What’s Next for New York City Restaurants?

July 22, 2021

Barbara Castiglia

BBQ

Brisket

Micha Magid

+more

Barbara Castiglia

Food is serious business. Now, on The Main Course, host Barbara Castiglia will invite insiders on the front lines of food to share their expertise, strategies, and forecasts for navigating the ever-changing restaurant industry.

While restaurants and other hospitality venues are now open, restaurants are still waiting for the dust to settle. With the Delta Variant spreading and restaurateurs picking up the pieces from 2020, what will the post-COVID world look like for restaurants?

Here to give insights on this episode of The Main Course with Host Barbara Castiglia is Micha Magid, co-CEO of Mighty Quinn’s BBQ, a NY-based Authentic barbeque experience in a fast-casual setting. They discuss how his business survived the pandemic, helped others–including other restaurants–push through the challenging year, and what’s next for New York restaurants in a post-pandemic world.

Magid’s career wasn’t always in restaurants. He started on Wall Street in mergers and acquisitions before moving into the hedge fund world. Along with his brother-in-law, Chris Gourmos, and pitmaster Hugh Magnums, Magid launched Mighty Quinn’s in December of 2012. They opened their first brick-and-mortar Mighty Quinn’s restaurant in the East Village.

“In March of 2013, we received this glowing review in The New York Times Dining section, and the whole world changed for us,” Magid said.

Since the brand’s inception, the three partners have opened nine corporate-owned locations, a restaurant at Yankee Stadium, two locations in Madison SquareGarden, and one international franchised restaurant. Now, with solid operations and a growing fan base, the brand is excited to push growth forward through franchising.

But, things weren’t always so easy for them, especially during the pandemic. At one point, they had to close eight of their 12 restaurants temporarily. This has caused them to be more strategic and thoughtful with their expansion.