Hugh Mangum talks about barbecue as if the act of smoking meat is an extended foreplay reaching its peak the moment you dig your hands into a Brontosaurus rib and tasting the tender and flavorful beef. Slow-cooked for more than 10 hours – the white oak “kissing” the meat – the only way to eat the full beef rib with dignity, says the tattooed drummer-turned-celebrated-pit master, is to ditch the knife and fork, give in to your primal instincts, and get your hands dirty in the process.
“I beg you, use your hands and bite with your mouth,” says Mangum, who turned the spotlight on barbecue when he opened the first Mighty Quinn restaurant in New York in 2012, and hopes to achieve the same cult following in Manila with his flagship branch at the Fashion Hall of SM Megamall.
Like all good stories, Mighty Quinn, named after Mangum’s first-born son, started with humble beginnings, in his driveway, to be more specific. Armed with $600, he opened a stall at Smorgasburg, the open-air weekend food market by the waterfront in Brooklyn, and served smoked brisket.
“We were sold out in 90 minutes,” he recalls. And that is how he started his mini-empire, which now has nine branches, including its first international branch at Ren’ai Circle in Taipei.
“Brisket is essentially what built our house,” Mangum says, describing the smoked meat like it has attitude. “You have to cook it very consistently. It’s masochism on a plate at 18 to 20 hours of smoking. If you are in a bad mood, the brisket knows.”
Patrons order at Mighty Quinn assembly-style: you line up as you do in a cafeteria; choose your meat, which can be ordered in single serving or by the pound and which comes with sandwich or with dirty rice; and then choose your sides, if you want any.
The menu is equally uncomplicated: brisket (P495 for a single serving/P1,295 by the pound), burnt ends (same price as brisket), pulled pork (P485/P1,290), sausage (P435/P1,160), spare ribs (P495/P1,295), Brontosaurus rib (P1,450), and spicy chicken wings (P405 for six pieces, P685 for 10).
The sides dishes come in small (P165), medium (P325) and large (P645) servings: burnt end baked beans, sweet potato casserole, buttermilk broccoli salad, potato salad (which was on the salty side during the opening), slaw, and sweet corn fritters. They also offer fries (P165) and the special dirty fries topped with burnt ends (P375).
Dirty rice – a traditional Creole dish where rice is cooked with chicken liver and giblets to give it a “dirty” look – is not offered in any other Mighty Quinn branch except here in Manila, owing to the Filipinos’ fondness for the grain (but no unli-rice here, though). Mangum’s dirty rice uses a secret ingredient: calamansi, which Mangum tasted only when he came to Manila.
“We were told that we had to have rice. And then during one of our meetings, we were served with calamansi. It was my first time to try it. It was a light bulb moment: I had to have calamansi in my dirty rice,” he says. The citrus fruit ubiquitous in the Philippines has caught Mangum’s fancy that he plans to offer dirty rice for a limited time in his New York branch.
Mighty Quinn’s price point, however, may prove to be prohibitive for some, but John Concepcion, president of the Standard Hospitality Group that brought the restaurant to the country, is confident that Filipinos would find the restaurant’s smoked meat worth every peso.
“You don’t have to travel to the US to get the best barbecue. We can return your money if you are not happy with your food here at Mighty Quinn. That’s how confident we are with the taste and the authenticity of our food,” says Concepcion, the same guy who was responsible for bringing in Yabu and Ippudo onto the local food scene.
Mighty Quinn’s pulled pork has been described by the New York Times as “staggeringly good,” the beef rib “an instant conversation stopper,” and the spare ribs “exceptional.”
But the best reviews are always personal. For Concepcion, he will never forget the first time he tasted Mighty Quinn’s brisket in New York a few years back, before the restaurant even had its first international branch. “It was winter and it was snowing outside. That brisket made me feel warm and happy. It was then that I felt this can become a global brand,” he says.
Or as Mangum puts it, “Barbecue is always associated with fun and love.”
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