KANSAS CITY, MO (WKBW) — One thousand miles away from Buffalo, New York, Alan Burns knew something was missing.
Chicken wings.
“Kansas City wings have a tendency to be bad,” said Burns, waiting in his restaurant's foyer. “I just made them the way every bar in Buffalo makes them and they've taken off.”
Burns lived in WNY his whole life, until he moved to Kansas City over 10 years ago. His wife got a job that could pay for the family’s healthcare insurance, so Burns opened a bar. His bar, Al's Bar and Grill. As a lifelong Bills fan, his bar is now the official Bills backer bar in the Kansas City area.
While BBQ is the specialty in KC, Al says his bar is the go-to place for wings.
“We sold around 13,000 chicken wings on Super Bowl Sunday,” said Burns.
He says he sees a lot of similarities between the Bills fan base and the Chiefs fan base.
“They are a lot like Buffalo people. They live and die by their football team and it's their pride and joy, just like Buffalo,” explained Burns.
And like the Chiefs Kingdom and Bills Mafia, Burns is confident for Sunday's match up.
“We can beat Kansas City. I've got Kansas City people all around me,” as people walked through the door into his bar. “I mean, I've been through the four losses. I know the disappointment. That's why I'm trying to maintain a cautious optimism.”
While the pandemic is putting the brakes on throngs of Western New Yorkers heading to Missouri, there is a bit of Western New York already in Kansas City.
