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Forget
the patio, grilling’s done in the “outdoor
room”
by
Doug Brown
for Virginia Business
June 2003
Outdoor
grilling used to be pretty straightforward: A kettle
grill somewhere in a grassy backyard, briquettes poured
from a paper sack into a pile and set aflame, meat tossed
on a hot grate.
All
of that changed in a big way somewhere in the 1990s,
when charcoal was elbowed out of the way by gas grills
festooned with thermometers, temperature controls and
different cooking surfaces.
And now comes the transformation of not just the grill
itself, but the whole outdoor-cooking experience. Grill
islands are barbeque leviathans, stainless-steel monstrosities
complete with rotisseries and smoking chambers, refrigerators
and side-burners and warming drawers and beer taps.
The appliances are built into handsome structures that
are not on wheels and most definitely cannot be hauled
around the backyard. The grill island is a kitchen.
Some of them even have a kitchen sink.
The
whole industry is moving toward the “outdoor room”
concept, says Kelly McAllister, a spokesperson for the
Hearth, Patio and Barbeque Association in Arlington.
“More people are taking the indoors outside,”
she says. “They want another room in their backyard.”
People will spend as much as $80,000 for an “outdoor
room,” but that might involve a swimming pool,
a hot tub, a structure and the best appliances on the
market.
At
Barbeques Galore in Fairfax, the accoutrements of comfortable
outdoor living fill the store. Electric outdoor refrigerators
that look like big, round kitchen trash cans sell for
$399. Shoppers encounter a row of different outdoor
fireplaces immediately upon entering the store, and
sprinkled throughout the space are propane-fired heaters
that stand 8-feet-tall and turn a patio on a chilly
November evening into the equivalent of a cozy family
room.
The
fireplaces and heaters are a nice touch, but grill islands
are central to the outdoor-room idea. Grill islands
command a big chunk of the most prominent floor space
at Barbeques Galore. At the top of the line there’s
“The Delray,” $7,499 for a sprawling assembly
of Viking Range Corp. products — a huge grill,
an infrared rotisserie burner, a warming section within
the grill area, a separate warming drawer, four large
side-burners and cabinets. The mass of stainless steel
is all built into a tile-covered sweep of what looks
like stucco but is actually called Duroc, a cement product.
The
prices go down from there, bottoming out at about $1,100.
Prices can go up from “The Delray,” too, for
customers who want extras, like refrigerators or bars.
“We’ve designed them with umbrellas and with
Tiffany lamps” built into the grill, says Louise
Boothe, a Barbeques Galore employee.
People
are buying grill islands because they want to “get
away from the low-end, buy-a-grill-every-two-years sort
of situation,” says Rich Landrum, founder of American
Hearth and Home in Colonial Heights. “Grilling
in this area is a year-round thing,” he says. “I’ve
had people tell me, ‘If it isn’t two feet
of snow, I’m going to grill.’ Most of them
do it three to four times a week, if not more, particularly
in the summer because it takes the heat out of the house.”
Side
burners are popular, he says, for fish fries, boiling
crabs or steaming shrimp. Without a side burner, you’ve
got to run into the house to make a sauce or saute some
mushrooms. Rotisseries are increasingly popular. “You
can get delicious flavors,” he says. “I think
a lot of it has to do with the cooking shows on television.
People are always talking about Emeril.” The best
grills do convection cooking, he adds, which means they
can cook everything from pizza to pineapple-upside-down
cake.
Americans
get hotter for grilling every year. About 9.5 million
gas grills were shipped in 2002, up by about a million
over 2001, McAllister says. Some barbeque aficionados
balk at gas grills, but grill manufacturers are now
making “dual-fuel grills” that use gas and
charcoal, and they are increasingly popular, McAllister
says.
And
for those who are nuts for charcoal, there’s the
Big Green Egg, a ceramic cooker that quickly heats up
to over 750 degrees, but can also maintain a slow burn
at 220 degrees, a great boon for people who like to
smoke their foods. The thick — and heavy —
ceramic shell keeps foods moist. “You should try
the ribs,” says Boothe, standing over one of the
store’s nearly $600 Big Green Eggs. “Best
ribs in the world.”
Virginia
Business - June 2003
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