Wings on Brookwood on Weathering Difficulty and Coming Back Strong
There are food traditions that are so ingrained in us that we feel instantly relaxed when we get them. They don’t have to be served in a fancy way to make us feel truly at home and comfortable.
Hamilton residents have been getting their comfort and community alongside their plates of delicious wings for more than two decades from Hamilton’s resident wing place, Wings on Brookwood.
Owner Kim Snider has seen the business through shifts in name and through many seasons of Hamilton life, and she says consistently that the two things that keep the business running are her great employees and great customers.
“We have second-generation employees here, children of employees, and my family works here,” says Snider. “We’re just a very family-oriented business, all the people who work here are family to us.”
Snider’s daughter, Erin Kuhlman, is General Manager and knows first-hand how much a family environment matters to their business.
“I’ve been here 20 years, so it’s like home to me,” Kuhlman points out. “I mean, all the employees eat here too!”
When the pandemic began, it presented a difficult choice for Snider and Kuhlman. Despite the disappointment to customers and tough situation for staff, they chose to close down the restaurant for two months.
“There wasn’t a lot of good information at the time, and I wanted to stay safe,” says Snider. “We did some renovations, then we took some time to get our heads together to create a curbside pickup that would be effortless.”
Customers were overjoyed when Wings on Brookwood re-opened, with a careful process that avoided spreading germs while quickly and carefully getting tasty salads, sandwiches, and wings out to loyal customers.
“We’ve always had a big carryout business, and we strategically placed everything during our all-carryout business,” says Kuhlman. “It really ran very effortlessly, even not taking cash and running cards over the phone.”
The restaurant has been known in the past for a competitive and fun night of trivia that they hold on Monday nights. When the pandemic created a need to end this tradition in-person, Snider got creative.
“I contacted the company and found out that they could host trivia online,” says Snider. ‘We have very loyal trivia teams, and they still play at 6:30pm on Monday nights, 11 to 18 teams from all over. It was just our way to keep some type of normalcy and say thank you to our customers.”
Snider even plays trivia herself with the customers, since the restaurant is closed Mondays. Having that source of community really grounded the loyal fans of the restaurant during a difficult time.
“We’ve got the best customers, the most loyal, supportive people you’ll ever see,” says Snider. “I’ve got good employees too, and our products are out of this world, but putting the customers first is important.”
When the restaurant reopened the dining room at a limited capacity, the team was a little nervous, wondering how it would go. They were very pleased with the community’s response.
“When we reopened, we prayed people would come back,” says Snider. “When we saw that so many people were patiently waiting, it was great; everyone came. Some things may have been darkened by the coronavirus, and we can be very weak alone, but we’re very strong together.”
The Wings on Brookwood menu features many from-scratch items made in-house, with an all-star line-up that features everything from salads to sandwiches to their well-known and loved bone-in wings with a variety of signature sauces. WingsonBrookwood.com