Hot wings weren’t always hot and Jim Gavarone wasn’t sure how well they would help support his sandwich shop.

Curently on Court Street, Gavarone’s restaurant, Mister Spots, will soon be moving to Main Street. 

“Spots,” as it’s sometimes called, offers customers the chance to enjoy “authentic” food with Gavarone’s steak sandwiches and chicken wings.

Despite having about 27 years under his belt, Gavarone said he “accidentally backed into” his business.

“A few friends just double- dog-dared me into it,” he says.

When Gavarome opened his store on Court Street on Feb. 17, 1985, his wings quickly became one of a kind in the local food market.

“We’ve done wings from day one,” Gavarone said. “We were kind of pioneers in that industry.”

As a pioneer in the wing industry during the‘80s, Gavarone was going up against another restaurant in Columbus, Ohio — Buffalo Wild Wings. At the time, Mister Spots and Buffalo Wild Wings were two of the only places in the area that regularly sold wings, Gavarone says.

“It really became an intense rivalry,” Gavarome says.

Eventually, wings became more mainstream as Buffalo Wild Wings started to expand, Gavarone said.

While hot wings may have been a rarity during Gavarome’s rivalry, about 33 percent of all wings are now ordered at “casual dining restaurants,” such as Mister Spots, according to the National Chicken Council’s 2012 Chicken Wing Report.

“Wings used to be sort of disposable,” Gavarone says. “They used to cost 30 cents a pound, you know, and now they cost something like $3.30. They’ve just gotten so big.”

Although Gavarone may not be the man of a million locations or menu items, for the past 27 years, his sandwiches and his sauce has been “spot on.”

“We make our own sauce,” Gavarone says. “It’s no garden secret though. We don’t have 82 flavors or any sort of nuclear sauce, but it’s pretty good. It’s basic.”

When Gavarone bites into a wing or sandwich at his shop, he’s so satisfied that the only word he can find to describe it is as basic as his sauce recipe.

“Deliciousness,” he says. “I truly eat this crap all the time.”

Although Gavarone’s sauce is “basic,” he won’t give away the recipe, except for a few ingredients.

At his Court Street location, currently in operation, Gavarone works with one of his best friends, Mark Koldan.

Koldan, who is also the general manager at Mister Spots, first met Gavarone when playing club lacrosse together at the University back in the early ‘80s.

“It’s great not just working with my best friend, but working for my best friend,” Koldan says. “My kids call him ‘Uncle Jim’.”

When Gavarone played lacrosse, Koldan was his backup goalie.

“Essentially, he’s my backup at Mister Spots, too,” Gavarone says.

Since being put in charge in 1986, Koldan has been “steering the ship” at “Spots,” Gavarone said.

Although Gavarone is now more of a “behind the scenes kind of guy,” he sometimes still makes his own sandwiches and wings.

“Sometimes I’ll climb right behind the counter,” Gavarone says.

While Gavarone may not always be behind the store counter, customers, such as five-year patron Michelle Crook, still love his products.

“It’s on par,” Crook says as she finishes her dinner. “It’s local, casual and is pretty reasonably priced.”

As customers like Crook leave Gavarone’s old restaurant location, something similar will ‘mark the spot’ at 206 N. Main Street, his new location.

The doodle of Gavarone’s cat, Spot, wearing sunglasses, hangs on a sign above the doorway at each location. Gavarone did the doodle on the back of a textbook while sitting in a class at the University in the ‘80s.

“I caught a lot of flack for naming the business after him,” Gavarone said. “My landlord called it Mister Flops … he thought we wouldn’t last six months there.”

Beneath the sign at the new Main Street location, people occasionally peek in to ask if the new Mister Spots is open for business. They thanked Gavarone as he sent them down to the Court Street location.

“Welcome,” Gavarone said as they walked away.

Inside his new location, a few wires hang below a TV screen. There’s still some work to be done before Mister Spots officially moves to Main Street later this spring.

Different from its Court Street location, no customers are calling in orders and the dining room is still “spotless.”

“The best part of all of this is the people,” he said. “At the end of the day, that’s what it’s all about.”