Buffalo Wings & Rings coming to north Arlington

Another restaurant/sports bar chain is coming to Tarrant County, just in time for football season.

Buffalo Wings & Rings plans to open its first North Texas location in a strip shopping center at East Lamar and Ballpark Way in Arlington in September, according to Bill Melton, the area franchisee. And he’s already scouting sites in north Fort Worth and Mansfield for a second location.

The Cincinnati-based chain will offer Buffalo-style chicken wings, burgers, salads, sandwiches, appetizers and, of course, onion rings in a 6,000-square-foot setting.

Priced to compete with other wings-and-beer chains like Pluckers and Buffalo Wild Wings, Buffalo Wings & Rings hopes to win over customers with the quality of its food and customer service, said Philip Schram, the company’s chief development officer. Its wings come in about 15 different flavors (served on plates, not in baskets), each made to order to any “heat level,” he said.

Melton, 55, worked for 23 years opening Applebee’s restaurants for the corporate owner and then Dallas-based franchisee Apple Texas Restaurants. He started in Cincinnati, where he became familiar with the Buffalo Wings & Rings concept.

DFW.COM: THE BEST BAR FOOD IN THE METROPLEX

“Always being in the industry, I love full service and I love sports,” he said, adding that his wife, Christine, would join as his business partner. He said Buffalo Wings & Rings is designed to appeal to women as well as men, with banks of big-screen TVs that can be easily seen but are “not in your face.”

Melton currently has the Dallas-Fort Worth territory to himself and is targeting about 20 stores over several years. Schram said there could be more than one franchisee in the region, which he said could eventually support as many as 80 stores.

Currently, Buffalo Wings & Rings has about 50 stores in 12 states including a dozen in south and central Texas including Corpus Christi, Laredo, Edinburg, McAllen, New Braunfels and San Antonio. It also operates in the Middle East in Jordan, Oman and Dubai.

This story was originally published April 6, 2016 at 10:22 AM with the headline "Buffalo Wings & Rings coming to north Arlington."