Aunt Di's Wing Sauce
Every family has that one dish. The one that shows up at every holiday, every cookout, every random Wednesday dinner that somehow turns into a whole thing. For Melissa Hunt's family, it was Aunt Di's wing sauce.
Aunt Di — that's what everyone called her — made two versions. The signature one was sweet, smooth, golden brown. The kind of sauce you'd put on everything if nobody was watching. The second version had heat behind it — same base, but kicked up for the people who wanted to feel something. Both were family staples.
It showed up at every gathering. Holidays. Summer cookouts. Birthday parties. Those weeknight dinners where someone just decided to cook and the whole family ended up at the table. You'd walk into the house, catch that smell, and immediately know: Aunt Di was there. And she brought the sauce.
That's the thing about a recipe like this. It's not really about the ingredients. It's about the person. It's about walking into a room and feeling like you're home before anyone even says hello.
When Travis and Melissa started putting together the menu for Airport Inn Greene, the sauce question came up early. Travis had over 100 wing flavors already — the man knows sauces better than anyone in the Southern Tier. But Melissa had an idea for something different. Something that couldn't come from a distributor or off a delivery truck.
She brought Aunt Di's recipe into the restaurant kitchen.
They tested it. Tweaked the batch size for restaurant volume. Made sure it held up on a Friday night when tickets are flying and the kitchen is running full speed. It did. Of course it did — good recipes don't break just because you make more of them.
Aunt Di's is now the house sauce at Airport Inn Greene. You can get it on bone-in wings, boneless, or mixed with any other flavor on the menu. It comes out on almost every table. People who've never heard the story behind it order it because it's good. People who have heard the story order it because it means something.
"Sweet. Homemade. And we are making it our staple here."
— Melissa Hunt
That's what makes Airport Inn Greene different from a chain restaurant. A chain has a corporate recipe developed in a test kitchen by people who will never meet the customers. Airport Inn Greene has Aunt Di's sauce — a real recipe from a real person, made with love long before it ever saw the inside of a commercial kitchen.
It's a little piece of Melissa's family in every basket. A little bit of Aunt Di at every table.
"Come try Aunt Di's sauce and taste a little piece of our family."
— Melissa Hunt
Next time you're in, ask for Aunt Di's. You'll taste what all the fuss is about.
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