First Look: Mighty Quinn's BBQ Opens at The Waypointe in Norwalk

Most Connecticut residents who were unfamiliar with Hugh Mangum before he and his family started making donuts in Wilton four years ago, may be oblivious to a few tidbits. Mangum, you see, isn’t only a French Culinary Institute graduate who worked under Jean-Georges Vongerichten, but he’s the founder of the popular Mighty Quinn’s BBQ.

Now that his family’s donut shop, Rise Doughnuts, has gone from a pop up to its own physical location, paired with the fact that the Mangums reside in Wilton, the time to open another Mighty Quinn’s in nearby Norwalk in the former Bobby Q’s and the short lived Lechon Smokehouse space at The Waypointe.

“We’ve been expanding over the past 5-10 years,” Mangum explains. “We have a bunch of locations all over New York, so we kind of hit our apex there. Everything has been going well. We’re in Jersey now, Tampa, Maryland. And those are all franchises while this is corporate. It was a combo of me moving here five years ago, and (co-CEOs) Christos (Gourmos), Micha (Magid), and I already had Connecticut on our radar. It was more appetizing that I had an idea of the market here and they did, too. After what this was previously, previously, they put feelers out to see if it was viable. Right place, right time. It was close to being a ready to-go location and I live like 12 minutes away. I haven’t been as present the last five years because I opened Rise with my family. It’s been nice. We’ve been joking around saying we’re getting the band back together.”

Norwalk’s edition of Mighty Quinn’s (named after Hugh and Laura’s son, who you’ll see running the front of house at Rise) is different from the rest of the pack. If you are familiar with their brand, you know it’s in the style of fast casual where you order at the counter. Norwalk is full table service—and it’s currently their only location that is, a true evolution from how and where the brand started in 2011.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by CTbites (@ctbites)

“When we began at Smorgasburg, it was just me, my wife (Laura), and our OG chef Alex Stanko,” Mangum says. “On our way back to Jersey, we’d stop at the Bridgewater Mall because we were starving and it was the only place I could park with a 7,000-pound smoker for us to grab food after long days and long lines of customers at Smorgasburg. We’d stand in line (at the mall) for food and there was a moment of clarity as to how something like this could work as a QSR. No one had really done it with BBQ before. Places sometimes weren’t efficient with heat lamps and shitty sides, so we figured we’d take my background as a fine dining chef and make the sides better and do it as a QSR. People would see me pulling slabs of meat off and there was something visceral about that.”

In Norwalk, someone will seat you. Heck, they even take reservations. There’s even a full bar chocked full of draft beer, wine, seltzers, and a craft cocktail and mocktail program. A small, vintage arcade in the back? You bet.

Dirty Fries topped with chopped brisket, spicy chile-lime sauce, red onions, and scallions are ideal for sharing, as is nearly the entire menu. Mangum said these were created years ago for the team to satisfy hunger pangs after working those late night shifts.

But you wanna hear about the BBQ, right?

Right.

So, it’s all the standards; 90-minute to two-hour smoked, then fried wings, tossed in a homemade sauce (BBQ, spicy chile-lime, or Carolina mustard), St. Louis ribs, chicken by the half, brisket, turkey, Portuguese linguiça (pork) sausage, and hand pulled pork with plenty of “bark” pieces that The New York Times’ food critic Pete Wells once remarked is “the only one in town that doesn’t make you embarrassed for New York. It is staggeringly good.”

Running the kitchen in Norwalk is Michael Rego, who has been Mighty Quinn’s corporate executive chef since 2018.

Yakitori chicken skewers with sweet soy glaze and crushed scallions—like a few other dishes—are an exclusive to the Norwalk location. “There are some things here that you won’t see at other locations,” Mangum says.

A full service Mighty Quinn’s allows for more, like craft cocktails, sports broadcasting on the TVs, and you can brawl out a few rounds on a vintage Street Fighter arcade game.

Cocktails left to right: old fashioned, Black Is Beautiful (Absolut Citron, fresh lemon juice, orgeat, blackberry syrup), Queen of Hearts (El Jimadore, Old Forester, passion fruit, red wine float)

At all their locations, Norwalk included, Mighty Quinn’s stands firm on using quality ingredients, smoked the right way and free of shortcuts.

“We’re not comparing ourselves to anyone else,” Mangum says. “We want to pay tribute and homage to doing it right. All hormone free meats, all natural, all smoked over live fire, and done authentically. Clean sides, or you can have fried pickles—which I love—but there’s other stuff. It’s a balanced meal; light, heavy, some sides have finesse, but everything is seasoned well and lovingly cared for.”

Some of the sides like charred Brussels sprouts with cilantro and soy vinaigrette and a cold broccoli salad with bacon, dried cranberries, and red onions, plus a trio of salads and a rice bowl option are attributed, as Mangum says, to him, Micha, and Chris getting older and making healthier choices, so adding cleaner fare to the menu, even at a BBQ joint, made sense, especially for those that think similarly.

Cinnamon bun bread pudding

And if BBQ isn’t for you, Norwalk’s Mighty Quinn’s has a smash burger, a fried chicken sandwich, and a trio of grilled entrées in a tender hanger steak with chimichurri, BBQ glazed salmon, and yakitori chicken skewers.

“Yakitori, I have a sticks and skewers section is my upcoming book, so we added that to the menu,” Mangum says. “The hanger, for a non-smoked item, it’s money. I stand behind it all. It’s all about attention to detail. The cinnamon bun bread pudding, I promise you, I think it’s one of the best you’ll have.”

We pause. We take bites of everything. Mangum dives into the fried pickles that he has an affinity for.

Then he continues, “BBQ is the most democratic food we have in this country. Yakitori is on the menu because it doesn’t veer off staying true to what the craft is. We’re a BBQ restaurant and we honor all forms of that.”

11 Merwin Street, Norwalk
203.838.4176, mightyquinnsbbq.com