Operations
Pandemic inspires Mighty Quinn's to make soap, save the competition
Micha Magid, co-founder and co-CEO Mighty Quinn's Barbeque, discusses how the pandemic changed the concept's operations model.
March 23, 2021 by Vanessa Montalbano
What would you do with beef tallow from rendered fat, organic coconut charcoal, peppermint oil and mie?
If you are Micha Magid, co-founder and co-CEO Mighty Quinn's Barbeque based in Manhattan, you make soap.
As part of its mission to be mindful of its carbon footprint, the nine-unit chain began transforming the leftover ingredients into tallow soap last year and selling it on its website for $7 each or $35 for a pack of six.
"We butcher a very large amount of brisket everyday and we were always throwing out this organic animal fat and we couldn't really find a way to repurpose it," Magid said about the soap, which was inspired by the increase of handwashing sparked by the pandemic. "One of the oldest uses of beef tallow is to make soap, you know, before soap became a chemical based detergent it was made with natural oils. So we came up with a pretty simple soap recipe with four ingredients."
The company has sold nearly 2,500 bars of soap amid the pandemic, but the extra revenue stream is just one way COVID-19 has changed operations at Mighty Quinn's.
The company, for example, was forced to shut down a number of its stadium, business district and shopping mall locations due to rapidly changing guidelines and safety measures. Some have since reopened, but not all.
Magid hopes that by this upcoming summer all locations will be up and running again, a promising thought considering that New York Governor Andrew Cuomo announced said last week that stadiums could welcome fans at 20% capacity by April 1. With one restaurant located within Yankee Stadium and two in Madison Square Garden, Mighty Quinn's expects to see a meaningful increase in foot traffic at spectator events.
Responding to information and serving the community
Among its top priorities one year ago was keeping staff and customers safe.
"Once we felt comfortable then it [the priority] was making sure we could stay open for the local communities that we serve, both in New York and New Jersey," Magid said. "As people were locked down, at least they had some sense of normalcy while keeping the local barbeque restaurant open."
Being in New York, which was a sort of "ground zero" for COVID, Magid said the chain also took the initiative to support the local hospital community.
"Just by sheer coincidence, each of the Mighty Quinn's locations in the city that we were able to keep open were near each of those hospital systems where doctors and nurses were literally working around the clock," he said.
After two months of donations, Mighty Quinn's was able to offer around 6,000 free meals to support the efforts of hospital workers. Since this initiative ended last summer, the chain has continued to provide all hospital employees with a discount.
Much of this was possible due to the fact that Mighty Quinn's had already built out a digital platform several years prior, according to Magid, who the transition to purely delivery and takeout was more or less seamless for the restaurant's team as a result of this technology.
Other restaurants, which did not already have a secure online presence in place, were less fortunate.
The restaurant industry at large has been arguably hit the hardest by the unforeseen issues brought on by the pandemic, especially in terms of employment and sales. In New York alone, nearly two-thirds of restaurants were forced to close their doors for good over the past year with very little government relief at their disposal. The restaurant and foodservice industry sales fell by $240 billion in 2020 from an expected level of $899 billion, according to a recent report by the National Restaurant Association.
Helping the competition?
Restaurants are the glue that keeps communities together across the country — especially in Manhattan — so when a fellow neighborhood restaurant, Otto's Tacos, was not able to reopen amid the pandemic due to increasing demands, Mighty Quinn's stepped up to offer a licensing agreement. Otto's Tacos now operates as a delivery-only basis out of a Mighty Quinn's kitchen.
"We have been fans of Otto's Tacos since their opening next door to our flagship location in the East Village in 2013," Magid said. "They have developed a strong brand in the city and we look forward to bringing their food back to New Yorkers."
Looking ahead
In 2018, Mighty Quinn's kicked off plans to expand its corporate portfolio and open franchised establishments in communities across the United States from Maryland to Tampa Bay, Florida.
Those plans, however, stalled until August 2020, when the restaurant opened its first franchise location in Garden City, Long Island. Around that same time, sales began to rebound after close to a year of experiencing a meaningful dip in revenue.
"We're super excited about continuing to open up in new markets with franchisee's and I think that we are going to be coming into a very strong period in the restaurant economy," Magid said. "What this pandemic did was really just push that takeout and delivery demand forward by about three years and I don't think it's going to go back the other way, I think it's here to stay."
Delivery isn't the only opportunity on the horizon for fast casual restaurants, however.
"If anything we have seen franchising inquiry increase. The real estate availability is higher than before, plus we think that the labor pool is more improved," he said. "As more and more people receive a vaccine, and infection rates decline, restaurant life as we knew it is sure to return."
About Vanessa Montalbano
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