Colleen Grablick
Mumbo sauce, the tangy “blood” that keeps D.C.’s heart flowing, is coming to a McDonald’s near you in October.
The fast food giant announced its plans to make the city’s capital condiment — a sticky red staple of D.C.’s carryout scene — available at locations across the U.S. starting on Oct. 9. (Locally, the spelling of mumbo sauce is a source of debate and tends to vary person-to-person, sometimes spelled “mambo” like the McDonald’s sauce and other times “mumbo.” They mean the same thing.)
The McDonald’s “mambo sauce” release is linked to the premiere of an upcoming documentary exploring the sauce’s cultural ties to D.C. and Chicago.
And regarding the Chicago connection … while many know the sauce to be a mainstay of D.C., a Chicago-based company actually owns the name “mumbo sauce.” Select Brands has owned the trademark registration on “mumbo sauce” since 1958, stocking the sauce at various Chicago eateries and selling it in a bottled form — although in the Windy City, the sauce formula is different and used more like a marinade than a condiment. (In 2011, Capital City Mumbo Sauce filed a petition with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to win ownership of the name, but lost.)
To spread the mumbo gospel, McDonald’s is enlisting food influencers, including local creator Cornelia Poku of @blackgirlsexploredc, to review the sauce and talk about it online. McDonald’s also apparently tapped D.C.-based chef Jerome Grant — a James Beard Award nominee and former executive chef of the National Museum of African American History and Culture — to work on its formulation. “Honored to be a part of @mcdonalds Culinary Council to help produce such a monumental and meaningful project!” Grant posted on Instagram Tuesday.
Notably absent from any celebratory sauce commentary with this rollout has been Mayor Muriel Bowser, who in 2018 — in an attempt to give residents something to talk about around the Thanksgiving table (her words) — said the sauce “annoyed” her. Her distaste for a cornerstone of D.C. culture alienated her from some voters, but clearly not enough to sink her politically as she sailed to reelection in 2022.
Mumbo sauce’s McDonald’s debut corresponds with the launch of another sauce, a sweet and spicy jam sauce made with Szechuan peppercorn, cayenne pepper, and apple cider vinegar. It’s not clear how long both will be offered.
