About Chef Will Myska:
Inspired by his grandmother Ore Nell, Will smokes top-quality meats, fish, and vegetables low and slow over oak wood using traditional Texas barbecue techniques. Growing up outside Houston, he learned to cook in his grandmother’s kitchen. “My grandmother would always prepare amazing meals with gumbo, tamale casserole, fresh cucumber and tomato salads, and buttermilk pies. Everyone helped — from peeling potatoes to washing produce — and then we sat down together to enjoy the meal. Everything she cooked was full of love and flavor, and that’s what I aim to do at Ore Nell’s,” Will shares.

At 19, Myska moved to New England to attend the Atlantic Culinary Academy at McIntosh College. He trained under Chef Evan Hennessey at The Dunaway Restaurant in Portsmouth, NH, known for its farm-to-table cuisine, and was part of the opening team for Stages at One Washington, cooking at the James Beard House and helping the restaurant earn #1 Hottest New Restaurant by NH Magazine. He later worked at Ristorante Massimo and award-winning Vida Cantina, where he honed his butchery skills and kitchen management under Chef/Owner David Vargas.

The partnership with Chef Vargas led to the creation of Ore Nell’s Barbecue alongside restaurateur Jay McSharry. Ore Nell’s is Will’s first restaurant, deeply inspired by his grandmother’s recipes. “My dear Ore Nell is in her early 90s living in Houston, and I just want to make her proud,” he says. “I think she would like this place.”