Award-winning pitmaster Bryan Furman is back in Atlanta, this time working alongside longtime friend and fellow pitmaster Robert Owens at barbecue joint Owens & Co.
With a Nov. 1 start date, Furman will begin rolling out some of his trademark “Bryan-style” dishes at the Smyrna restaurant, including his popular South Carolina hash and rice, and his peach mustard sauce.
Furman has known Owens since 2015 when they did an event together at the Savannah Food and Wine Festival. Owens owned Grand Champion BBQ in Atlanta, while Furman had just opened the original location of B’s Cracklin’ Barbecue in Savannah a year earlier. The festival became one of many barbecue collaborations between Furman and Owens over the past decade.
Growing up in South Carolina, Furman helped out on his grandparents’ farm where they raised pigs. He eventually learned to smoke whole hogs, parlaying the skill into a catering business. In 2014, Furman opened the Savannah location of B’s Cracklin’ BBQ, followed by an Atlanta location two years later in the Riverside neighborhood. But in a cruel twist of fate, both locations of B’s Cracklin’ succumbed to separate fires and closed.
Furman briefly ran a barbecue operation out of the Beltline Kroger near Ponce City Market. He next announced plans to open an eponymous restaurant in Riverside, just around the corner from the former B’s Cracklin’. That never materialized, and Furman left Atlanta at the end of 2024, doing barbecue stints in South Carolina, before landing in Portland, Oregon, last year.
Like Furman, Owens encountered his own ups and downs with running barbecue restaurants. After closing three locations of Grand Champion BBQ, Owens joined forces with Bryan Hull to open Owens & Hull in Smyrna. A schism between the two in 2025 led to them parting ways. Hull now runs the Misfitsss BBQ pop-up with Tyler Heath. Owens has since rebranded the Smyrna restaurant to Owens & Co.
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Furman said the move to Owens & Co. has been in the works for about a year. Last fall, while he was in Portland doing a nine-month barbecue residency with Chef Gregory Gourdet, Owens approached Furman about joining Owens & Co. when he returned to Atlanta.
While the restaurant will continue serving takes on Texas-style barbecue, Furman will begin mixing in some of the smoked meats and South Carolina sides that brought him critical acclaim. People can also expect one other change to the menu. Brisket and shorts ribs will only be available Friday through Sunday with pre-orders on Thursdays.
“We’ve been around each other long enough to read each others’ minds,” Furman said of his friendship and barbecue endeavors with Owens. “I missed Atlanta. It feels good to be back.”
