Epic Wings in Santee carries a buffalo-wing recipe the Sacco family introduced to the West Coast in 1982 under the original Wings N' Things name, making it San Diego's first dedicated wing restaurant. The fresh, never-frozen wing protocol and hand-rolled garlic breadsticks define a scratch-kitchen philosophy that complements the craft-beer curation at The Malt House a few blocks west on the same Mission Gorge Road corridor. Bone-in and boneless combos arrive tossed in over a dozen sauce options from lemon pepper to Carolina Reaper, and the Buffalo Chicken Fries — hand-cut potatoes topped with sauced chicken and melted cheese — serve as the kitchen's highest-volume crossover item. The breadstick dough follows a proprietary recipe unchanged since the 1982 founding, baked per order rather than held in a warming drawer. The boneless tenders use breast meat hand-battered in seasoned flour before frying, producing a high-protein format that draws post-gym traffic from Chuze Fitness in Santee Town Center to this Mission Gorge Road counter. The Carolina Reaper sauce option exceeds 1.5 million Scoville Heat Units, anchoring a heat ladder of 14 distinct sauce and dry-rub formulations that range from a zero-heat garlic Parmesan to the capsaicin ceiling.