go to Baumhower’s more often.”
Hannah Moody, a sophomore majoring in elementary education, has worked at the Tuscaloosa Baumhower’s Restaurant for a month and a half.
“The Hot Bama Brown is a pretty popular new dish,” Moody said. “It’s an open-faced sourdough sandwich with our almost-fried turkey, topped with blanco cheese, parmesan cheese, mashed potatoes, bacon, a tomato and mushroom beef gravy.
“People like it because it’s not only delicious, but unique to a sports bar menu. You won’t be able to find anything like it in Tuscaloosa.”
Baumhower said he believes these changes, along with several prices on the menu being reduced, will help his restaurants flourish in the sluggish economy.
“The only constant in life, as far as I’m concerned, is that there’s going to be change,” he said. “We’re only trying to get better and we feel like this is a much better menu in a lot of ways.”
