A sold-out crowd voted for a new WingFest champion. These sauces helped it win
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- The Bull Pen Restaurant and Sports Bar won WingFest 2025 with four distinct sauces.
- The Tyrone restaurant won a $5,000 grand prize to conclude the festival.
- The Bull Pen plans to add some of its winning sauces to the menu soon.
At long last, Tussey Mountain’s WingFest crowned a new champion.
The Bull Pen Restaurant and Sports Bar in Tyrone emerged victorious Thursday night to claim the $5,000 grand prize and wrap up the annual chicken wing festival. This summer’s finale marked the second-ever sellout in festival history, organizers wrote on Facebook.
The Bull Pen first appeared at WingFest in 2024 and advanced to the final showdown, too. This year, the restaurant beat out the winners from each of this summer’s previous WingFest events: Nittany American Legion Post 245, Center Street Grill, The Cakeshop by Tati, Muddy Run Tavern, the Toasted Monkey Restaurant and Tavern and Sweet Tooth Bakery.
The Bull Pen won over WingFest voters serving chicken wings covered in any of four sauces: peach Buffalo, honey butter Old Bay, sunshine garlic and the restaurant’s bull sauce — a buffalo, honey and chipotle blend already on the menu.
“It was great,” head chef Sean Turchetta told the Centre Daily Times. “I felt pretty proud of how hard we worked on the sauces. I tried to be as original as I could, and I guess it paid off. It seemed like everybody liked them.”
All but the restaurant’s bull sauce were developed specifically for WingFest. Turchetta said the peach buffalo and honey butter Old Bay sauces sold the best.
“I took some time aside and put my brain to work for these,” Turchetta said. “Since we did win this year, we’re going to add some of the sauces to the menu so people can come down and try them if they didn’t get the chance.”
By leading the fan vote and taking home the gold, the Bull Pen went home with the festival’s $5,000 grand prize. The other six finalists each received $1,000 prizes.
WingFest’s championship event featured live performances from the PennSoulvanians’ seven-piece ensemble and Go Go Gadjet, the Pennsylvania-based cover band. Other groups that took the WingFest stage this summer included Lancaster’s Amish Outlaws cover band, local groups like Velveeta and My Hero Zero and tributes to Pearl jam and Linkin Park, among others.
The Bull Pen, located at 207 Jefferson Ave. in Tyrone, offers a wide-ranging menu featuring appetizers, burgers and sandwiches, homemade soups and even filet mignon. Wings are always available bone-in or boneless and covered in any one of nearly a dozen sauces.
%202.JPG)