Wingnuts takes flight on wings of creative design

Nation's Restaurant News, June 24, 2002 by Lori Doss

To accompany his plans for a menu showcasing 30 different varieties of chicken wings, Gregg Diganci needed a unique restaurant design as well as an efficient kitchen for his first prototype unit of Wingnuts restaurant in Costa Mesa, Calif.

Taking his cue from current dining and economic trends, Diganci, whose previous restaurant experience includes stints as vice president of operations for Irvine, Calif-based Charley Brown's restaurants and as a dinnerhouse franchisee, said he foresaw a niche for a casual, full-service chicken-wing restaurant.

"The economy is pointed to this full-service, quick-ticket-time restaurant. Everything is designed to move quickly," Diganci said.

To make his idea for a 4,985-square-foot restaurant into a reality, Diganci hired Costa Mesa-based Creative Culinary Design, whose previous projects include work for 7-Eleven, Shakey's Pizza and Kenny Rogers Roasters. Focusing on the signature chicken wings that would be featured at Wingnuts, designer Michael Owings chose to design the prototype around an airplane motif.

"It's pretty dramatic when you walk in the front door," Diganci said. "You see real airplane wings and a real airplane hanging from the ceiling. It's very visual, and it's very bright."

Built to resemble an airplane hangar, the restaurant has an industrial atmosphere, with its exposed ventilation, stained concrete floor and tin walls. Specially designed lighting resembles that of an airplane landing strip, and blue airline seats are positioned strategically in the lobby of the restaurant to allude to the aviation theme. A model airplane with a 10-foot wingspan hangs from the ceiling, and numerous bits of airplane memorabilia decorate the restaurant, including large pictures of landing strips to accent Wingnuts' hangar ambience.

The aviation theme isn't limited to the restaurant's dining area, either. Aviation heroes -- male and female -- were used to label the rest rooms, Owings said.

The centerpiece of the chicken-wing restaurant is an island bar, which incorporates aviation-style decor by using the tall wings -- taillights included -- of an old airplane for the back bar.

"It's a focus of the concept," Owings said. "You have quick service to get beverages right when you come in.

Although he's quick to point out that the restaurant is not a sports bar, Owings said strategically placed televisions were installed -- along with a high-tech sound system -- for those customers who want to watch sports events while they munch on a plate of wings.

Placing the bar in the center of the restaurant and the seating at various levels helps accommodate different crowds of diners, Owings said. Families can sit at the booths, while large parties can push tables together, and people interested in socializing or a light appetizer can sit around the bar. The restaurant has approximately 140 interior seats.

Keeping durability in mind, Owings used high-density foam and vinyl for the seating so that it would endure wear and tear. While the majority of the restaurant uses the industrial-style, airplane-hangar decor, Owings chose wood materials for the seating to relieve some of the restaurant's starker design elements and to create a cozy atmosphere in which diners can eat their meals.

To separate his concept from the increasing flock of chickenwing chains, Diganci included 30 wing varieties on his menu, including roasted tomato, Jamaican jerk, teriyaki and whiskey barbecue. In addition to chicken wings, the restaurant serves a variety of salads, including a crispy Buffalo chicken salad, and sandwiches, such as chipotle barbecue pork and grilled portobello melt. Wingnuts also features three types of ribs: St. Louis, baby back or beef, all of which come with different sauces, such as Santa Fe and chipotle barbecue.

Developing a kitchen to accommodate the production of the wings required careful planning, Owings said.

"The challenging part of the design was the culinary aspect -- the integration of all these different sauces and techniques of cooking into a confined space to do large volumes," he explained.

To facilitate the menu and make the cooking process flow smoothly, Owings designed a spot for everything in the 1,500-square-foot kitchen. For example, he installed wing-breading stations directly on the front of the fryers and attached the basting stations in front of the grill. Large bowls throughout the cooking line are used to toss the wings in their flavored sauces, which are kept handy in plastic bottles. To make sure the wings stay juicy and to keep cooking time down, Owings designed a cooking process that allows the wings to be partially cooked and then finished made-to-order after the kitchen gets the order ticket.

By placing the display kitchen directly behind the bar, Owings also helped ease traffic flow.

"We stacked [the bar and kitchen] like that for speed of service, which we got down to six to eight minutes, because no one has to walk far to get to a customer," he added.

Diganci said customers appreciate the quick service and high quality of Wingnuts' cuisine. Designed as a prototype unit, Wingnuts, Diganci said, is gearing up for expansion. Located in a heavily trafficked retail center has helped garner Wingnuts great exposure, he said. But before approaching investors about expansion, he is waiting for the wing restaurant's sales to reach his targeted projections.