Most know about Dirty Birds Bar & Grill’s award-winning chicken wings in Ocean Beach. However, not everyone is aware of the sports bar’s generosity in giving back to the community.

The popular pub has amply demonstrated its community-mindedness by donating all the proceeds ($9,428 from this year’s wing-eating contest at the OB Street Fair) and $27,678 overall during the four years the contest has been held.

The most money raised at this past June’s wing-eating contest was by Avery Jacoby, the 9-year-old daughter of managing partner Adam Jacoby, who joined 48 hours beforehand and raised $1,500.

Ocean Beach MainStreet Association, the community’s business improvement district, has been the beneficiary of Dirty Birds’ generosity. “They are one of the businesses that walks the walk and talks the talk,” said Denny Knox, OBMA’s executive director. “That business does follow through on doing everything it possibly can do to make the community stronger.”

OBMA’s event and program manager, Kristen Keltner, agreed with Knox.

“Dirty Birds Ocean Beach continuously steps up for our community in so many ways,” Keltner said. “I have had the joy of working with (co-owner) Shawnn Silverman on various events through OBMA, such as Dirty Birds sponsoring OBMA community clean-ups, hosting networking events, and coordinating/fundraising for the wing eating contest at the Street Fair & Chili Cook-off.”

Added Keltner, “Dirty Birds and Silverman are also huge supporters of youth sports organizations and schools on the Peninsula. Dirty Birds Ocean Beach is once again supporting the Point Loma High School Homecoming Tailgate Party with a substantial food donation, which helps fund their football program.”

Few are also aware of the interesting story behind how Dirty Birds, which opened in Pacific Beach in 2008 and now has five locations including the SDSU area, Liberty Station, and UC San Diego in La Jolla, started. The company ownership group consists of Jonathan Ollis, Silverman, and Jacoby. Silverman general manager at Dirty Birds OB, recalled how it all began.

“We’re a local success story,” he said. “The nucleus of our management and ownership goes back to when were all bartenders at On Broadway (now Parq Nightclub) at 615 Broadway downtown 20 years ago. We’re all local kids who were bartenders at the nightclub before we became bar owners.”

As young men in their 20s, Silverman noted their partnership team all wanted to take the next career step to ownership. But they had to figure out how best to combine sports, friends, and good-tasting food, which ultimately turned out to be their trademark chicken wings.

Why are Dirty Birds’ wings so good? “It’s a combination of two things,” Silverman revealed. “They’re baked a certain amount of time, then flash-fried to perfection. That and our wing sauce.”

But perfecting wings wasn’t easy. “It took us over 20 years of food testing to find the right formula,” added Silverman.

Knox said Dirty Birds’ donation will support the Ocean Beach Clean & Safe Program prioritizing public safety, eliminating blight, and beautifying the neighborhood. That is accomplished via graffiti abatement, regular sidewalk cleaning, solar safety lighting, and improving/replacing signage in commercial areas. Security personnel are contracted, and community enhancement volunteers are enlisted, to work together under the program to provide a cleaner, safer environment.

“We have a committee that deals with a lot of those issues,” noted Knox adding the committee’s role is also to “educate all the businesses here on how to protect themselves from any kind of lawless behavior.”

Of the Clean & Safe Program’s work, Knox said: “It’s not very glamorous, washing the sidewalks, repairing things that get broken, repainting all the trash cans and cleaning all the lids.”

Thanks to fundraisers like the chicken-wing eating contest, Knox added that OBMA is now able to schedule sidewalk cleaning twice a month.

Silverman talked about recent upgrades at Dirty Birds OB, adding community involvement and commitment is, and will continue to be, a core part of the company’s mission. “We have a full liquor license now and all but about two of the 22 craft brews we serve are good local brands,” Silverman said adding, “Doing things for the local community: We focus on that. We’re truly a local brand doing wonderful things within the community. It’s a true local success story.”

Dirty Birds OB highlights:

• Voted Best Wings in San Diego.
• Voted Best Wings in Southwest Region and No. 2 nationally via YouTube.
• Great turnout for the wing eating contest at the 44th annual OB Street Fair & Chili Cook-Off.
• Dirty Birds continues to raise money/fundraise for OBMA’s programs, projects, and initiatives.
• The restaurant serves a full bar menu and has a liquor license.
• They support numerous local organizations, youth sports teams, and schools through donations and dine-out programs.
• They have proved to be an all-around Ocean Beach team player.