SCRANTON, Pa. — Doused in BBQ sauce, buffalo sauce, even garlic parm - chicken wings are a staple of Super Bowl Sunday.
But this year, there will be fewer chicken wings to go around because of a national shortage.
"We had to jump through quite a few hoops to make sure we had enough, but thankfully we will. We're not worried about having a short supply or anything like that, but the price was significantly higher this year," said Joe Fasula, co-owner of Gerrity's.
Chicken wing prices rose nearly 25% higher than last year.
Fasula says not just now, but there's been a shortage over the past couple of weeks.
He believes the cause is higher demand, and fewer people are working in processing plants because of coronavirus.
"Now whenever somebody gets sick in those plants, they have to shut down the line, or the lines are running with fewer people, and because they are running with fewer people, the productivity is less," said Fasula. "So it's just, they're struggling to keep up just with really normal demand. On the other side, you do have more demand because people are just eating differently, cooking differently, shopping differently."
Unlike Gerrity's supermarkets who had to raise their wings' price, at Kelly's Pub & Eatery, there is no shortage of chicken wings.
"So we start cooking usually about 9 o'clock, and we'll probably end up cooking 30,000 wings," said Trish Labortanti, co-owner at Kelly's Pub & Eatery.
Kelly's has been making wings for the Super Bowl for over 25 years.
Staff says this year, many more orders have been on the smaller side.
"We were a little nervous that people weren't going to have parties, but it ended up that people are staying home and having little parties with their families and so were having smaller orders. But lots of orders," said Laboranti.
If you're looking forward to the perfect drumstick for the game, no need to worry. Gerrity's and Kelly's still have plenty.