Winging it: Bend restaurant raises prices due to national chicken wing shortage

'People will just get used to what the price of chicken wings are now'

BEND, Ore. (KTVZ) -- A chicken wing shortage is affecting kitchens all over the country, and wing-lovers in Bend are starting to feel it.

Ryan Duley, director of sales and marketing at Sunriver Brewing, says his restaurants have had to raise their chicken wing prices.

"When you're looking at someone's menu and the most expensive thing on their menu is chicken wings it doesn't really make a lot of sense,” Duley said Tuesday.

Due to the national chicken wing shortage, some restaurants, including Sunriver Brewing, might end up paying more for fewer wings.

"It's already changed -- we've already made some changes to our menus,” Duley said. 

Their chicken wing prices increased from $15 to $17 and will include fewer wings.

Duley says they're trying to cover the costs to keep the price from rising even more, or from having to remove wings from the menu altogether. 

"As the pricing keeps continuing to rise, we will absorb it for our customers, to make sure we can get them what they're coming to our pubs for,” Duley said. 

But he added that it makes it harder on his staff, having to deliver the bad news.

"Not everybody knows that there's a chicken wing shortage, so it does affect our staff, because people might not understand why the price went up or the portion size went down,” Duley said.

Based on a restaurant's distributor, the shortage could affect different places at different times.

NewsChannel21 asked Duley when he figured prices would get back to normal.

"Realistically, whenever the pricing change is back, then we won't have to worry about it -- or people will just get used to what the price of chicken wings are now,” Duley said.

He said he doesn’t know when, or if the prices will change.

"Over time people, kind of just realize: If you want this item, that's how much it costs."