Columbus' No. 1 wing man: Austin Yochus documents his favorite wing restaurants, specials

Austin Yochus gets ready to chow down on one of his favorite snacks at Pastimes Pub at Crosswoods, one of the more than 100 eateries on his spreadsheet of wing stops.
Austin Yochus gets ready to chow down on one of his favorite snacks at Pastimes Pub at Crosswoods, one of the more than 100 eateries on his spreadsheet of wing stops.

When the pandemic hit in 2020, Austin Yochus took advantage of the time in quarantine to document one of his biggest interests in the city of Columbus.

Chicken wings.

Yochus created a comprehensive spreadsheet of not only all the chicken wings in Columbus, but also when and where wing specials around the city take place. The idea came to Yochus as a tool he and his friends could use to find new wing places in the city.

Restaurant review:  Shrimp Lips boasts delicious fried seafood and chicken, tasty sides

For years, Yochus and his friends would go to the same places for pizza and wings. Then, when COVID hit, he started thinking about the impact on small businesses.

“I realized Columbus is a food mecca,” Yochus, 26, said. “There is an unlimited supply of restaurants here and there's a lot of smaller local mom-and-pop shops that have amazing food that were really being impacted by the pandemic at the time. A lot of places had to close down or were doing carryout only. My friends and I wanted to support some of these businesses, and at the same time, we were trying to find the best wings in Columbus.”

Documenting Columbus' best chicken wing restaurants

He originally started the spreadsheet on the notes app on his phone. He received tips of new wing places through the Facebook group Chicken Wing Connoisseurs of Columbus, for which he serves as one of the admins.

Members are there to “spread the love of all the best places to go to get wings!”

Yochus noticed that people would ask what the daily wing specials were on a specific weekday or over the weekend. People would comment back and forth, responding to one another’s queries, and Yochus would add the restaurants to  his list and research them.

Then, a lightbulb went off.

Rudy's: Behind the Menu: Rudy's restaurant-quality food makes it more than your average sports bar

“What if I just put this all into a spreadsheet?” Yochus said. “It'll be really easy. I can break it down by the day, the location, or what the special is, if there's any recommendations for sauces or anything like that.”

He first put the spreadsheet together in January 2021, and he posted it on his personal Facebook page, in the Chicken Wing Connoisseurs of Columbus, and in another Facebook group called the Pizza Connoisseurs of Columbus.'

Yochus' Columbus chicken wing restaurants, specials spreadsheet updated for 2022

However, he soon ran into some issues. The supply chain crisis affected a lot of industries, particularly in food.

“The price of chicken wings really rose, like (it) doubled or tripled, so a lot of places got rid of their specials,” Yochus said. “My spreadsheet essentially was now out of date. I had all these specials from a year and a half ago.”

Dining: Dave's Hot Chicken to complete Westar Neighborhood Retail Center

People began asking him if his spreadsheet had been updated, so he rose to meet the demand. He went through Facebook comments and restaurant websites to update his spreadsheet for 2022.

“It actually took me several hours throughout the week to go through and find out which places still had specials, or if their special was still the same, if they changed the price, if they changed the day.”

Austin Yochus chomps into a chicken wing at Pastimes Pub.
Austin Yochus chomps into a chicken wing at Pastimes Pub.

'... It's pretty cool to go around and try the different places'

Despite his Columbus chicken wing journey taking off, Yochus still has not been to all of the wing places in Columbus. He likes to save the spreadsheet and use it for times he is with his friends.

Two years ago, during the first half of the pandemic, Yochus lost 50 pounds and he would only allow himself one "cheat" meal a week.

Care to make a guess as to what it was?

“Over the last two years, randomly, if my friends and I were like ‘Oh, let's get wings.’  I would check out the wing sheet and try to find a place that we haven't tried yet.”

Restaurant review: Aracri Pizzeria sticks with familiar but flavorful fare of predecessor

His favorite sauce is either classic barbecue or Carolina Gold.

“What's cool about this is like trying these different places, they have different styles of wings,” Yochus said. “They have different processes of making them, different sauces so it's pretty cool to go around and try the different places and then compare and contrast them and rank them to yourself.”

To see the spreadsheet, visit https://bit.ly/3Rd9kQ7.

David Kwiatkowski is a features intern for The Columbus Dispatch. You can reach him on Twitter @kwiatkdm or his email dkwiatkowski@gannett.com.

Austin Yochus' top 5 favorite wing stops

In no particular order: 

• The Galloway Tavern, 1954 Galloway Road, Galloway

• Grandview Cafe, 1455 W. 3rd Ave., Grandview Heights

• Pastimes Pub at Crosswoods, 121  E. Campus View Blvd.

• Roadhouse Wings & Grille, 2177 Hilliard Rome Road, Hilliard

• Club 185, 185 E. Livingston Ave.

This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Columbus man creates spreadsheet of chicken wing restaurants, specials