Sudbury's Wacky Wings relocates to Northern Breweries, plans expansion

Wacky Wings owner Craig Burgess says his restaurant chain has purchased the former Northern Brewery building, a longtime Sudbury eyesore. 

The acquisition comes just weeks after Wacky Wings closed the doors of its downtown location after being expropriated by the City of Greater Sudbury to make way for the new arena. 

It was the last remaining building on the list of properties Greater Sudbury council needed to buy and demolish for the $200-million event centre project.

"We've been looking for a while to find an adequate site and it's been very difficult," said Burgess. 

"We ended up coming across this one – it's bigger than where we were initially… what we're going to do is make Wacky Wings wackier." 

Burgess hopes the restaurant will open next year, but acknowledges there is much work to be done as the building is in a state of disrepair.

"It's been in a very poor state for a very long time," he said. "But we're fully committed to bringing it across the finish line." 

The City of Greater Sudbury paid Wacky Wings $2.49 million as part of the expropriation process, but Burgess says that is nowhere near enough to cover the costs of this next project. 

The Northern Breweries building hit the real estate market in October 2023, with developer Greg Oldenburg listing it for $1.9 million. The developer had long touted the idea of transforming the building into lofts, but those plans never panned out.

Burgess hopes the new Wacky Wings location will become an attraction of sorts that will pull in a wider clientele from all of northeastern Ontario.

When asked about potential challenges, Burgess said that the extent of the work required is still unknown. He says more details will be released in the summer.