WesWings, the recent winner of the “Great Wesleyan Wing-off 2010,” (Vol. CXLVI No. 27) is evolving with the times. The owners, Ed Thorndike ’89 and Karen Kaffen have used the social networking site Facebook for the past few years, but this semester, the business partners have launched a new Facebook fan page as a way to advertise and communicate with their clientele.

“The Facebook page makes it easier to connect with our customers,” Thorndike said. “The website is great for letting people know our daily specials and hours but the fan page allows the relationship to work both ways […]. They [customers] are free to post pictures and comments as opposed to us just maintaining it in a more static way.”

Ed Thorndike ’89 graduated from Wesleyan the same year that his fraternity, Delta Tau Delta, closed its doors. At that time, the fraternity was located on 156 High St., a brick building with a first floor lounge complete with a pool table and widescreen TV. Thorndike—who was part of the fraternity’s eating club—returned with his business partner Karen Kaffen to renovate the space into a campus restaurant.

“A year had passed since graduation and we were trying to figure out what to do with our lives when we came up with the idea of opening a restaurant,” Thorndike said.

After brainstorming for a weekend, the pair decided to take the plunge, and on Feb. 6, 1991 WesWings opened for business. Although the restaurant has undergone three renovations and serves a constantly changing clientele, its core menu has remained essentially the same.
The staple offering has been the wings, which come in a large variety of flavors and spiciness—the brave or foolish choose the “beyond death” wings. WesWings’s menu also includes signature desserts such as cakes from the Cheese Cake Factory and homemade strawberry mousse.

“We have had the chocolate chip cookie dough since the day we opened,” Kaffen said. “Now, we make it from scratch.”

Though the food options have remained stable throughout WesWings’s history, the new Facebook fan page for WesWings and Red & Black Café is providing added convenience for customers.

The fan page, entitled WesWings and The Red & Black Café, currently boasts 488 fans, a number that is expected to continue to rise.

“It [the fan page] has kind of caught fire in the last month or two,” Kaffen said.
The contests and free giveaways have increased the popularity of the fan page. Previous giveaways included gift cards, and in preparation for WesWings’s April 30th Lobsterfest, 10 lucky fans will receive free lobster dinners.

In another contest Ross Shenker ’11 and Jamie Sandra ’11 stood to win t-shirts if the number of fans reached 500 before Spring Break. Unfortunately, that quota was not achieved.
“I made a Facebook event telling people to become a fan and got the number up to around 475,” Shenker said. “Unfortunately, that wasn’t enough. If it had been for money I probably would have been more sore, but I tried.”

In another 20 years, the menu at WesWings may very well look the same. But Thorndike and Kaffen will probably devise more creative ways to advertise, like holographic chickens, or something.