How Steiny’s Sports Grills Won the Wing Shortage Battle

When the Covid pandemic, labor shortages, and other events caused a shortage in chicken wings, some restaurants across the country ended up taking them off their menu, or created items with drumsticks or thighs, which have less demand.

But not John and Joey Stein, owner’s of the two Steiny’s Family Sports Grills in Ogden. After all, Steiny’s wings are a finger-lickin’ fan favorite.

“Between the two restaurants, we did 30 tons of wings in 2021,” John Stein said. “And that was an up-and-down year due to the pandemic. We have created some sauces and dry rubs to give them a different flavor profile that you can’t get elsewhere. All I know is we do tons of them — literally.”

When I interviewed John Stein for a recent story on Steiny’s, he told me how they managed to weather the national wing shortage.

“They were scarce and costly, especially for mom and pop stores like ours,” John Stein said. “The big guys had buying power and contracts in place. But my brother and I are too stubborn to let something like that get in the way. We went to every supplier and got what we could from them.”

Also during the interview, I came to realize how well Steiny’s uses its specials to liven up its regular menu. Taco Tuesdays are popular, since chef Gabriel Perez at the south location will create a different version each week, such as  pork carnitas with cabbage, pickled onions, cilantro and salsa verde; or ahi tuna tacos with red cabbage, pico de gallo and honey sriracha sauce. Often customers might come in and pick up taco takeout for their whole office.

  “They’re not the standard ground-beef-and-a-packet-of-seasoning type of taco,” John Stein said.

   Perez also comes up with weekend dinner specials that aren’t typical sports grill fare — chicken fusilli pasta in a creamy Florentino sauce; shrimp boil with jumbo shrimp, clams and mussels; curry salmon rice bowls, lump crab enchiladas, Princess Chicken in mushroom artichoke cream sauce, grilled lamb chops, chicken Parmigiana ravioli, and jumbo prawn mac ‘n’ cheese.

  Likewise, the Steiny’s at BDO offers creative specials, cooked by Jeremy Curran and Joey Stein. The specials are usually posted on the restaurants’ Facebook pages.

  “My brother Joey is a great chef and I’ve learned most of what I know by watching him,” said John Stein.

In 2010, brothers John and Joey Stein opened their first Steiny’s in the Business Depot Ogden park at 119 N. 600 West. Both were prominent in the local sports scene, as John Stein, a former vice president of the Ogden Raptors, remains one of the Raptors’ owners, and Joey Stein was the team’s general manager. The name came easy, as both were nicknamed “Steiny” during their many years playing sports.

“Whenever you play sports and you get in a huddle, everybody has a nickname,” John Stein said. “You’re never just Jones or Smith or Stein, it’s Jonesy, or Smitty or Steiny. From our days at the ballpark, we had a lot of personal and business contacts who we hoped would recognize our name and want to support us.”

In 2015, they opened the Country Hills Drive location across Harrison Blvd from Weber State University, and added a Logan spot in 2017. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, they closed the Logan store. Due to labor shortages, the south location currently doesn’t open until 4 p.m., Monday through Saturday. The BDO location is open for lunch and dinner, Monday through Saturday. Both are closed Sundays, except during the NFL season.

Neither location is easy to find. The original Steiny’s is tucked away in the Ogden Business Depot. The south location is on the ground floor of 1104 Country Hills Drive, a tall brick building with a Wex sign on it. There are no Steiny’s signs; you’ll need to walk through the lobby and look around.

“It’s part of our charm,” said John Stein. “We’ve got customers who love the fact that it’s not just out on the street in a strip mall. When people find it and like it, they teach other people about us. I tell them, ‘Do us a favor and tell 10 other friends.’ “

Sports grills offer a place to watch a game on TV for those who can’t get local in-person tickets, or don’t have a particular cable/satellite sports package to watch at home. In the restaurant, they can cheer with (or against) other fans while someone else does the cooking and dishes.

John Stein said that as a “sports grill,” it’s more of a family-friendly environment than a “sports bar.”

“In the state of Utah, we are considered a restaurant with a liquor license,” he said.

No matter the season or the sport, Steiny’s has you covered. The Ogden Business Depot site has 11 50-inch TV screens surrounding the dining area. The south location has 16 70-inch screens stationed around the room and behind the bar, “which allows us to put everything on just about every time,” John Stein said.

“We can have golf, ESPN Sports Center, the NFL Network and the Jazz wrap-up show all playing at the same time. You can come in and request to put on the Cowboys game and we can do that for your section where you’re sitting.”

In a past interview, he told me of a crowd of about 20-30 people who came in to watch the America’s Cup yacht race, “So we put it on for them. Those are four-and five-hour races, and I learned all about yacht racing and the rules.”

With the south location just across from the Weber State campus, “We get pre-game fans stopping for a beer and burger before the game, then we get the post-game fans, especially if we win,” Stein said.

Since it’s also close to the Ice Sheet, they get fans of the Ogden Mustangs Junior A hockey team.

Steiny’s is not “fast food,” as everything is cooked to order, Stein said. ““You get fresh off-the-grill food that’s worth the 15-20 minute wait. It takes a little more time, but we figure if you’re here watching a game, you’re not in a hurry.”

In summer, Steiny’s South opens up its outdoor patio. With a waterfall and lush foliage, it feels like a welcoming oasis despite being just steps away from the busy traffic of Harrison Boulevard.

The flower beds have been turned into gardens for tomatoes and chiles for the restaurant’s fresh-made salsa, and the growing herbs are used to flavor and garnish dishes.

“It’s our version of farm-to-table,” John Stein said. “And they make the patio look better.”