The curious case of Buffalo Chips in Bonita Springs

• Buffalo Chips Restaurant opened in 1982, but the attached motel dates to the 1950s.
• Run by a family from Buffalo, NY the restaurant is sort of an upscale dive.
• Owner Chip Greenwood prides himself on top-quality ingredients and from-scratch recipes.

The motel rooms stretch along Old 41 Road in Bonita Springs, their doors numbered one through 11, their front porches decorated with wagon wheels and wood-spoke banisters.

As you make your way to the south end of this 60-some-year-old motel, you hit a screened-in porch plastered in license plates and cattle horns, then a glass door that opens to a dining area where old, red Dairy Queen booths make up the seating and a giant buffalo head — "that's Buffy The Wing Slayer," owner Chip Greenwood points out — hangs on one wall.

This is Buffalo Chips.

"The restaurant opened in 1982, so we are the oldest family-run restaurant in Bonita," Greenwood said from a rolling office chair in the motel's small check-in area. "And I believe we are the only property in Lee County zoned for a motel, a restaurant and a trailer park."

As if things here weren't curious enough.

Head out back and you'll find a handful of single-wides parked side by side at a diagonal.

"One of my cooks lives there," Greenwood said pointing to an off-white number with beige stripes. "These are all for my employees. Low-cost living is hard to come by."

As is a place as unique as Buffalo Chips. Chip's father, Alfred Greenwood, bought the property in 1982, turning what was once an apartment for the daughter of the motel's owners into a restaurant slinging cold Buds and chicken wings made the way they are in the Greenwoods' native Buffalo, N.Y.

He named the place after his son and their hometown. That the term also denotes, well, buffalo poop is a fact not lost on Chip Greenwood.

"My dad's always had a twisted sense of humor," he said with a half-smile.

Chip took over in 1991. He runs the place with his brother, cousin, daughters and his wife, Debbie.

Over the past 24 years the family has transformed this low-slung dive into a more proper dive, where flatbreads are scratch-made, barbecue is slow smoked, and burgers are crafted from Certified Angus Beef served with giant, hand-dipped onion rings on the side.

"I hate to say it, but that's kind of my secret," Chip said. "I don't skimp on anything."

Especially not the wings, which are big, meaty, fried to order and tossed in the signature sauce of Buffalo, "just melted butter and Frank's Red Hot," said Chip.

The restaurant sells some 2,000 wings on busy weekends, but other dishes are catching on, including Chip's dry-rubbed pork butts, and Debbie's Enchiladas Diablo made with her own chili-verde sauce.

"There was a time when we sold 75-percent wings, and now that's more like 40 percent," Chip said. "This place has morphed into something that's just different, that's nothing like any place else — something I'm quite proud of."

Off the Eaten Path tells the stories behind independent area restaurants, the strip-mall and side-street joints we pass everyday. Connect with this reporter: @ATometich (Twitter).

Buffalo Chips Restaurant and Ranch House Motel

Where: 26620 Old 41 Rd., Bonita Springs

Contact: 947-1000 or buffalochipsrestaurant.tv

Menu: Appetizers $3.99-$10.99, entrees $6.99-$15.99

Other: Beer and wine only, takeout available