Wingstop celebrated the grand opening of its Martinsville restaurant with a ribbon-cutting ceremony July 27, welcoming customers to sample its menu of chicken wings, tenders and other items available in a variety of flavors.
The new restaurant, located at 802 Commonwealth Blvd., offers both traditional bone-in and boneless wings, with late-night hours throughout the week.
Director of Operations John Gilmore said Martinsville was a good fit for the growing franchise.
“It’s a great-sized town. Great people. We’re excited to be here. We like to choose larger markets to start out with. We’ve committed to some larger markets, and then we’ll look at some smaller markets in the future, but yeah, we’re going to try to get every larger market we can right now,” Gilmore said.
Gilmore said the restaurant’s late hours fill a need in the community.
“We keep all of our stores open until at least midnight,” he said.
He said Wingstop offers large meal options for groups, although it does not provide catering services.
“We don’t do catering, but we do offer large-piece meals. We offer up to 100 to 200. I think there are 250-piece meals online. So if you order digitally, you can order large meals. We do deliver. Our primary delivery services (are) through DoorDash, so you can order through DoorDash,” he said.
Gilmore said the Wingstop brand was founded in Texas in 1994, while his franchise group is based in Jasper, Georgia.
“Wingstop started in Texas in 1994. We’re a franchise group out of Georgia. We’re in Jasper, Georgia. We’ve been doing this for 5 years now. And Wingstop sets the flavors. They’ve been doing this for a long time, and they’ve done a lot of research on the flavoring. We do run limited-time flavors. All the time, we’re starting off with sweet heat. And then we’re actually rolling out two new flavors coming soon, Jamaican Jerk and Carolina Goldberg,” he said.
For first-time customers, Gilmore recommends trying a variety of flavors.
“It really depends on your flavor preference. I like the really hot ones, so I love the atomic. I love the mango barbecue or the mango habanero, and Cajun is my favorite for any of the breaded products,” he said.
Martinsville-Henry County Chamber of Commerce President and Executive Director Brennell Thomas welcomed the restaurant to the community.
“Friday we were at the 5 Below. Today, we are starting a great week off with a ribbon cutting here at Wingstop. You know, it can’t get much better than this,” Thomas said.
Thomas said he hopes residents will embrace another late-night dining option.
“I hope our community will respond strongly to a late-night option, because you have people who are working third shift, or maybe traveling into work, and would like to stop and get something fresh on the way in. And maybe it’ll help with our night scene for entertainment as well as give folks something else to go into, other than maybe a convenience store that’s open late at night,” he said.
Wingstop is open from 10:30 a.m. to midnight Sunday through Thursday and from 10:30 a.m. to 1 a.m. Friday and Saturday. Customers can order in person, online or through the Wingstop app. Large meal packages are also available.
Wingstop celebrated the grand opening of its Martinsville restaurant with a ribbon-cutting ceremony July 27.
