Dough! Magazine
The Recession Issue
ON NINE DOLLAR CHICKEN WINGS & INCOMPARABLE ACHEIVEMENTS
If White is to be believed—the International Wings Factory in Manhattan is the platonic ideal of what is possible in the settler’s New York. And its owner and operator, Deepak Ballaney, is the platonic ideal of said settler.
Founded in 2013, International House of Wings is located in a nondescript hole-in-wall on 92nd Street. Deepak, despite extensive experience in luxury hospitality, including a brief stint at Eleven Madison Park (of Jeremy Allen White’s The Bear fame), abandoned his dream to make the best wings for “the amazing people of New York.” The spot gained local acclaim in the mid-2010s (in 2014, the New York Times suggested an alternate title for its menu could be “Around the World in 80 Wings,”) and survived the pandemic.
Instead of raising prices as would be expected during a period of prolonged inflation, Deepak did the opposite. In late 2022, when discourse about $8 eggs was inescapable, Deepak debuted the “inflation special,” 4 wings with a small fry, for $9.
His special feels like a nostalgic appeal to a lost relic—the so-called “recession special” of the late-2000s and 2010s. Gray’s Papaya, on the Upper West Side, has had a recession special since the mid-1970s, originally $1.95 for two franks and a drink, now $6.95. In 2009, the New York Times produced a short documentary about local spots with their own take on the “recession special,” including several iconic New York City spots, such as Vanessa’s Dumplings, and the now-defunct Supermac, Paradou, and Beacon Restaurant.
Though the conditions for a recession—two consecutive quarters of GDP decline—have yet to be met, the “vibes” in and around the economy remain stalwartly abysmal, calling into question the term’s utility. For months, economists (along with representatives of the Biden administration) have pointed to economic indicators suggesting that the economy is trending towards recovery, but that hasn’t stopped consumers from feeling disenfranchised.
This isn’t particularly surprising—historically, consumer confidence is always a couple of months behind other economic indicators—but economists continue to struggle to bridge this epistemic gap. Recently, even the most stubborn pundits are coming to terms with the fact that the negative sense of the economy is here to stay.
I visit the Upper East Side location of the International Wings Factory on a Thursday. It’s after 5, so the special is no longer available. Still, the place is packed, and all of the spot’s five small tables are full. There’s no space left inside, so two white guys take their order out to the curb and hunker down, criss-cross applesauce, right there on the New York City sidewalk. They pass a vape back and forth, their order of wings settled between them.
I wonder why they don’t just walk home, but then my order arrives.
The wings are pretty damn good. (Incomparable, White might say.) Hot, but not punishing. Flavored with acid, not just salt.
Finally, Deepak has a free moment to sit down and chat. I set my wings aside (I’m not confident enough in my interviewing skills to eat finger foods and talk at the same time) and ask him to tell me the story of the place in his own words. He has had a passion for hospitality from a young age—despite pressure from his family to pursue a career as a doctor or engineer—he looked for opportunities in hotels and studied at the Culinary Institute of America.
He also just seems to love feeding people. And wings. (An anecdote on his website mentions that growing up his family had divvied up the “best parts” of the chicken among the senior members of the family, leaving young Deepak with the wings—in a surprising twist, he grew to prefer them.)
Since reopening after the lockdowns, Deepak and his staff noticed a steep drop in their neighbors and regulars visiting the store, as many fled the virus in the early days of the pandemic. Deepak describes the pre-pandemic Yorkville community as close-knit and reliable. When his regulars didn’t return after locals trickled back into the city, Deepak knew it was because everything was still too expensive.
Regarding the inflation special, “I’m barely covering my costs, that’s all,” Deepak tells me. When he told his wife he was offering such a deep discount, she replied, “Of course you are.” To me, Deepak describes his motivation in spiritual terms. “I never want to be taking more than I’m putting out into the universe,” he says. “I got to come to New York City and make really good wings… this is about giving back.”
Though Deepak’s “inflation special” hasn’t shown much sign of catching on, like the recession special did back in the day—there may be time yet, as what fledgling economic progress there is remains at of being upended by a possible government shut-down and ongoing UAW strikes.
In that same essay, White writes that born-and-raised New Yorkers sometimes “take for granted” the city’s “size and turbulence as natural and inevitable”—they also give it solidity and continuity.
When Deepak debuted his inflation special, he noticed his former regulars, hurrying passed, would pause, look at the sign in the window, and stop by and ask what was going on. They’d order the special and stay for a bit. They’d promise to come again soon.
“We’re back,” he told me.