You can thank Atlanta for creating Lemon Pepper Wings

There is no “original” place that created lemon pepper wings in Atlanta, or at least not one that has come forward to claim so. Instead, they appear to have been an innovation born of taste necessity. While lemon pepper wings typically use a dry rub or butter sauce with the spice blend, in Atlanta there is a popular way to prepare them called “lemon pepper wet” which mixes Buffalo sauce with seasoning with lemon pepper. This is the style that was featured on “Atlanta,” from another wing institution called JR Crickets, and it appears to be how lemon pepper was first popularized. According to local fans, lemon pepper seasoning was a way to temper the heat of Buffalo hot sauce.

As for when the dry-rub style took off, it’s speculated that it was due to the messiness of the original, particularly in the early 2000s when white tees were a popular look in rap and hip-hop. whoops. From there, they’ve been mentioned in songs by artists like Lizzo, Drake, and Rick Ross, who loves Wingstop’s lemon-pepper flavor so much that he owns nearly 30 franchises. Whatever the exact origins of lemon pepper in Atlanta, the spice and wings have become the city’s signature flavor, and all of us wing lovers can all appreciate the results.