Who had the Midlands favorite chicken wings in The State’s poll? Meet the winner
We asked, you voted. Now a longtime West Columbia establishment has claimed Midlands chicken wings fame.
Calloway’s Sports Bar and Grill, which has been located at 2410 Augusta Road in West Columbia for nearly three decades, recently was crowned the winner of The State’s 2026 Midlands Chicken Wings Poll. The paper ran the unscientific poll on its website from March 17-23, and asked readers to choose their favorite wing spot from a list of 21 local restaurants.
Nearly 1,900 votes were cast in the poll, and in the end it was Calloway’s that came out on top with 26% of the votes. Carolina Wings & Rib House was second with 23% of the votes, while Nothin’ But Wings came in third with 15%.
Calloway’s, which opened back in 1998, has long been a laid back bar in the Danwood Shopping Center in West Columbia. It’s a place filled with TVs for watching football, basketball and other sports, and the bar is lined with classic pinball games and numerous Golden Tee arcade machines. The bar is even an annual stop on the Power Events National Golden Tee Tour.
Aside from frigidly cold beer, Calloway’s has a food menu that includes burgers, pizza, sandwiches, tacos, quesadillas and more. And a key highlight of that menu is, of course, chicken wings. They are available in a wealth of flavors including hot, BBQ, lemon pepper, teriyaki, honey mustard, Cajun and more.
Calloway’s owner Jim Muse said wings have long been one of the more popular menu items at the sports bar.
“We do wings right,” Muse said. “We cook them from scratch. We aren’t the fastest in the business, but if you get your wings in five or six minutes, there’s probably a problem. We’ve been cranking out fresh wings for years.”
Muse said perhaps the bestseller on the roster are the double-baked hot wings. Those are cooked twice. They are fried first, then run through an oven. This reporter recently tried an order of the double-baked wings, which were spicy, crispy and boldly flavorful.
“What makes it so good is that all the hot sauce bakes into it,” Muse said. “It penetrates the meat, so you get that flavor and it’s not messy.”
This story was originally published March 28, 2026 at 5:00 AM.
