Axiom Kitchen is once again bringing barbecue enthusiasts together for Smoke & Oak: A Fall BBQ & Whiskey Affair, this Saturday from noon to 4 p.m. on The Promenade between Third and Fourth streets.
After hosting the Long Beach BBQ Festival in May, Axiom Kitchen’s co-owner Qiana Williams-Mafnas said they received a lot of feedback that attendees wished they could have tried barbecue from more of the vendors. So Axiom created Smoke & Oak, where attendees will get unlimited samples from 14 local barbecue dealers and 8 whiskey sellers. (Tickets are $95 plus tax. They come with a tasting glass and are available here.)
“Smoke & Oak is going to be lit,” Ian Mafnas, Qiana’s husband and co-owner/pitmaster of Axiom Kitchen, said.
The couple is making sure to highlight local pitmasters whose skills are sometimes underestimated.
“These guys, they have worked so hard, and they just amaze me,” Qiana said. “When you think of a pitmaster, you just think, like, a guy throwing some slabs of meat in a smoker. These are real chefs, like, they are creating some really cool things. I am excited to have the opportunity to see them spread their wings.”
All of the proceeds from the Smoke & Oak event go to Noah’s Arc Foundation, a nonprofit started by Qiana that works to support single parents and families who are struggling with basic needs like food and housing. All of the vendors are donating their time for this event and won’t make any money.
“A lot of restaurants are struggling right now, including pop-ups. Food costs are really high, [but] they were willing to put that all aside and say, ‘Look, we really believe in this. We’re going to do this, we’re going to donate our time, we’re going to create these dishes,’” Qiana said.
While the larger Long Beach BBQ Festival in May had about 7,800 total attendees, including people from several other countries, she wants to keep this one more intimate.
“This is for us, Long Beach,” she said.
Following the event, the couple behind Axiom Kitchen plan to serve a meal at the Long Beach Rescue Mission, a tradition they have kept for years.
“It’s actually one of our favorite things that we do,” Qiana said, in part because of her personal experience with her own struggles.
Fourteen years ago, she was helped by a program at the Los Angeles Mission Anne Douglas Center for Women, where she saw firsthand how much of a difference volunteers serving food can make.
She said it’s “a very humbling experience” to come from a time of hardship and seeing the impact the volunteers have made, “then to come full circle and to now be in a position where I can do that, I can be that person and give back to people. That’s super important to me.”
Ian had a similar experience. After finishing his treatment for addiction, he started volunteering in a kitchen that served 180 people three meals a day.
“Watching the gears of that and like just the dynamic of how it all works out, it’s just amazing,” he said. “It’s like an orchestra in itself, and a symphony of the music being played, but through food.”
The husband and wife duo are the conductors of that symphony now, turning every event they organize into an opportunity to give back.