Concept only.No fryer, no wings, not yet.Here's the idea

Inside Captain's Wings at night: a cook tossing wings in a steel bowl at the open kitchen, baskets of wings on the counter, and a small airplane on the lit ramp through the front windows

OFF THE FIELD · DAYTONA BEACH INTERNATIONAL · DAB

Earn your wings.

Fried twice, sauced to order, and rated for heat in stripes, one to four, the way a pilot earns rank. Across the street from the runway at Daytona.

The Menu Flying In

Wet lease or dry lease. Flats or drums. Celery is required equipment.

FRIED TWICE//SAUCED TO ORDER//NEVER FROZEN//FLORIDA DATIL

TONIGHT: [GAME / SPECIAL]

THE HEAT SCALE

Rated in stripes.

A first officer wears three stripes. The captain wears four. Our sauces work the same way. Everybody starts with one stripe. How high you climb is up to you.

The Captain's Wings building at dusk with a gold wings sign, palm trees, and airport lights beyond the fence

Smooth Air

No bumps, no surprises. Kids and passengers.

Light Chop

You'll feel it. Nothing to write home about.

Moderate Turbulence

Seatbelt on. Secure all drinks.

Squawk 7700

Declare the emergency. The milk is already on its way.

THE MENU

Cleared to Eat

Prices are for a restaurant that doesn't exist yet. Wings are sold by the count, never by the pound.

By the Count

Fresh jumbo wings, split into flats and drums. One flavor per ten. All flats or all drums, add $1.50.

Solo6 · $10
Your first time out alone. One flavor, celery, one dip.
Dual10 · $15
The standard order. One flavor, or split it with the person in the other seat.
Cross-Country20 · $28
Two flavors, two dips, and enough to land somewhere and still be happy.
Crew Meal50 · $64
Up to five flavors, a big bowl of celery and carrots, four dips. Feeds a crew of four, or two after a long leg.
Charter100 · $120
Call ahead. Flying clubs, hangar parties and the study group that is definitely studying.
Simulator Timeboneless10 · $12
Breaded chicken breast. It isn't a wing and it doesn't count toward anything, but it tastes fine and we'll sauce it the same.

Required Equipment

Sides, $5 each unless noted.

Celery & CarrotsFree
Required with every order. We don't make the rules. Actually, we do.
Mixture Rich$1
House blue cheese, chunky, or buttermilk ranch made in the back. Extra dip is the one upsell we're proud of.
Crosswind Fries$5
Crinkle cut, seasoned with whatever dry rub you pick.
Holding Pattern Rings$6
Thick-cut sweet onion, beer batter. You'll go around a few times.
Hush Puppies$5
Florida-style, with a little sweet corn and a honey-butter dip.
Fried Pickle Chips$5
Dill pickles cut thin, cornmeal crust, ranch on the side.

Sweets & Fuel

Something cold for the heat, and something for whoever isn't flying.

Sterile Cockpit TeaFree for PIC
Bottomless sweet or unsweet. Flying out today? Show us your logbook and it's on the house.
Contrail Shake$7
Vanilla, chocolate or key lime pie. Thick enough to leave a trail.
Key Lime Pie$7
Graham crust, real key lime juice, whipped cream. The best fire extinguisher on the menu.
Chocks In Taps$6–9
Rotating Volusia County beer. For passengers, drivers, and pilots who are done for the day.
Fountain Sodas$3
Free refills. You'll need them.
Milk, Cold$2
For after the Check Ride. We keep a lot of it.

FLAVORS

Wet Lease & Dry Lease

Wet lease comes sauced. Dry lease comes rubbed. Pick by stripes, or order it naked and dip.

Show

Wet lease · Sauced

Student Solo
Honey butter with a pinch of cayenne. The one the kids order.
Sea Breeze
Key lime, roasted garlic and parmesan. Tastes like the afternoon onshore flow.
Private Pilot
Classic Buffalo: cayenne sauce, real butter, a splash of vinegar. The standard everything else is measured against.
Datil Approach
St. Augustine datil pepper and orange blossom honey. Sweet on the way in, warm on rollout.
Instrument Rated
Hot Buffalo with habanero. You won't see much for a minute.
Right Seat
Mango habanero. Does most of the work and gets none of the credit.
Captain's Call
The house sauce. Scotch bonnet, smoked garlic and brown sugar. Our name is on this one.

Dry lease · Rubbed

Clear of Clouds
Lemon pepper, heavy on the lemon, tossed while the wings are still hissing.
Ground Effect
Ranch seasoning and dill. Floats right along.
Salt & Vinegar
Malt vinegar powder and flake salt. Makes your jaw tighten in the good way.
Ramp Rash
Cajun rub, paprika-forward, with garlic and thyme.
Jet Blast
Dried chipotle, black pepper and cumin. Stand clear behind it.

BOTTLE TO THROTTLE.We'll happily card your passengers. We'll happily not serve the on-duty pilot.

ROTATING SERIES

The Factory Tour

Sauces named for the towns where airplanes get built. Two stops on the board at a time.

NOW LANDING: SAVANNAH & KERRVILLENEXT STOP: SEATTLE

Air Capital
Wichita, Kansas
Kansas City–style barbecue, sweet and smoky. More airplanes have rolled out of Wichita than anywhere on earth.
Vero Beach
Vero Beach, Florida
Indian River grapefruit and fresh jalapeño. The hometown stop, just down the coast from us.
SavannahOn the board
Savannah, Georgia
Georgia peach and habanero. The fancy jets come from here, so the sauce gets dressed up too.
KerrvilleOn the board
Kerrville, Texas
Texas chipotle with a brisket-style rub underneath. Small, fast and hot.
Duluth
Duluth, Minnesota
Maple, brown butter and cracked black pepper. Cold-country comfort.
Seattle
Seattle, Washington
Teriyaki glaze with ginger heat and toasted sesame. The big-iron stop.

THE CHALLENGE

The Check Ride

Off the stripe scale. Ghost pepper and Carolina Reaper, reduced down until it's thick. Adults only, one attempt per visit.

Chalkboard drawing of a sweating rooster pilot in aviator sunglasses with steam blowing from his ears, holding a fiery wing next to a stopwatch reading 7:59, under the words Check Ride

wings · 8 min block

Pass it and you're signed off.

Twelve Check Ride wings in eight minutes of block time, clock starts when the basket lands. No drinks, no dip, no leaving the table until the last bone is clean. Finish and your name goes on the Signed Off wall with the date, plus a pair of Captain's Wings pinned to your shirt.

Bust it and you walk out with a pink slip signed by the house, a free glass of milk, and a spot on the Discontinued board. Everybody gets a retest.

FLY IN · DRIVE IN

Wings on the flight line.

Daytona is busy Class C airspace full of student pilots. Brief it before you go.

1Land at Daytona Beach International (DAB). Check the chart supplement and current NOTAMs, and expect a lot of training traffic.
2Taxi to [FBO NAME]. Tell them you're here for wings and ask about the crew car.
3Drive [X] minutes to the building with the gold wings on the sign. Order at the counter.

Hours

Tuesday – Thursday[11am – 10pm]
Friday & Saturday[11am – midnight] · Night currency hours
Sunday[11am – 9pm] · Every game on
MondayClosed. The fryers get their annual.

Find Us

[STREET ADDRESS], Daytona Beach, FL

[PHONE] · captainswings.com

Flight students with a current school ID get 10% off, any day. Instructors eat at the student rate too. You've earned it.

THE PLACE

What it looks like

Nobody has eaten here. These are pictures of an idea.

HOW IT WORKS HERE

Before Start Checklist

Captain's Wings · Normal ProceduresRev. 1 · Concept

1OrderBY THE COUNT
Wings are sold by the piece, never by the pound. You always know exactly what you're getting.
2Wet or dryDECLARED
Sauced or rubbed. Tell the counter up front and we'll build it from there.
3HeatSTRIPES CONFIRMED
Say the stripe count out loud. It saves an awkward conversation later.
4CeleryON BOARD
Required equipment. You don't have to eat it.
5NapkinsAS REQUIRED
The roll on the table is yours. Wet naps are at the counter.
6Bottle to throttleOBSERVED
We'll happily card your passengers. We'll happily not serve the on-duty pilot.
7Counter crewTHANKED
They've been cutting chicken since before the tower opened.

OUR STORY

Nobody hands you the fourth stripe.

Sixteen years in restaurants, most of them with a tray in my hand. Thirty more in the air, and it all started at Embry-Riddle in Daytona.

I had my first Buffalo wings in 1987 at Carmichael's, out on what was still Volusia Avenue. The Avion ran a coupon: buy twenty, get twenty free. Forty wings on a student budget felt like winning the lottery. I've been ordering wings by the count ever since.

The wings on a captain's uniform take years. The ones here take about fourteen minutes.

Every pilot remembers the day they got their wings pinned on. Every flight student in Daytona also remembers where they ate at eleven at night with a checkride in the morning. This is supposed to be that place: loud, cheap enough for a student, good enough for the captain, and close enough to the field to hear the run-ups.

Fresh jumbo wings, fried twice so the skin shatters, sauced in a steel bowl the second they come out. Four stripes of heat and a challenge wing for anyone who thinks they're ready. Opening someday.

WHAT THIS IS

A restaurant that doesn't exist. Yet.

Captain's Wings is a restaurant concept, not a restaurant. There is no fryer, no address and no wings. Nothing here is open for business, and if you fly into Daytona looking for it you'll find plenty of good food and none of ours.

It was dreamed up by a professional pilot who spent sixteen years in restaurants and the next thirty in the air. The menu, the prices and the checklist are real intentions rather than real offerings. If it ever opens, it will look a lot like this page.

Want to hear about it if it ever becomes real? Email [YOUR EMAIL].