How Portland lured Georgia’s ‘king of BBQ’ away from ATL
Downstairs, beneath the award-winning restaurant Kann in Portland, Oregon, is a bar called Sousòl, led by celebrated Haitian American chef Gregory Gourdet.
Named the Haitian Creole word for “basement,” Sousòl normally serves Caribbean-influenced cocktails, Oregon wines, zero-proof beverages and a variety of snacks, like tamarind-spiced grilled wagyu skewers.
But for the next three to six months, as a mixture of Southern hip-hop, soul and funk plays from Sousòl’s speakers, the subterranean space will speak the smoky Southern language of famed Georgia pitmaster Bryan Furman.
Bryan Furman Barbecue, which Furman had indicated would open in Cobb County during a 2024 interview, instead opened Jan. 30 as a residency in Portland.
The former proprietor of B’s Cracklin’ Barbecue, who has been called “Georgia’s new king of barbecue,” and has been living in Portland since Jan. 16, said he sold out of his famed brisket and pork ribs every night of his successful opening weekend.
“It was crazy. It was overwhelming. It was amazing and a good feeling,” Furman said in a recent phone interview with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
The restaurant is not permanently committed to a Pacific Northwest location — at least at the moment. Furman was wooed into trying a residency at Kann by Gourdet and his business partner, Tia Vanich.
The three met in 2021 while preparing meals for attendees of chef Kwame Onwuachi’s annual Family Reunion event, a culinary festival featuring some of the top Black chefs in the U.S. After getting to know Furman, the partners invited him to prepare barbecue for a block party celebrating Kann’s 2023 James Beard Award, and again for Kann’s two-year anniversary party in 2024.
Soon after, the idea for something bigger began to brine. At the 2025 Family Reunion, Vanich approached Furman about temporarily taking over the Sousòl space underneath Kann.
“I said, ‘yeah, of course.’ At the time I wasn’t doing nothing but raising pigs. It was a great opportunity,” Furman said.
“Ever since I met Gregory and Tia, and I came out here to do the block party, it was always ‘Hey, there’s no barbecue here (in Portland); you should be here.’ And people say that everywhere you go, but that doesn’t mean you fit in everywhere or that’s the place for you,” Furman said. “I think it took my third trip coming around for me to say, ‘You know what? I could live here.’”
The scenic natural beauty of Portland, and the laid-back nature of its residents, remind Furman of North Carolina. He’s also taken to the cultural diversity of Portland, and its walkability. “You look on one block and you might see four restaurants and they’re all different. You’ve got a ramen shop, a deli, a chicken and rice spot, then I look over to the right and I’ve got a gyro spot.”
Gourdet, who has three James Beard Awards, including Best Chef: Northwest and Pacific in 2024, Best New Restaurant for Kann in 2023 and General Cookbook in 2022, said the partnership is really “the Bryan Furman show.”
For Gourdet, hosting Bryan Furman Barbecue in the Sousòl space is more than just a business opportunity.
It’s a chance for Gourdet to keep connecting culture through food storytelling, learn more about the skill and science of barbecue, collaborate with a respected colleague and share what he knows about the organizational and aesthetic elements of running a successful restaurant.
“I will learn, you know, how to make barbecue and there are some things that, as a businessperson, I’m showing Bryan. And I’m not trying to change him in any ways,” Gourdet said.
“I think Bryan is a gentle, kind, very funny person. And he’s just so open to telling you about what he’s doing, in a way that he’s learned and is generational. That’s just him. It’s kind of in his blood. There’s a bit of him being self-taught, there’s a little bit of him being taught by his family. There’s a little bit of him learning from the other masters that we’re all friends with. And it’s exciting because at the end of the day, barbecue is quite technical, you know? It’s something you can’t cheat,” Gourdet added.
Technicalities such as temperature matter in barbecue, especially in a place like Portland, where the climate is significantly different from the Southeast, Furman said. Staying on top of the wood, ensuring it arrives on time and dry enough to burn appropriately, and managing heat control in a colder climate with more humidity and rain, are important.
After deciding to accept the offer from Vanich and Gourdet, Furman said he and his 23-year-old son Nasir met with local meat reps to see what they had to offer, cooking and sampling proteins. Nasir moved with his father to Portland to help with duties like managing the outdoor smoker, parked in a lot adjacent to Kann. Furman’s mother Almeta also followed to cook side dishes.
Portland resident Jordan Folks, 39, said he arrived at exactly 5 p.m. on Jan. 30, which made him one of Bryan Furman Barbecue’s first customers. A barbecue-lover from Oklahoma City, he heard about Furman through social media. Billboards around Portland featuring the pitmaster and Gourdet pictured together also promoted the residency.
Folks said the ribs were sold out by the time he ordered at 5:10 p.m. but he was able to snag rib tips, brisket, macaroni and cheese, cornbread, collards, baked beans and banana pudding.
“The brisket was absolutely world-class, and I’ve been lucky to try some really good barbecue,” Folks said, praising the meat’s caramelized fat and browned, salty exterior.
Folks also appreciated the selection of sauces: a vinegar, mustard, sweet red and a very spicy Caribbean sauce made by Gourdet. He also gave high marks to the collard greens and banana pudding.
“I think this could do well in Portland because Portlanders don’t really have a strong culinary history of our own, so we really seek the world for inspiration. There’s a lot of Southern cooking in Portland and Northwesterners love it. I think this Georgia barbecue thing is gonna catch on here.”
Furman wants his fans back in Georgia to know it wasn’t easy deciding against opening in Marietta, but he has his reasons for trying a partnership instead of going it alone.
“I wouldn’t go out and jump into it by myself again,” he said. “I feel like that was one of my mistakes in the past — doing too many things at one time. I miss the restaurant. But now I’m just gauging it day by day. I’m thinking positive but I don’t want to speak too early on it,” he said.
He admitted feeling the bittersweet sentiment from several people claiming to be former customers of B’s Cracklin’ in Georgia, who left comments under posts promoting the Kann partnership on his new residency’s Instagram account.
“Man, when we lost B’s bbq, it’s never been the same. Headed to Portland from ATL in March. Definitely visiting,” said Instagram user Jennypcross on a post dated Jan. 20.
Another Instagram user, Spanishbbqhky9, wrote “Wish you could have made it work here in Georgia,” under a post published Feb. 1.
“I was like, ‘Damn.’ But you know, I told him to go try Lewis Barbecue. It’s good,” Furman said.
For now, Furman will serve barbecue every Friday through Sunday, from noon to 8 p.m. He’ll keep the menu to two meats each week, rotating between brisket, pulled pork, smoked chicken, wings and ribs, in order to control quality and output. And he’ll keep having fun and seeing what happens.
“Sometimes you’ve just gotta go somewhere else and try something different, and see how it turns out. Sometimes things can bring you back home,” he teased.
About the Author
Mike Jordan is senior lifestyle reporter at The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. His work has been published in The Wall Street Journal, ProPublica, The Guardian, National Geographic, Bon Appetit, Rolling Stone and others. Jordan won the James Beard Foundation’s Jonathan Gold Local Voice Award in 2024.
