It’s rare that a drunken idea is a good one, and it’s even rarer that the drunken idea turns into a business. But hey, it’s not impossible—in fact, it’s exactly how Meat Mafia was born.

One night in 2019, Joseph Manglicmot, Jenny Nguyen, Bao Quan, and Bruce Huy Bui were out drinking downtown at the now-closed Bovine and Barley. After a few rounds, they, along with the bar’s owner, their buddy Jason Lowery, decided to treat their alcohol-fueled hunger with food from a nearby spot that was hosting steak night. But Lowery wasn’t pleased with the outcome.

“We got the steak, and my friend is so disappointed,” Manglicmot says. “He said, You know, you guys cook this stuff way better… We should all do our own steak night. He’s like, We’ll do it at my bar.”

It was pretty late at this point, and the drinks had been flowing, so no one really thought anything of it. But Lowery wasn’t kidding: The next day, he went out and ordered a grill. The group of friends had no choice but to commit to the bit.

Today, the members of Meat Mafia juggle their corporate day jobs—ranging from engineering to optometry—with hosting fun pop-up steak nights every other week at Houston bars like BLVD Park, Christian’s Tailgate, and Tikila’s.

Manglicmot loves a good old-fashioned salt and pepper steak, but he and his friends felt it would be a shame if Meat Mafia didn’t showcase the types of food they grew up with. They all bring something different to the table: You’ll see them incorporate Southeast Asian flair into the mix for their wet brine recipe—which Manglicmot understandably does not want to share—and by including Lao-style sliced brisket on the menu.

Manglicmot says he doesn’t want people to keep eating the same things each time. Once a year, you’ll also find pulled pork sandwiches on the menu, and smoked ribs will occasionally make an appearance, too. 

“You just never know what I’m gonna be serving,” he says. “When I do decide to do something [new], we promote it all week. Our main voice is our Instagram.”

Tomahawks are on the menu, but you have to reserve them ahead of time by direct messaging the group on Instagram. You can also count on seeing New Zealand lamb chops, prime rib eye steak, Laos sausage, garlic herb rice, and smoked shrooms at Meat Mafia events.

The first steak night the group held was in the summer of 2019 at Bovine and Barley. Manglicmot says it was a complete disaster. It took them 45 minutes to get the food out to people and the group could not stop arguing. He notes that this was also pre-pandemic, so between their friends who showed up and downtown’s foot traffic, things were pretty busy—and embarrassing.

“It was so bad, and everybody could see us arguing,” Manglicmot says. “It was so funny.”

But they were determined to keep going. After much trial and error, they reduced the wait time for food and found their groove. Nguyen now takes orders and manages the front of house, Manglicmot and Quan come up with the recipes and cook, and Huy Bui is dubbed the mastermind—he takes care of everything and anything. Dian Yi, who joined the team this year, takes care of managerial tasks.

“When we first started, we were all just running around [like chickens] with our heads cut off—not knowing what to do,” he says. “And naturally, we all fell into our place on what our roles were going to be.”

The group’s success—specifically Manglicmot’s—eventually garnered attention from MasterChef. He got a call from the show in the fall of 2019. He thought it was a scam at first, but after some conversations, he decided to audition, and next thing he knew, he was being invited to fly out to Hollywood.

During filming, he was under strict orders not to tell anyone. He says it’s funny because he asked his job for a sabbatical, but told his mom he was going to Africa for work. She didn’t believe him—she thought he was going to jail and lying about it.

His partners were able to hold down the Meat Mafia fort. But the pandemic hit mid-filming, so the contestants were sent home, and all the steak nights Manglicmot’s friends were hosting came to a halt. It was weird for him because he was readjusting to being out in the real world, while also learning to do so with COVID-19’s new normal. He didn’t have Meat Mafia to fall back on either, since bars were closed.

But it wasn’t all bad. “Gordon Ramsay used to FaceTime us like once a week and try to keep our spirits up,” Manglicmot says of MasterChef’s pandemic-era efforts.

As the pandemic subsided and things went back to being semi-normal, Manglicmot was invited back to Hollywood to finish filming. Although the season didn’t air until June 2021, Meat Mafia continued to gain traction across the Houston area.

“I think [Meat Mafia] was blowing up on its own, and all the show did was make it blow up even more,” he says.

Since starting steak nights six years ago, Meat Mafia has changed a lot—and for the better, Manglicmot says. In the beginning, to save some money, they bought huge slabs of meat and hand cut them into about 200 steaks, all of which needed to be prepped. At the time, that was a huge task for a small group of people with outdated equipment. Meat Mafia now has upgraded tools and employs several people to help out—many of whom are former employees of Bovine and Barley. 

The group has also gained several accolades at Houston’s Rare Steak Championship, an annual event organized by Dining Out, a nationwide marketing platform for the restaurant industry. In 2024, Meat Mafia won the event’s People’s Choice category. The year before, they earned first place for Best Creative Dish: Judge’s Choice and Best Traditional Dish: People’s Choice.

Meat Mafia continues to host steak nights around town every other week, sometimes choosing new locations along the way. Knowing steak nights draw such a big crowd, Manglicmot says the group tends to stick to bars that have the space as well as an attentive wait staff.

Looking ahead, Manglicmot hints at more exciting things coming for Meat Mafia, but for now, he’s remaining tight-lipped. We’ll have to wait until later this year for that announcement.

“We’ll be making some major changes, or exploring new things Meat Mafia can do,” he says.