TL;DR — Kyle Huck runs three Wings Etc. locations in southeastern Ohio with his brother, his sister-in-law and his wife. When corporate asked him to pull the numbers for a franchisee spotlight, he added up eleven years of community giving and surprised himself: $141,191.91. This episode is the operator’s case for why that money is not charity overhead — it is the cheapest, most durable local marketing he runs. Colton LeTourneau, Wings Etc.’s Senior Director of Marketing, joins to explain how a ~83-unit brand gives franchisees room to be local without losing the brand.
Who’s on this episode
- Guest: Kyle Huck, multi-unit franchise owner, Wings Etc. — Marietta, Caldwell and Belpre, Ohio
- Guest: Colton LeTourneau, Senior Director of Marketing, Wings Etc.
- Host: Jeremy Julian, President & Chief Revenue Officer, CBS NorthStar
- Episode: 358 · Runtime 35:11 · Released 12 October 2026
- Topics: local store marketing, franchisee-franchisor relationships, community sponsorship, Dine-To-Donate, sports bar operations, multi-unit franchising
What is Wings Etc., and who is it for?
Founded by Jim Weaver in 1994 and headquartered in Fort Wayne, Indiana, Wings Etc. is a sports bar built around wings, burgers and a room you actually want to sit in. Colton says the brand runs about 83 stores across 14 states — big enough to matter, small enough that a franchisee’s phone call to corporate gets answered.
The detail Jeremy noticed as a guest, before he ever booked the episode, is the floor plan. There is a family dining side and a bar side, and the split is deliberate.
That matters more than it sounds. A parent who wants wings and a game on Saturday and a quiet table with their teenagers on Sunday does not have to pick a different restaurant. Same brand, two occasions.
Why did a first-time restaurateur pick this brand?
Kyle’s answer is refreshingly unglamorous: his corner of Ohio had almost no sit-down options, he went looking, and he found Wings Etc. through a Google search. He knew family near the brand’s Indiana base, called them, and got back “we love Wings, we go there all the time.” He visited corporate, decided it would travel, and opened Marietta in August 2015.
Caldwell followed in January 2018 and Belpre in March 2023. Along the way the Hucks pulled other operators in — there are now two more Wings Etc. stores across the river in West Virginia, in Vienna and St. Marys, run by a different group.
We kind of have a little Wings family down here that’s sprouted.
Kyle Huck, Wings Etc.
Jeremy flags something worth noticing: it is genuinely rare to get a franchisee and a franchisor on the same call, talking about what is working, with no lawyer in the room. That relationship is the quiet subject of this whole episode — and a useful counterpoint to the Surcheros conversation on winning in towns everyone else skips.
What does $141,191.91 of community giving actually buy?
Kyle is the accountant for the family’s businesses — it is what his degree is in — so when corporate asked for a franchisee spotlight on giving back, he went into the books and added it up. The figure, as of April 2026, was $141,191.91, and he says it is probably light: the Wing Nut Bucks and school gift cards land in the books as discounts, not marketing, so they are not all in there.
What it covers is unglamorous and local. A $500 silver sponsorship that gets every student in the district into every home game free, all year. Buying animals at the county fair. Dine-To-Donate nights. Free kids’ meals for every child who makes honor roll.
My motto is never say no. Try to find a way to help. You can get creative — it doesn’t have to be cash.
Kyle Huck, Wings Etc.
“I’m the only sports bar in town — why write the check?”
Jeremy puts the operator’s objection to him directly, and Kyle doesn’t dodge it. Yes, he is the only sports bar in town. Yes, they would come anyway. His answer is about how many and how often.
The banner on the field carries the name. The PA announces it. He sits in the stands and hears people say they’re leaving early to go grab a table. But the real return, he argues, lands on a Tuesday.
What happens next Tuesday night when everybody’s late getting home and they go, we need to get some food? Let’s just swing by and pick up takeout — because our name is at the forefront of their brain. That’s the way marketing works.
Kyle Huck, Wings Etc.
There is a second return that operators underrate. Kyle is blunt that they mess up more than he would like. His argument is that a community that feels invested in you is a community that forgives you — and tells you directly when something goes wrong instead of leaving a review and never coming back.
How does Dine-To-Donate work, and is it worth the labor?
The mechanic is simple. A school PTO, a football program, a cheer squad comes to Kyle wanting to raise money. Wings Etc. prints a flyer, they pick a date together, and the organization promotes it. Anyone who mentions the event counts — including to-go orders. Kyle adds up the receipts and donates 15% of the day back. His best one returned around $900 to the organization.
Jeremy raises the pushback he hears from operators: extra POS buttons, extra labor, questionable incremental traffic. Kyle’s case is three-part.
- It is the answer that isn’t “no.” He can’t write a cheque for every organization that walks in. This lets him say yes to all of them.
- It doesn’t come out of pocket — the organization brings the business that funds the donation.
- It is a second chance. Someone who had a bad visit shows up because their grandkid’s team is fundraising. Kyle tells his staff exactly that: this is our chance to earn them back.
People become fiercely loyal when you’ve messed up in the past and then you give them a good experience. They become loyal because of your improvement and how much you care.
Kyle Huck, Wings Etc.
And the scheduling insight most operators miss: run these on the shoulder days. Jeremy and Kyle land on it together — nobody should be doing a Dine-To-Donate on a Friday night after the football game, because the building is already full. Put it on a Monday or Tuesday, where the incremental covers are real and the kitchen can actually turn the room. It is the same slow-daypart thinking behind our episode on catering as an untapped revenue channel.
How does corporate give franchisees room to be local?
This is where Colton comes in, and it is the part multi-unit operators and emerging brands should sit with. The tension is real: you want franchisees embedded in their towns, and you do not want the brand showing up on something that doesn’t fit.
Wings Etc.’s answer is to define the lane rather than approve case by case. Youth sports, local schools, community charities — anything that sits naturally under a sports bar. Franchisees are pushed toward those categories, and inside them they have real autonomy, down to hanging local decor and town memorabilia on the walls.
It’s not overly intimidating or overly corporate when you walk into our restaurants. Jim’s goal was: how do I make this feel like a local pub, but still have that national brand identity?
Colton LeTourneau, Wings Etc.
The support is concrete, not just permission. Dine-To-Donate is part of the onboarding marketing packet. The in-house marketing team produces the flyers and digital assets, hands them to the franchisee, and will amplify the event through the brand’s VIP email list and social channels. Colton ran field marketing for corporate locations himself, so he is arguing from having done it.
Jeremy’s reaction is worth quoting back to any brand leader listening: in thirty years around restaurants, the common failure mode is a franchisee alone in Canva at 11pm, guessing, and not understanding why it isn’t working. Attribution and enablement are the same problem — a theme Brett Linkletter took apart from the measurement side on Ep. 354.
Where do the best ideas actually come from?
Other franchisees. Kyle points to the Wing Summit — the brand’s franchisee gathering — and specifically to the round tables and best-practice sessions, which is where most of what his stores run got picked up or handed off.
His favorite example is the Student of the Grading Period program: free kids’ meals sent to the elementary schools for every child who makes honor roll, plus a stack the school can hand out at its own discretion when a kid does something worth recognizing. He isn’t even certain whether it came from another franchisee or from his sister-in-law Missy — which is rather the point.
Jeremy adds the parent’s-eye view of why it works: nobody in a family of six can agree on dinner, but the moment the kids name a place, that’s where you’re going. Get the kids in and the check follows. The same dynamic runs through our conversation with Guestologie on turning first visits into loyalty, and Pat Venn’s argument about who actually sends you your best guests.
What should you order the first time?
Kyle: the bone-in traditional wings, and the hot honey garlic sauce. If you’re getting a burger, add a wing kicker anyway. His own off-menu build is known at the Caldwell store as Kyle’s Tots — tater tots, queso, pulled pork and barbecue sauce, which he has already fed to corporate.
Colton: traditional wings with the sweet chili cha cha sauce, every time. His mild indulgence is tots with beer cheese — “a lot of calories, but you can’t beat it.”
Frequently asked questions
What is a Dine-To-Donate, and how much does the restaurant give back?
A Dine-To-Donate is a fundraising night a restaurant runs with a local organization. The restaurant supplies a flyer, the organization promotes the date, and the restaurant donates a share of that day’s qualifying sales. Kyle Huck’s Wings Etc. locations donate 15% of the day, including to-go orders, and his most successful event returned roughly $900 to the organization.
Should a Dine-To-Donate run on a busy night or a slow night?
A slow night. Kyle turns down requests for Friday nights because the restaurant is already full — there is no incremental traffic to capture and the kitchen can’t turn more covers. Monday through Wednesday lets the organization actually pack the room, which raises more money for them and adds real sales for the restaurant.
Is community sponsorship worth it if you’re the only restaurant of your kind in town?
Kyle’s position is that the guests come either way, but sponsorship changes the frequency and the size of the crowd — and buys goodwill that matters when service slips. A community that feels invested tells you when something goes wrong instead of quietly leaving.
How does Wings Etc. corporate support franchisee local store marketing?
Dine-To-Donate is included in the onboarding marketing packet. The in-house marketing team creates the flyers and digital assets and hands them to the franchisee, and can amplify events through the brand’s VIP email list and social channels. Franchisees are steered toward youth sports, schools and community charities, and given latitude within those categories.
How many locations does Wings Etc. have?
Colton LeTourneau says the brand is at about 83 stores across 14 states as of this recording. Wings Etc. was founded by Jim Weaver in 1994 and is headquartered in Fort Wayne, Indiana.
Takeaways for operators
- Add yours up. Kyle didn’t know his own number until corporate asked. Most operators are already giving and have never counted it, priced it, or treated it as marketing spend.
- Not every yes costs cash. Wing Nut Bucks, kids’ meals and gift cards let you say yes to everyone who asks, and they walk back through your door with company.
- Put fundraisers on your slowest days. A Friday-night Dine-To-Donate is a donation. A Tuesday-night one is a donation and incremental sales.
- Sponsorship buys forgiveness. You will mess up. A community that feels invested in you complains to you instead of about you.
- Define the lane, then get out of the way. Wings Etc. steers franchisees to categories that fit the brand rather than approving each request — autonomy inside guardrails.
- Enablement beats permission. Handing a franchisee finished creative and list amplification is the difference between a program that runs and one that dies in Canva.
Read the full transcript
Prefer to read? The complete, searchable transcript of this conversation is here: Kyle Huck and Colton LeTourneau on Community Marketing — Full Transcript.
Connect with Wings Etc.
- Find a location: wingsetc.com
- Franchising: wingsetcfranchise.com
- Kyle’s home store is Caldwell, Ohio — he’s in all three locations most weeks, usually Tuesdays
Thanks to our sponsors
This episode is brought to you by Restaurant Technologies (RTI), who take the mess, the risk and the guesswork out of cooking oil management, and by Yelp, helping restaurants get discovered by the guests already looking for them.
