Super Bowl Sunday calls for a super event with food and giveaways

There’s something about the Super Bowl that screams party, be it a fairly simple gathering with friends at the house or a night out at a restaurant or sports bar with a horde of football-crazy fans seeking a boisterous game-like atmosphere.

Such merrymaking will certainly be taking place this weekend throughout Columbus as the Atlanta Falcons battle the New England Patriots for bragging rights in Super 51. The pizza joints will be buzzing with activity, while establishments such as Wild Wing Cafe on Whittlesey Boulevard in Columbus will be rocking as it roots for Georgia’s team in only its second Super Bowl.

Sanjay Choudhury, owner of Wild Wing Cafe, said his business will get things started on Friday with a special band from Nashville called Laughlin, which will be playing the featured set that night. On Saturday, The Geeks Band will be pumping up customers with an array of cover tunes. On Sunday, of course, the marquee event is the Super Bowl.

“We want to try to blow this weekend out,” said Wild Wing general manager Dennis Butterfield. “It’s just going to be a party all weekend and it starts Friday about 4 o’clock and won’t end until Sunday about midnight.”

The 325-seat restaurant and sports bar, with its 50 or so big-screen televisions, is preparing to fry up between 10,000 and 12,000 chicken wings on Sunday alone. That’s between the customers who walk through the doors to stay for festivities and those ordering them and taking to their own big-game parties. The restaurant advises takeout customers to order early.

Choudhury said an interesting element of the cafe’s party will be an array of giveaways that include a couple of flat-screen TVs, refrigerators, couches, chairs, skateboards, snowboards, tents, coolers, umbrellas, mirrors, and gift cards, one of which is a $200 card to Stars and Strikes in Columbus. There also will be tickets and parking passes to an Atlanta Braves game at the new SunTrust Stadium and a VIP-esque leather recliner that looks like a football. The recipient will be seated in front of a big screen with a bucket of beer and 30 chicken wings. They’ll take the recliner home with them.

“Probably about every 15 minutes, we’ll give away prizes,” Butterfield said of Super Sunday. “About 4 o’clock is when we’ll really kick the party off.”

Super Bowl 51 kicks off in Houston at 6:30 p.m. ET, with Georgia’s own Luke Bryan singing the national anthem and Lady Gaga the halftime entertainment.

This story was originally published February 2, 2017 at 2:25 PM with the headline "Super Bowl Sunday calls for a super event with food and giveaways."