Chicken Wing Shortage: Colorado Restaurants Face Temporary Closures Due To Limited Supply
WHEAT RIDGE, Colo. (CBS4) - Some Denver-area restaurants are removing items from menus or even temporarily closing because they don't have enough chicken wings. King of Wings was prepared to close on Wednesday night if its shipment of wings didn't arrive before the dinner rush.
"A lot of nervousness, this chicken shortage has been going on a while and it hasn't caught up to us. It finally did," said Eddie Renshaw, co-owner of King of Wings. "These just got here, so we were supposed receive our order at 9:30 this morning. Unfortunately it didn't come until 3:30. We had a limited amount of wings to start the day."
On Monday, the popular restaurant in Wheat Ridge closed because of a wing shortage. Demand is so high that a shipment that arrived on Tuesday and should have lasted a few days was nearly gone. Renshaw says it's not just a quantity issue, but also quality.
"You see broken bones, huge wings next to small wings. Our supplier says this is the worst it's been in 30 years and we're seeing it. It all comes back to COVID. When COVID hit, they were producing too much. So, they cut back on the chickens producing and now they're needing to bump up production," Renshaw said.
King of Wings opened as a food truck in 2015, and since then the cost of wings has doubled. So far, Renshaw says he and his partner haven't decided to raise prices.
The restaurant heard the shortage could last through the summer, so they'll continue to operate on a short-term basis.
"We care so much and put so much love into this product that obviously we would never let a bad wing go out. That's what we do, we're the King of Wings," he said.
