There seems to be a gastropub on every Miami street corner nowadays. Anyone can order Nueske's applewood-smoked bacon, fill a cooler with offbeat craft beers, and cover the walls with red brick.
That's as far as most places take it. But at the Mighty, a pocket-size spot on Coral Way once occupied by neighborhood watering hole Jada Coles, chef Fernando Echevarri stuffs a sausage casing with a creamy blend of tender risotto studded with crunchy toasted walnuts and meat-like cubes of earthy roasted mushroom.
The Nearly Vegetarian ($9) — they're still looking for a nonanimal casing — is one of nearly a dozen that Echevarri fills and grills on a daily basis.
There's rabbit sausage ($15) draped in an elegant morel mushroom demi-glace resting atop a bed of fried leeks. The duck sausage ($12), infused with orange zest, is vaguely reminiscent of France's classic canard à l'orange and equally juicy. Throw it on a bun for an extra buck, but things won't get too pedestrian after topping it with bitter wilted arugula that plays smartly opposite a sticky, sweet-spicy chili-onion marmalade.
The traditionalist can opt for spicy beef, a mouth-tingler thanks to the seven kinds of peppers in the filling. The sage, garlic, and fennel in a straightforward pork sausage begs for the addition of a fried egg.
Alas, the place is open only in the evening.
Why did owner Ryan Brooks choose to concentrate on sausage? "Because sausages are wide-open, you can use any variation of things as long as they work."
There was once a seafood sausage stuffed with ground octopus and scallops. Brooks recently added a chicken sausage blended with sweet nubs of dried mango and craggy bits of creamy, pungent Gorgonzola cheese.
They all pair well with an extensive, obscure beer list that includes Bockor Jacobins Rouge — a fruity, tangy Flemish sour — yeasty Belgian IPAs, and plenty of favorites from the beer heroes of Tampa's Cigar City.
When presented with all of those options, the only real question to ask is when to return to sample the ever-changing list of house-made charcuterie. Once the sausages are gone, there's cured filet mignon, creamy duck pâté, and salted, air-dried top round to plow through.
