Buffalo wings at Upstate FTW. Photograph by John Rorapaugh/LeadingDC.
Upstate FTW. 1314 U St. NW.
Fried Rice Collective is best known for its hit Korean restaurant Anju and fast-casual Chiko. But co-owner Scott Drewno hails from outside Syracuse in a town called Penn Yan—”home to the world’s largest buckwheat pancake”—and he’s long wanted to pay homage to his upstate New York roots. Now, he’s finally getting that chance with Upstate FTW, a sports bar serving beef on weck, chicken riggies, and, of course, buffalo wings. It opens tonight, just in time for football season.
Upstate FTW is taking over the kitchen of Sports & Social on U Street, which has already been open for about two years. The sports bar, which has 19 locations around the country, will continue to handle front-of-house operations. “They were looking for a partner, and we were looking for a space and it’s a big, beautiful kitchen,” Drewno says.
Drewno and his chef partners Danny Lee and Angel Barreto recently took a research trip to Buffalo to taste-test wings. In one day, the trio visited eight spots, ordering a dozen wings and a beer at each place. “One thing we noticed is that at no place did the wings come out before like 25 minutes,” Drewno says. “One place that was under 20 minutes were the worst.”
Needless to say, you’ll have to wait for Upstate FTW’s wings, though things will move quicker when the place is busy and the kitchen can anticipate orders. Drewno says they brine the wings overnight, then chill and dry them in the walk-in fridge for two days before frying them. The Buffalo wings are dressed in a classic sauce of Frank’s Red Hot and butter. “The viscosity and the consistency is important. So we have a little thing that we do, which I’m not going to reveal to you,” Drewno says. It’s finished with a proprietary house seasoning.
You can also get the wings with four other sauces, including another Buffalo specialty known as “double BBQ.” Drewno explains the wings are tossed in barbecue sauce, charred, then tossed again.
Beef on weck is another main attraction. It’s essentially a roast beef sandwich, but Upstate FTW is partnering with 2Fifty BBQ to smoke Creekstone Farms top round beef. It’s served on a kimmelweck roll, a German roll with caraway seeds and salt that’s custom-baked by DC’s Pops Bakery. The sandwich is served with horseradish and jus for dipping.
Other regional specialties include chicken riggies—a baked rigatoni-and-chicken dish smothered in cheese—and pork belly spiedies, with skewers of meat flavored with an Italian dressing-like marinade. The spiedies are served with salt potatoes—baby Yukon golds boiled in an “inordinate amount of salt” then drowned in butter.
The bar will also serve French bread pizzas and Zweigle’s hot dogs from Rochester, which have a nice snap from the thick casing. Order red hots (pork and beef) or white hots (chicken, pork, and veal), then top them with a finely ground meat sauce, creamy-and-sharp Nance’s mustard, and raw onion. (You can also add cheese sauce.)
You’ll also find something called a “garbage plate,” which originates from Rochester restaurant Nick Tahou. Half the plate is home fries and half is macaroni salad, and there are two cheeseburgers with no buns. It’s all topped with meat sauce, mustard, and onions, then served with a hunk of French bread. “I survived college on garbage plates,” Drewno says. “It’s either going to cure a hangover or stave off a hangover. It can work both ways from my personal experience.”
For dessert, find New York-style cheesecake or a skillet chocolate chip cookie.
While the bar will serve New York food, it won’t necessarily be a Buffalo Bills bar. Drewno says they don’t want to compete with Bills bar Exiles down the street. Plus, his partner Lee is a local: “Danny was like, ‘We can do this, but it has to be a Commanders bar,” Drewno says. “So of course, we’re going to root for the home team.”
Food Editor
Jessica Sidman covers the people and trends behind D.C.’s food and drink scene. Before joining Washingtonian in July 2016, she was Food Editor and Young & Hungry columnist at Washington City Paper. She is a Colorado native and University of Pennsylvania grad.
