Mighty Quinn's BBQ

New York City has a lot of great food.  But I can't say I've ever heard people talk about NY as being a great place for BBQ, although there are several places around, including Mighty Quinn's, a small chain with a couple locations in Manhattan, one each in Brooklyn and Queens, along with New Jersey, Florida, and Maryland.  You may notice a distinct lack of locations in the actual bbq regions of the country.

Anyway, I still had hope, as a chain has to have something going for it to continue to open that many franchises, even if it started in NY.

"We bring together the best of all great BBQ techniques to create something uniquely its own. The process begins with the best, all-natural meats and poultry, seasoned with perfect spice blends and then smoked with wood for many, many hours until the perfect harmony of smoke, flavor and time emerges. Our food is steeped in tradition but given new life. BBQ was created in the South but Mighty Quinn's Barbeque was born in New York!"

I didn't actually visit one of the local restaurants in person, but rather got to experience their product at a catered event in my office.  For our event, we had the choice of two proteins: Kick'n Chicken or Burnt Ends.  At their actual restaurants they have many other offerings like brisket, pulled pork, ribs, sausages, wings, and more.  We didn't have any of their sides but they do have a pretty decent sounding lineup of cornbread, burnt end baked beans, mac & cheese fritters, mac and cheese, candied pecan topped sweet potatoes, brussels sprouts, broccoli salad with bacon, two kinds of slaw, loaded fries or potatoes, etc, etc.  I was sad to not get to try any of those items.  And don't get me started on how sad I was to miss the cinnamon bun bread pudding. We did also have their house pickled cucumbers and onions and their signature bbq sauce.

Burnt Ends.

We were only allowed one portion, and it was a bit meager.  I can't blame the business for this, but, it did look a bit sad when served.

I had mixed feelings on these.  The smokiness was exceptional.  Maybe almost too smoky, as it got to be a bit much in a way I've never experienced before.  Like, inside of an ashtray.  But a small bite really was fantastic, and I suspect would go sooo well with mac and cheese or mashed potatoes to balance it out.

The pieces had a great char on them.  But ... the meat just wasn't that tender, it didn't pull apart nicely, it had some chewy big hunks of fat, and the flavor was fairly muted other than the smoke.  It let me down because the smoke hit hard at first, the char was obvious, and these seemed like great signs, but, at the end of the bite, I wasn't really all that happy with it.  Low 3/5 sadly.

Pickles.

Pickled cucumbers.

These were a bit different from most pickles. Crinkle cut, slices, but they were strangely pale.  Fairly soft, not mushy, but not as crunchy as some.  Relatively standard flavor.  Overall they were fine, but not special.  3/5.

Pickled onions

These were pretty standard pickled onions, good acidity to cut the fatiness and smokiness of the meat.  3/5.

BBQ Sauce.

The bbq sauce was good.  A nice consistency, not to runny, not too thick.  It had some vinegar tang but not too much.  It had some sweetness, but not too much.  Basically a very balanced bbq sauce, that didn't taste commercial.  3.5/5.