Help Bring Bruce’s Branch BBQ Back Home

So yesterday we found out that the BBQ/Smoker trailer that we sold along with our old restaurant, The Branch, was on sale on Kijiji  (along with some miscellaneous but relevant catering supplies...)

I didn’t really want to sell it... I designed it myself and had it custom made by a local welder… it was, well… ‘mine’…

As much as selling it in the first place felt weird and wrong, it was what made sense at the time… the folks who bought it were buying 'The Branch', and let's face it, that smoker, in many ways, was 'The Branch'. The buyers even made it a condition of the sale.

At the time it seemed ok - we were, let’s just say ‘motivated to sell’… and we knew it was the right move for our family.

Cut to five years later... here we are... that big beautiful beast of a BBQ is up there... on Kijiji for sale. (EDIT: no longer on Kijiji- See update as of Monday evening!)

After seeing this, and finding myself  in a nostalgic mood, I made a couple of little facebook and twitter posts, which, low and behold, got a little traction...

In a perfect world, of course, we'd just pull out the checkbook and buy it back. Sorry to say, we are not in that position... if we were, we probably wouldn't have sold it in the first place.

But here's the thing - I'm pretty sure that the smoker, that last piece left of the ‘old’ Branch, might mean something a little more than having a larger than average smoking surface, a great set of classic lines, and a perfectly seasoned firebox…

The ‘old’ Branch, the one that built this smoker, always tried to be something a little more than a place to get food… we always made an effort to use our stage and venue, to the best of our ability, to project our core values of promoting arts and culture, environmental sustainability, and building community: sometimes by offering a space for meetings, or doing overt works of charity, and sometimes just by trying to be a place to create a memory or to meet or even make a friend…

And the fire in this smoker? I like to think that it was what lit the way.

Given the early feedback and the fact that it is fairly time sensitive, I've decided to see if there is an actual real-world possibility of making this happen… which is why you are seeing this.

So… here is my idea…

If WE do this, I will commit, for my part, to the following:

1. Throw at least one big party per year with brisket and branchburgers... obviously.

2. Use it to cater at least a few of your weddings, parties, etc. per year. OR (if it is not being used), make it available for you to borrow or rent.

3. Become a vendor at the Kemptville Farmers' Market next summer (probably only once a month, but if you all come together, I will definitely do this...)

4. Do at least one charity event per year as the cook, and make it available for any local charity event to borrow, for free, when it is not being used for one of the other things noted above…

Also…

I won't take or keep any money for anything short of a successful purchase of this smoker. Anything over the purchase price will go towards the first big party.

(Some edits have been made to this last section since the original announcement thanks to some amazing help from some amazing friends…)