GREENFIELD — A new wing restaurant will come to Greenfield in the spring of 2024 in hopes of bringing a Buffalo-style feel to wings in the Midwest.
Michael Harmon, entrepreneur with a restaurant background, recently signed on to bring approximately 10 Atomic Wings locations to Indiana with a goal of 20 locations — starting with one at 1665 N. State Street.
Atomic Wings was created after the founder, Adam Lippin, tried for years to recreate the wings he would munch on during his college days in the 80s. After years of work, the first Atomic Wings opened in NYC in 1989. The current CEO is Zak Omar, who joined the brand seven years ago.
Harmon, who also owns six Firehouse Subs — including the one in Greenfield since 2017 — first discovered the restaurant when watching Jimmy Fallon, where they had a wing-eating contest featuring Atomic Wings as the challenge wing with their nuclear hot sauce.
Soon after, Harmon found himself in New York and tried the wings for himself. It wasn’t long until Harmon was on the phone with Omar discussing franchising the restaurant in Indiana. He had bought the development rights for Indiana and also purchased a portion of the company.
“We’re really excited about the brand and the product and the possibilities it presents to us, especially here in the Midwest,” Harmon said. “We’re kind of bringing that authentic buffalo flavor into the Midwest.”
Harmon became involved in the restaurant business world after coming home from the military, where he said he had an interest in business and ownership. He worked his way up to operations consultant for McDonalds and then started looking at owning his own restaurants. After looking at multiple places, Harmon said he had wanted to work with Firehouse Subs because of their quality of food.
“That’s really what we kind of look for when we are looking at new brands,” Harmon said. “I’ve been with Firehouse Subs since 2010 and then a couple of years ago I came across Atomic Wings, and it really gave me the same kind of vibes as Firehouse.”
While Harmon said the main thing that sets Atomic Wings apart from other wing restaurants is that antibiotic hormone-free chicken that is fresh, never frozen, and that they don’t take shorts when prepping, such as brining chicken overnight to enhance the flavor and moisture. Harmon said that the boneless wings and tenders are hand-breaded to order.
“You can really taste the difference in a fresh breaded product versus a product that’s breaded then frozen and shipped to a restaurant and refried from frozen,” Harmon said. “It’s quite a large difference.”
Some other unique offerings are the sauces, such as atomic and nuclear — the one featured on the late night TV show. This location will also serve beer and wine, something that the New York locations do not currently offer.
When choosing the location for the first restaurant to be opened in Indiana, Harmon said they looked at multiple different areas, but went with the site in Greenfield that had plenty of road visibility — something needed when bringing in a new restaurant.
Harmon said he liked the Greenfield location because of it being in his hometown where he still knows a lot of people and because his Firehouse Subs located in Greenfield is one of his better-performing locations.
With the location being an endcap location, having visibility from the street in Harmon’s hometown — only a 10 minute drive from where he lives now — he said it checks all the boxes.
This new location will be 1,890 square feet and will feature updated designs, such as modern lighting and seating for those who dine-in and an area for pick-up orders.
Harmon said that they are currently in the permitting process and have hired contractors from Knightstown. A start date has been projected for the second week of January with a completion date near the end of March.
After the Greenfield location is complete, Harmon said they will begin real estate searching and are looking at possible locations focused in Indianapolis and surrounding counties. Some cities for possible future locations could be Avon, Plainfield, Greenwood and others.
“We really think our processes and commitment to quality and our commitment to authenticity of a real buffalo-style buffalo wing — I think it will be very well received here,” Harmon said.
For more information on Atomic Wings, visit atomicwings.com.
