I am in a BBQ grill quandary !!!

Bird · Mar 16, 2004

Re: I am in a BBQ grill quandary !!!

Doug, I printed out your recipe for the cabbage; gonna havta try that 'cause we do like cabbage, cooked lots of ways, or even raw for slaw.

OkeeDon · Mar 16, 2004

Re: I am in a BBQ grill quandary !!!

Your Brinkmann is a horizontal smoker, and is superb for slow cooking. Most of the top competitive BBQ teams use a horizontal smoker of one sort or another.

The funny thing is, all of the popular brands, of any quality, are owned by Charbroil. That is, they are owned by W.C. Bradley, which owns Charbroil. Brinkmann, New Braunfels, even Oklahoma Joe (made from REALLY heavy steel plate) are all owned by Bradley.

The other funny thing is, I never sold one. Nor, did I ever sell a Big Green Egg or any of the imitators, and I probably sold only 1 charcoal grill for every 250 gas grills. I sold maybe 2 vertical water smokers a year. I had a few customers who owned these types of grills, and I kept the logs, wood chunks and such in stock for them, but I never sold one of the grills.

The primary reason is that Bradley (Charbroil, et al) owns that market and primarily sells through box stores. I could order the grills from Bradley as an independent dealer, but I couldn't hope to compete in price. The box stores and I paid the same price, but they work on less than 5% margin, and I had to have at least a 20% margin to make it worth my while. So, I left that market for the box stores. Same with turkey fryers -- I had them first, before they became popular, but gave them up once they got to Wally World.

At one time, the box stores stayed in the price range of $75 to $175 for grills, and I owned the market for $400 grills and above. Eventually, the box stores started moving into the $500 range and shoved me out. My $500 grills were usually better than their $500 grills, but they had the traffic and the impulse buyers, and I had to fight for every customer.

Eventually, I stopped selling anything below $1,000, then the box stores started coming out with bogus or low quality stainless steel grills. I had a hard time getting someone to pay $2K for a grill that looked similar to the ones for $1K at the Depot. It's like the difference between a Mercedes and a Yugo, but the public was not educated, and I couldn't afford to educate them all.

Finally, I stopped selling any kind of portable grill (those with a base and wheels), and concentrated on selling only built-in grills for outdoor kitchens. We also got heavily into building the complete outdoor kitchen units. I had finally reached a market where the box stores couldn't compete. Then, through a series of unfortunate and tragic coincidences, I had one key employee leave, another have shoulder surgery and not be able to work any more, and another passed away. I was 62 years old, didn't want to start over by training new people, didn't trust that the new people would stick around if I did train them, so I just quit. My retirement was a bit of a surprise, but I'm enjoying it.

Attached is a picture of one of the outdoor kitchens we built...it ran about $12K.

Bird · Mar 16, 2004

Re: I am in a BBQ grill quandary !!!

( Attached is a picture of one of the outdoor kitchens we built...it ran about $12K )

Beautiful. And I've recall some earlier pictures. You certainly did some magnificent work, but out of my price range. /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif

ljh2 · Mar 16, 2004

Re: I am in a BBQ grill quandary !!!

Don,
That's a mighty fine looking outdoor kitchen. It puts most people's primary indoor kitchen to shame. Looks like some good planning and fine craftsmanship - work to be proud of.

Conservative1 · Mar 16, 2004

Re: I am in a BBQ grill quandary !!!

We picked one of these up last summer.
http://www.straubelstone.com/shopping/productdetails.asp?category1=BBQ_Grills&recordid=21
Nice grill, we love it. It'll likely be the last grill we ever buy. YMMV. Ours has everything but the rotisserie.

Those Webers sure are nice! I chose Straubelstone because I was able to get the deal of the century on one from a buddy who was moving to an apartment. /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif
C1

OkeeDon · Mar 16, 2004

Re: I am in a BBQ grill quandary !!!

That looks like a decent Straubelstone, since it's mostly stainless. They made a lower priced model that was sold in the box stores that had mild steel cabinetry that looked like SS; it's one of the ones I was talking about when I said to take a magnet. Straubelstone started off making cast concrete grill housings (the original "Straubel Stone") for many different brands of grills. I think the number of patterns they had to have became overwhelming; at any rate, they developed their own grill (or bought someone's design), then began offering it with various bases and housings. Their variety of cast bases is also a little less ambitious than when they started. I'm glad to see they have stuck it out; it's been about 7 or 8 years since they started, so they have a good chance of hanging on.

AndyM · Mar 17, 2004

Re: I am in a BBQ grill quandary !!!

 That looks like a decent Straubelstone 

I like the looks of that built in deep fryer, but by the looks of me, that's something I don't really need! /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif

Will · Mar 17, 2004

Re: I am in a BBQ grill quandary !!!

I bought a grill from Iron Works that I'm very pleased with. They make high quality stuff, and you can call up the company president for questions on cooking, support, etc.

They have a Refer-a-friend program that can save you (and make me) $100 worth of free accessories. I'm almost sorry I mentioned this program, this sort of deal usually sounds more like a Refer-a-sucker program. I like the grill and I think it is a good value whether or not you get a small break on their prices.

wroughtn_harv · Mar 17, 2004

Re: I am in a BBQ grill quandary !!!

( If ya like cabbage, you'll love this and it's just plain fun to cook it outdoors on the grill.)

That's an old cajun trick. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

They take a head of cabbage, cut the core out, fill the cavity with butter and brown sugar with spices, wrap it in foil, cook it until the good lawd's done blessing it.

If you like that you'll love a large sweet onion done the same way. Here in the tejas we use what we call ten fifteens. That's a big old onion sweeter'n your momma's hug.

wroughtn_harv · Mar 17, 2004

Re: I am in a BBQ grill quandary !!!

Morning Don,

I have been sitting on a cooker to be for about six or seven years now. Mostly because I haven't decided the best way to finish it out. Right now it's an eighty five gallon virgin propane tank with a lid cut in and some really nice ceramic racks I picked up reasonable.

I have a bud who has a rube goldberg cooker that's the neatest thing I've ever seen. He's an artist and just about as passionate a cook.

One of the things he has on his that I want on mine is a steam system. On top of the firebox is a tank with a valve system that is piped into the cooker to provide steam.

Most of the horizontal cookers I've been exposed to had a real problem with uneven cooking. The area nearest the firebox would be too hot and that area away from the box would be noticeably cooler.

One of the best cookers I've ever seen had the firebox two feet away from the cooker with the smoke and heat passing from one to the other via two large pipes.

When I'm done I want to have ALL the advantages of a traditional smoker--cooker. I also want to incorporate a propane system for those evenings when I come home tail tucked firmly between legs and my wife is too pooped to pop up supper. /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif

So-o-o-o-o give me your best concept of what I should be looking to make.