Our Table Barbecue is Opening Permanently Inside Buttonwoods Brewery
Ian and Morgan Gormley's barbecue business is putting down roots at a permanent spot in Cranston.
A plate of good eats from Our Table.
Ian and Morgan Gormley originally started their Our Table business as a grazing table food concept with cheese and charcuterie, pickles and more spread out on a table for upscale snacking. When the pandemic happened, they evolved into a pop-up barbecue mobile vendor. But the dream was always to have a brick and mortar spot, and after surpassing their $6,000 Kickstarter goal and raising $7,056, they are now ready to officially launch a permanent spot inside Buttonwoods Brewery in Cranston. This location means a lot to them, as well as the owner, Morgan Clark Snyder Jr. and brewer Cheyne Tessier and his partner, Erika Tessier, who also founded alt-prop brewery Origin Beer Project. They have all become great friends throughout this journey.
“Those guys have become such friends of ours and everything happened to all fall into place at the right time. We’ve been looking to set up a more permanent spot for a while, and putting our business idea into anyone’s ear that would listen,” Ian Gormley says. “As one of the first spots that allowed us to pop up, it seemed fitting they were the ones who wanted to let us work in their space.”
The interior of Buttonwoods Brewery.
The two businesses have a long history together. After the pandemic first hit and then temporarily abated in May 2020, and once restaurants and breweries prepared to reopen with strict rules in place, Buttonwoods Brewery reached out to the Gormleys about providing food for their grand reopening. Ian, who started cooking when he was nine with his mom, and has a background working in restaurants, decided to refocus the Our Table business on barbecue since picking items off a table with others during a pandemic wasn’t exactly acceptable at that time.
Ian did his homework. He had traveled through Texas doing research at barbecue joints, and he had read all the books and watched all the documentaries on renowned barbecue pitmaster Aaron Franklin. He perfected his recipes and smoking methods for brisket, ribs and chicken, and the couple adopted what they thought was just a temporary concept.
“We planned on doing barbecue for this one event, and everyone kept coming up to us afterwards like, ‘When are you doing barbecue next?’ They said, ‘You have to keep doing this,’” Ian says.
The rest was history. They made barbecue their regular pop-up business model, providing consistent takeout and meals at local breweries on a rotating basis on weekends. You can order platters of food that feed two to three people or four to six with plenty of smoked chicken and beef brisket with potato salad and cowboy caviar, plus cornbread, or you can choose separate items. They also cater small events. Morgan Gormley runs the schedule and the books side of the business while baking up incredible desserts like whoopie pies and other items to pair with the ’cue.
The support from their guests, friends and loyal customers through their Kickstarter campaign helped them to achieve their goals. They have now successfully raised enough funds to create a stable restaurant inside Buttonwoods. “Not only do we get to work with Buttonwoods, we also get to work with Origin Beer Project, which makes this adventure even better,” Ian Gormley says. “We love what we do and we want to share our more creative side with the community like how we started, while also giving the people what they want – which is always brisket.”
Morgan and Ian Gormley of Our Table.
It will be a lot easier for them to run the business out of one permanent spot, and it will also allow them to get more creative with the menu, perhaps by hosting more prix-fixe dinners like they had originally intended when they first founded Our Table. “Barbecue requires lots of time and dedication, spending over sixteen hours a day smoking meats for each event,” Ian says. “We are looking to grow into our brick and mortar home while becoming an attraction for the city and help our community along the way.”
The plan is to open up inside Buttonwoods during the first week of May. They say they will still be doing pop ups at other breweries in the future, but it will just be limited to Saturdays and not as often. Once they get settled in the new space, they may also loan their kitchen for other food businesses to use during their off-hours, and they’d be willing to provide some guidance to others about launching a mobile pop-up restaurant. “We know how hard it is, so we just want to try to make it a little easier for everyone else,” Ian says. “We can offer guidance on completing licensing and managing fees and stuff like that.”
Follow Our Table on Instagram at @ourtablebarbecue for updates on the Kickstarter, progress reports and upcoming appearances. ourtableri.com
Location coming soon at 530 Wellington Ave., Cranston.
