2nd
Creative Sweet
Wingfest 2016
Wingfest Buffalo NY
National Buffalo Wing Festival · Sep 2016 · Coca-Cola Field, Buffalo, New York
The largest wing competition in the world — 80+ entrants from across North
America, judged blind across multiple categories. The Pires family loaded
the King Of The Wings truck into a shipping container, flew it to upstate
New York, and entered the Creative Sweet category with
the Bee Sting.
They placed second. First Australian wing operator to ever
podium at Wingfest. Five US TV networks picked up the story; Australian
Buffalo Wing Festival coverage followed. The trophy is in the kitchen at
Grange Thistle.
×5
Best Brisbane
Food Truck
Best Brisbane
Food Truck.
Brisbane Food Truck Awards · 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018
Five consecutive years voted Best Brisbane Food Truck — a record only
broken when the brand voluntarily withdrew during the bricks-and-mortar
chapter. Voted by Brisbane diners through the city’s annual food
truck awards.
During the streak Dylan Pires also founded the Brisbane Food Truck
Collective, which has since grown to 22 member operators — making
KOTW one of the longest-running mobile food businesses in Queensland.
Top 3
Australia
Delicious Magazine
Delicious Magazine
Best Wings in Australia.
Delicious Magazine · National food guide
Named one of the top three places in Australia for chicken wings
by Delicious Magazine, the country’s most authoritative food
publication. The recognition came on the back of the Wingfest podium and
the consecutive Brisbane wins.
Specific recipe-call-outs: the Bee Sting (honey, sesame, sweet
chilli) and Portuguese Crumb. Recipes that haven’t been
re-written since.
Top 3
Brisbane
Courier Mail
Courier Mail
Brisbane’s Best.
The Courier Mail · Brisbane food guide
The Courier Mail’s ongoing food coverage placed King Of The Wings in
Brisbane’s top three for wings, alongside a long-form entrepreneurs
feature on Dylan and Katrina (“Food truck takes wings on the road”)
and a follow-up news piece when the brand returned to truck-only operation.
The Courier Mail tracked the brand from the 2014 launch through Stafford,
Grange and back to the road — a rare 12-year arc of trade-press coverage.
’18
Young Entrepreneur
Finalist · Brisbane
Young Entrepreneur
Finalist.
Brisbane Business News · Young Entrepreneur Awards · 2018
Dylan Pires was named a 2018 Young Entrepreneur finalist — recognition for
not only the wing brand, but for founding the Brisbane Food Truck
Collective and mentoring a generation of mobile-food operators
into a unified industry voice in Queensland.
The award notes the rare combination of brand-building (KOTW) and
industry-building (the Collective). The Pires family has been a quiet hand
behind dozens of Brisbane food-truck launches since.
×5
US TV Networks
Featured
Five US TV Networks.
North America · 2016 (Buffalo, NY)
The Wingfest podium triggered a US press cycle — five American television
networks ran stories on “the Australian truck that beat the
Americans at their own wing” during Wingfest week 2016. Local
Buffalo coverage carried it; national cable picked it up.
The Pires family did the press circuit between rounds at the festival.
Twelve years on, those clips are still on YouTube — and people still
quote them.
