Daniel Madrigal first started barbecuing in 2019 for a simple reason: he wanted to make his favorite food. He didn’t suspect his briskets and ribs would soon be attracting crowds of hundreds to the same Santa Fe Avenue block he grew up on.
“A lot of friends and family mostly asked me to do it,” Madrigal said. “I wasn’t really planning on doing it full time […] They were pushing me.”
Madrigal’s love for barbecue began in adolescence when his grandfather would cook for him. As an adult, Madrigal had a close friend who would share his home-made barbecue with him.
When his friend moved to Arizona, Madrigal lost his barbecue plug and had to make do—he received out-of-state, over-the-phone brisket coaching as he tried to recreate his favorite recipes.
“One day I called him and I’m like, ‘Hey bro it’s not the same, your barbecue was good.’ [My barbecue] wasn’t horrible but it wasn’t his barbecue,” Madrigal said. “He’s like, ‘Well, maybe you just got to try something else out because you’re trying to do something that I was doing, maybe something else will work out better for you.’”
After that, Madrigal stopped asking his friend for advice and began developing his own barbecue style. A trip to Texas with his cousin further inspired his process and opened his eyes to the importance of smokers.
Smoking meat requires that the meat be placed in a smoky chamber at a low heat for a long period of time, letting the smoke from the wood impart its flavor into the meat.
“I had a social media post blow up and I had lined people up for three hours, so the city and the police and the health department showed up. They tried shutting us down.”
Daniel Madrigal, owner of Daniel’s Backyard Barbecue
“Once I went out to Texas, it was a whole game changer,” Madrigal said. “[…] It was a totally different vibe I would say. I started seeing that the smokers were way different out there, they were on trailers and stuff like that.”
Madrigal’s San Antonio-style Texas barbecue uses a simple seasoning of salt and pepper before smoking meats with red oak. The brisket is then smoked between 12 to 14 hours; his beef ribs anywhere from 6 to 10 hours.
His beef ribs are so popular customers usually have to order them a day or two in advance, according to Madrigal.
Daniel Madrigal, the owner of Daniel Backyard BBQ, cleanly slices through the tender cut of Texas-style beef brisket that will be served on Sept. 29, 2022. (Richard H. Grant | Signal Tribune) 
Daniel Madrigal, the owner of Daniel Backyard BBQ, pulls away the aluminum foil from a beef brisket that will be served on Sept. 29, 2022. (Richard H. Grant | Signal Tribune) 
The two-person team behind Daniels Backyard BBQ, Daniel Madrigal (left) and Carlos Saldana work together to prepare a plate of smoked Texas-style BBQ for a customer on Sept. 29, 2022. (Richard H. Grant | Signal Tribune) 
Daniel Madrigal, owner of Daniel Backyard BBQ, slices pieces of Tri-tip beef that will be added to a nearly 4-pound plate of food at his Texas-style BBQ joint on Sept. 29, 2022. (Richard H. Grant | Signal Tribune)
Madrigal’s personal favorite on the menu is the brisket burrito: a unique combination of his smoked brisket within a breakfast burrito of eggs, sausage and pinto beans.
Once back in Long Beach, he began eyeing a smoker owned by a small business owner in his neighborhood and eventually convinced her to sell it to him.
Madrigal’s barbecue quickly became a triumph among friends and family, and they pushed him to open a business. Armed with the support of his loved ones, he spent weekends establishing Daniel’s Backyard BBQ in his childhood stomping grounds surrounded by his neighbors, on the same block where his parents and two of his uncles still live.
At first Daniel’s Backyard BBQ was only open on the weekends. When Madrigal’s family was homebound during the COVID-19 lockdown and his regular construction jobs began slowing down, one of his friends suggested that he start running his barbecue business full-time.
His pop-up stand quickly developed a cult-following, a double-edged sword it turns out, at the beginning of a pandemic. Hundreds of people would show up to wait in line for Daniel’s Backyard BBQ, which promptly brought City staff down from the Long Beach Health Department.
“It got so hectic,” Madrigal said. “I had a social media post blow up and I had people lined up for three hours, so the city and the police and the health department showed up. They tried shutting us down.”
Following back-and-forth discussions with the health department, Madrigal was forced to buy a food truck—which he hated.
“I talked to the health department,” Madrigal said. I told them, ‘Hey, I’m willing to do anything you guys want me to do, get any permits, whatever you guys want me to do, but I’m not working out of a truck. I just don’t like it.”
Over a period of discussion, and as infection rates started to decline, the health department agreed to allow Madrigal to continue operating his pop-up stand. He said the same health department workers that reprimanded his business years ago are now regular customers of his.
Daniel’s Backyard Barbecue is located at 3636 Santa Fe Ave., and open Thursday to Sunday from 11 a.m. to whenever all the barbecue sells out.
