The Wild Wings location downtown had long been a traditional venue for Wofford’s Greek life, but that long-term relationship has come to its end.

Earlier this year, the establishment announced its closing and officially closed this February. Its quick closing left many unprepared, including event organizers in Wofford’s Greek Life.

One of Wofford’s students who had an experience with this closure is Promise Henry ‘25, who serves as the risk reduction and education chair of Wofford’s Theta Zeta chapter of Zeta Tau Alpha.

Henry had set up an event with Wild Wings’ new management late last year and returned from abroad early this year, getting off the plane to immediately receive a text message stating, “Hi, sorry to inform you Wild Wings is closing, good luck with finding another venue.”

Her sorority’s leadership had to quickly work together to not only to find another local venue before it was booked but also to pull together enough money to pay for other venues around town, which she described would be hundreds of dollars more.

Luckily, they were able to find a venue at Citizens and Southern Event Center to accommodate not only Zeta Tau Alpha but also Kappa Alpha Theta and Kappa Delta, who were all supposed to have functions at Wild Wings in March.

However, the change in venue meant that the sorority had to find the funds mostly within what they already had available.

“We had to cut back on a bus and many other things just to accommodate a venue,” Henry said.

For many years, Wild Wings had been the go-to venue for its cheap rental.

“Greek Life regularly used Wild Wings because it was a free venue through Wofford; all an organization would have to do to schedule an event would place at least a $300 food order,” Henry said.

The venue’s long history with Wofford meant that it had gained an association with the kind of events held with those organizations.

It was close and easy to get to, but the venue’s many benefits did not mean that it was a good place to hold events for fraternities and sororities.

Even before the restaurant’s closing, Henry was noticing a variety of problems with the establishment detailing that Wild Wings’ cheapness didn’t mean it was the perfect venue.

She claims that there were issues with alcohol being served to people underage at events among many other problems.

The sororities’ national chapters required that all sorority events had certain measures in place in order to make sure everyone was safe at the events.

“We would speak with the owner of Wild Wings and they would promise security, that the food would be out by a certain time and that only beer and wine would be served at the bar,” Henry said.

But all three of these promises seemed to be regularly missing from sorority events.

No security would be there to prevent outside guests from getting in, food would end up having to be requested on arrival and liquor would still be served at the bar.

Though the other local venues may be more expensive for the sororities, the greater level of care compared to Wild Wings made Henry ultimately more happy than sad to see it go.

“Wild Wings just became an unsafe environment for Greek Life,” Henry said.