Mildenhall: Chicken wing restaurant 'Top G Wings' coming to town centre in place of Thai restaurant

A new American-style chicken wing restaurant is on its way to a Suffolk town centre and will offer eight different flavours.

Shaz Begg, 42, and Paul Stannard, 45, who are long-time friends from Mildenhall, are coming together as business partners and are taking over Thai restaurant En-Thai-Sing which sits between Costa and Wilko.

They have recently begun renovating their new premises on Saint Andrew's Street and Mr Begg, who also runs Indian restaurant Gandhi in the town, is looking forward to opening ‘Top G Wings’.

“I'm honestly really excited to start this and I’m particularly excited to give something to the town that needs it as there’s nothing around here doing what we would do,” he said.

“You’ve got Indian restaurants, kebabs and fish and chips shops but there’s no dedicated chicken wings spot and there’s often complaints that places are shutting down but one thing I’ve always had an issue with, is that there isn't really a family-friendly place apart from McDonalds, but that’s not in town.

“So I think it’s nice for people to walk from their house, take their kids to the park or something and then sit down and enjoy some food then go home.

“You have restaurants but that’s quite formal and generally only open in evenings so I’m super excited to give something new to the town and I think the Americans will particularly love it as they have early lunches and we will likely open from 11am until 11pm.”

Mr Begg, whose main profession revolves around his own marketing agency, was with Mr Stannard in the cinema when they learnt that En-Thai-Sing was closing and the latter half-joked that the two of them could take it over.

The next morning, Mr Stannard had arranged a meeting and the pair were in the right place at the right time to take it over after fighting off some competition from the neighbouring Costa store next door.

With the aim to open around the middle of September, Mr Begg is now in familiar territory and feels prepared to undertake a new challenge.

He said: “A lot of money is going to go into this, so I’m a bit nervous as I wasn’t planning on opening another restaurant as a year and a half ago I opened a pizza franchise in Harlow so I've got that running as well.

“Having two restaurants already though gives me confidence as I know what I’m doing, I’ve got contacts so it's not a new thing for me, and I also have a huge passion for food.

“I’m a family man, I’ve got plenty of my friends in Mildenhall, I know the town well and I’ve had many messages from parents saying their kids are excited so I hope the new shop will go down well.”

Mr Begg aims to recruit locally and is encouraging the younger generation to work at the store as it’s in the town centre, compared to walking up to McDonalds where Mr Begg believes the walk can be ‘quite dangerous’.

The different flavours of wings on offer at ‘Top G Wings’ will include the classics such as buffalo sauce wings and the likes of lemon and herb and honey glazed, but also a couple of surprises featuring Mr Begg’s own recipes. The store will also host events like wing challenges.

The restaurant owner’s reasoning for opening a chicken wings store, aside from the fact there isn’t one in the town, was helped by the fact he’s a big fan of the food.

Mr Begg said: “I love chicken wings. I have two other friends where we set up our own instagram page and we went around the country reviewing chicken wings. That’s how much I love chicken wings.

“There’s a festival called the WingFest at the O2, it’s a ticket only event but we go pretty much every other year and it’s a massive wing festival so yes I really love my wings.”