HOW THE LEGEND WAS BORN

Please allow me to thank everyone of our loyal customers, our hardworking franchisees, my family and my daughter’s family for their support. This is how the story goes. In July of 1998, I was told I was going to be a father for the first time. This was by far the best news I ever heard. Later that year around Christmas, we found the baby was going to be a little girl. The mother-to-be looked like the prettiest southern belle in the whole world………a real Georgia Peach. In her honour I decided to call our little girl “Savannah” {as in Georgia}. With the thrill of being a parent for the first time comes responsibility. My first thoughts were taking care of my daughter and if she got sick, how could I get her medicated. All I could think about at the time was providing the means to support her and a cash business was in the back of my mind. In January of 1999 I only had about $100.00 left in a failed business account, was about to go into bankruptcy and things were bleak. Trying to remain positive, I saw an ad in a real estate paper for a business up north. I immediately took my seven year old stepson for a drive and it seemed to take forever to get there. At one point I wanted to stop and turn back, but he said ”keep going” and for that I am grateful to him. Less than five minutes later we drove through a small town which had a “Wild West” feel to it. As we spotted the restaurant, I knew right there that it was meant to be. We got home that Friday night and I phoned the agent. We wanted the restaurant. The agent was sick of showing the restaurant and said that over two hundred people called about it. I bought it right then and there without looking at it, knowing that I needed to cover the payment. The next day I asked my mother-in-law for $600.00 to cover the cheques, she obliged and I am grateful to her. I met the agent and she let me know the rent was $600.00. Correcting her, I said the rent was more as she did not charge me our favourite tax, the GST. She looked at me and said good things would happen to me for being so honest. On Monday we signed the lease and Tuesday we took it to our bank to see about financing. After much hesitation, they allowed us $15,000.00 and we were about to open the first Wild Wing® Restaurant. We were scheduled to open on March 16th, 1999 which was delayed one day due to the birth of our daughter. We had become parents. My daughter and her mother were beautiful that day. With that in my head our humble beginnings, I opened our first Wild Wing® the next day and the LEGEND WAS BORN.

Thanks again for everyone’s support from THE WILD BEHIND THE WING