If you were to build a pitmaster in a lab, their background might look a lot like Bryan Furman’s. Born and raised in the South with grandparents who raised pigs, Furman trained as a professional welder before catching the barbecue bug in 2010, when he smoked a whole hog for his daughter’s 1st birthday.
All that experience made Furman something of a natural. In 2014, his backyard experiments quickly turned into a brick-and-mortar restaurant, where he used heritage hogs raised on area farms to his specifications. Accolades followed, with Bon Appetit naming Furman “Georgia’s New King of Barbecue” in 2018 and Food & Wine selecting him as one of its Best New Chefs of 2019. At his peak, Furman owned restaurants in Savannah and Atlanta and inside the Hawks basketball arena.
Now The Oregonian/OregonLive can exclusively report that Furman, a bonafide celebrity chef in his own right, has partnered with Portland’s own Gregory Gourdet to bring his signature spin on Southern barbecue to the Rose City. In 10 days, the duo will kick off Bryan Furman BBQ, a three-month “special residency” featuring smoked chicken, brisket, spare ribs, pulled pork, scratch-made sides and Furman’s peach-mustard sauce served in the basement beneath Gourdet’s live-fire Haitian restaurant, Kann.
Gourdet met Furman at Family Reunion, Food & Wine’s annual celebration of Black and Brown excellence, and considers himself a fan of the pitmaster’s “BBQ mastery,” he said. Furman made ribs for a late-night party after Kann’s big James Beard Award win as America’s best new restaurant of 2023 and flew up to Portland for the restaurant’s anniversary block party in 2024.
“We’ve just been in communication since then about doing something together,” Furman said. “So here we are.”
The residency is a family affair for Furman. His son Nas will help operate the smoker, while his mother makes sides and desserts, including cornbread, mac and cheese, coleslaw, collard greens, Brunswick stew, banana pudding and apple cake.
For Gourdet, the collaboration is a chance to learn a few barbecue tricks from his close friend.
“With the history of barbecue originating in the Caribbean, it was always something I wanted to dive deeper into,” Gourdet said. “It’s one of the main reasons why we have an eight-foot hearth at Kann.”
Furman has already been out and about exploring Portland, a city he said reminds him of Asheville, North Carolina. While visiting the Portland Farmers Market last month, a vendor handed him a piece of tempeh — the fermented soy product that frequently appears as a vegan option at local barbecue restaurants.
“It was so Portland,” Gourdet said with a laugh.
Bryan Furman BBQ will open for dine-in and takeout from noon to 8 p.m. Friday-Sunday starting Jan. 30 at 227 S.E. Sixth Ave. (beneath Kann).
Dining and Cooking