The original group consisted of five members; Rick, Chris, Lilly, Mike B
and Steve. The very first BHON meeting took place at Rickijo's on the
corner of Welland Ave and Bunting Road in St. Catharines. Amid the
cigarette smoke and annoyingly loud dance music, the group enjoyed the
first "wing-night" of what would become a bi-weekly tradition.
It didn't take long for the group to grow. Through word-of-mouth,
curious new members tagged along, invited by existing member's friends and
their co-workers. Within months it was known thoughout the Board
that 'these guys' were becoming the ones 'in the know' when it came to
choosing a place to go for wings.
Originally, these "wing-nights" were arranged verbally. As the group
grew, phone calls and email became cumbersome and a new way of
communicating became necessary. In November of 1996, the
first 'Chicken Wing Web
Page' was born. Hosted on Mike B's dial-up account, its primary
purpose was to give the location for the next meeting so that everyone
would know where to go. The orignal website was pretty plain by today's
standards, and was never intended for public consumption...in fact Mike
whipped it up in Notepad in about 2 minutes. Soon after the website was
launched, the group decided on an official name: The Bar Hoppers of
Niagara - BHON.
By December of 1996 it was clear that people were really interested in
what BHON was doing. A common question for any BHON Member was -
"Hey, how are the wings at such-and-such?". Since this was becoming
a common occurance, the group figured why not use the webpage to post
reviews of the places they'd visited. The rest is history....
So here were are ten years later. Rickijo's still stands on the corner of
Welland and Bunting, which is quite an accomplishment when you consider
the number of establishments that have come and gone during our tenure.
Cigarette smoking in bars in Ontario is a thing of the past. Gas prices
have doubled and oddly enough there's still a war going on in Iraq. 9/11
is no longer just a random date, and we haven't made many trips to
Gagster's recently although the Canadian dollar is doing better than it
has in decades. It also seems that the 20 dollars everyone used to
throw in at the end of the night doesn't go quite as far as it used to
anymore!
Unlike 1996, the Internet is now a household utility, and the
BHON web site logged an astounding 227,591 hits in 2005 - from over 30
different countries. (Although we suspect most of those people were just
looking for porn.) We are proud to say we make ZERO profit from our site
and our reviews. We have no commercial affiliations or sponsorships. Our
goal and our purpose remain true to ourselves - to go out and have a good
time with our friends, enjoy a few beers and sample the wings from the
many fine pubs and bars across the Region.
Over the years, many, many people have played a part in BHON.
Some faces have come and some have gone as the dynamics of the group
evolved over the past decade. BHON has seen its share of births and
deaths, marriages and divorces and has been there to provide support
through many a member's personal and professional triumphs and tragedies.
Although times and faces change, the core of the group and its mission
remain unchanged - To find "The Tastiest Wings in the Niagara
Region".
Last Updated: Sept 2006 - MG
It was a fateful thursday night back in September of 1996 when a group of
former co-workers from the IT department at the Welland County Separate
School Board decided to get together for some beer and wings. The night
was an impromptu bitch-session; an evening to co-miserate on the day's
events, trials and tribulations - not unlike that of many sitting around
the bar that night. A decade later, who would have thought that moment
would be the beginning of a long journey to find "The tastiest wings in
the Niagara Region".