Eat, Drink, Savor: Mansmith’s BBQ prepares for Rib Cookoff

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An outgrowth of Jon and Juanita Mansmith’s spice business founded 36 years ago, Mansmith’s BBQ has become the county’s signature barbecue operation, regularly appearing in local and regional events and winning the People’s Choice award at four of the last five Great San Juan Bautista Rib Cookoffs. 

Their son, Mike Mansmith, has helmed Mansmith’s BBQ since 2007, first joining the business in 1990, when he was still a junior at Hollister High School. 

“It was fun,” he said. “It provided a way to get out and go to everybody else’s parties and have a good time. It paid my way through college and then through my becoming a business major. And I just took it from there.” 

In a way, the Mansmith spice business, founded in San Juan Bautista in 1987, is to thank for the perfect tri-tip, savory ribs and moist roasted chicken that have become the iconic Mansmith staples.

“We were trying to get people to try the seasonings,” Mansmith said, “so we started doing the local farmers market and a few of the festivals, like San Juan’s Arts & Crafts. When the farmers’ market ended, everybody wanted to know where we were going to be next.”

The solution, at first, was to start selling on Fridays, currently from a lot at 2410 Airline Highway.  It turned out to be a lifesaver for the business during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“A lot of the caterings and festivals went away,” Mansmith said. “But since we were doing food to go, we were allowed to continue. That is when we started doing Saturdays, and we have now continued to do both days every week of the year.”

The success can be gauged by the quantity of meat that the crew serves up every weekend: over 1,000 pounds of tri–tip, chicken and ribs. Everything is seasoned with Mansmith’s Original Grilling Spice, made with kosher salt, pepper, granulated garlic and onion, marjoram, thyme, rosemary, savory, sage, oregano and basil. 

“That mixture was something that my dad whipped up one day,” Mansmith said. “He went to a barbecue for a nonprofit organization, and they didn’t have any seasoning. So he just threw a bunch of stuff together, and people loved it.” 

The spices are the only preparation for the meat. Everything is cooked over an oak wood fire, which is started an hour before the meat is put on the grill. This allows enough time to spread the coals into an evenly heated bed. 

The 3 1/2-pound tri-tips take about two hours to cook. The spatchcocked chicken takes about an hour and a half, as does the three-pound racks of ribs. When done, another round is loaded onto the grill to cover late-afternoon and evening orders. As much as a cord of wood can be used in a day.

The Mansmith tri-tip sandwich is simple in nature and an easy thing to deconstruct: bread, meat and sauce. But like every great creation, the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

The meat, which retains the spice mix’s flavor without being overwhelmed by it, is sliced to a medium thickness. It is slathered with another of Jon’s spontaneous creations: his Original Barbecue Sauce made with Mansmith Barbecue Paste, orange juice and apricot syrup. It is served on grilled sourdough soaked in butter.

Your first bite satisfies every taste bud simultaneously. All your favorite food notes are there, from the meat’s rich texture and flavor to the seasoning’s saltiness to the sweet/sour vinegariness of the barbecue sauce to the bread’s deep umami. 

Keeping everything under control, the balancing act of making sure every piece of meat is perfectly cooked, is demanding enough under normal circumstances, but festivals like the upcoming Great San Juan Bautista Rib Cookoff make timing even more complicated.   

Somewhere in that equation is the sheer magnitude of what needs to be prepared for a festival setting: as much as 2,500 pounds of tri-tip and up to 700 racks of ribs. 

“You judge what you’ve done in the past,” Mansmith said, “and you also learn to read a crowd very, very well. You want to have enough ready, so you never get behind, but at the same time you don’t want to have so much that people are getting cold food.”

Grillmaster Alexander Reese, who got his start with Mansmith as a high school student in 2017, said it took him quite a while to perfect the art, learning to avoid under- or over-cooking the meat. 

“I was learning all the time,” he said. “I would have to call Mike a million times a day, asking things like when I should throw more meat on the grill or when not to throw it on. Then, after about five years, I kind of got under control and understood what to do.”

Despite the Rib Cookoff being a healthy competition, Mansmith says that his longstanding relationship with the other barbecue teams and his standing in the community keep everything very friendly. 

“Everybody’s there to help each other out,” he said. “I’ve helped them find additional people to work for them and even cooked some of their meat for them when they needed it. And they know if something breaks, we’ve got enough connections to help them get back on the road.”  

While the menu at the Airline Highway and the Farmers’ Market sites holds to the basics, Mansmith also has a thriving catering business where almost anything is possible. 

Meats include salmon, baby back ribs, sausages (“mild to wild”), pork chops and loins, and an entire butcher shop’s worth of steaks: filet mignon, rib eye, sirloin, New York and t-bone. Side dishes range from the beans offered at the truck to potato and macaroni salad, fruit salad, coleslaw, Caesar salad, corn on the cob, grilled vegetables, rice pilaf and several potato dishes.  

Despite the business’s huge success, Mansmith remains grounded, according to his niece, Carrie Mansmith, during an earlier interview with BenitoLink for an article on Mansmith’s Barbecue Sauce.

“Mike is just great at what he does,” she said, “and there is no job he won’t do. I’ve seen him get on his hands and knees and scrub the catering floor. If a job needs to get done, he’s going to do it.”

The reward, Mansmith said, is the opportunity to provide good food to a community filled with dedicated fans. 

“It’s been a long time,” he said, “and people still love it and allow us to do it. And we love doing things to help, like the Saddle Horse Show. It’s just a really good feeling to be wanted and needed in the community that much. And it beats the heck out of a real job.”

Upcoming events featuring Mansmith’s BBQ: 

Hollister Farmers Market– Every Wednesday from 3-7:30 p.m. on San Benito Street
San Juan Bautista Rib Cook-Off – May 8-10 on Third Street, San Juan Bautista
Morgan Hill Mushroom Mardi Gras – May 23-24 on Depot Street in Morgan Hill
San Benito Saddle Horse Show – June 26-28 at Bolado Park
Gilroy Rodeo – August 7-9 at 2365 Dunlap Ave in Gilroy 

Mansmith’s is open every Friday and Saturday from noon to 7 p.m. at 2410 Airline Highway.

Contact Mansmith’s at (831) 902-0868 or bbq@mansmithsbbq.com for catering information.

Related article: 

Eat, Drink, Savor: Mansmith’s Sticky BBQ Sauce has a successful debut 

Recommendations for future Eat, Drink, Savor articles can be emailed to roberteliason@benitolink.com.

BenitoLink thanks our underwriters, Hollister Super and Windmill Market, for helping expand the Eat, Drink, Savor series and for giving our readers the stories that interest them. Hollister Super (two stores in Hollister) and Windmill Market (in San Juan Bautista) support reporting on the inspired and creative people behind the many delicious food and drink products made in San Benito County. All editorial decisions are made by BenitoLink.

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