Gone Grillin'

Written by Sherry Moeller Photography by John Spaulding

View More Photos

It’s no longer a chore. As a matter of fact, it’s almost a sport. Husbands, wives, partners and kids all vie for the chance to participate. It’s bringing people back home and back into their yards.

It’s outdoor cooking, but not just on any grill. Gone are the days of messy charcoal grills, lighter fluids spoiling the smells and guessing at how things are cooked until the meat is cut. Now fancy gas grills and outdoor ovens with timers, varying temperature controls and warmers make it a cinch to create a feast with little effort.

Today’s grills also offer mechanisms to sear steaks, cook a rotisserie chicken and make short order of almost any meal, sometimes with the push of a button. Most of the work is in the preparation, which most people don’t mind because they know they can go outside and enjoy the weather, a drink and a little conversation.

Slow cooking smokers are standard on some grill models, while almost all models offer more than one burner including infrared variations and special features, such as grease reducing capabilities or extra exhaust systems. Night or halogen lighting is another bonus.

The outdoor kitchen business is booming. And it’s not just about grills. Now there are outdoor refrigerators with beverage and wine compartments as well as icemakers and beer taps. These stainless steel wonders are often surrounded by matching cabinetry or by built-in wood cabinets similar to interior storage units and usually topped with granite counters, which are used because of granite’s durability.

Homeowners never have to leave the yard for a home cooked meal. Everything can be stored and ready for use without constant trips inside. Outdoor kitchens hint at vacation or time off because manufacturers and wholesale distributors have made grills and accessories accessible and landscape architects and builders have made them easier to install.

Catching On

Outdoor kitchens, especially grills, are big business and they are finally taking off in this area, preceded by unlikely places, such as upstate New York and likely sunny states including Florida, says Steve Terry, executive vice president of HADCO, a distributor of high-end appliances in 17 states.

An outdoor kitchen is becoming a more common standard upgrade offered by local builders, says Tim Bradyhouse, district sales manager at HADCO. Outdoor kitchens are also gaining popularity in the new homes cropping up along the Eastern Shore, he adds.

And Nick Aucoin, vice president of operations for the Baton Rouge, LA-based The Grill Store or known online as www.bbqguys.com/ www.shopperschoice.com, says the outdoor kitchen business has been big there since 1996 and continues to grow nationwide with a “shopper’s choice” of high-end products.

A Favorite Place

Take Bob and Debbie Middledorf, for example. Debbie was never a griller, says Bob. Now three months after installing the Viking Professional grill purchased at HADCO, “my wife surprised me,” Bob says. It could be pouring rain and “we are out here cooking away,” he adds. The Middledorfs installed the new kitchen space on their recently added screened-in porch, making it an almost year-round place. “We use it more than we ever expected,” Bob says.

“I love it,” Debbie says. “It has turned into one of our favorite spaces in the house.” Not only do they have the latest in Viking grills, but they also incorporated the new stainless steel cabinets flanking the grill, which add great storage. The granite counters from Plan-It Granite & Marble are durable as well as fashionable tops for their cooking station, which overlooks the 13th fairway of the River Creek Golf Course in the gated Leesburg community. Imported wood floors and Laneventure WeatherMaster indoor/outdoor furniture with Sunbrella fabric accentuate this space that is kept cool with two Casablanca fans.

Families can extend the outdoor cooking season with patio heaters, Terry adds. There are more and more people grilling outside in the winter, especially in the River Creek community, where HADCO provided the appliances for the first outdoor kitchen installed in this neighborhood.

Take a Look

Online and local showrooms provide the best look into the latest equipment. Giving buyers a taste of what’s available is critical, says Terry, who decided last year to display every cabinet that Viking manufactures in HADCO’s Laurel, MD showroom. These cabinets extend the uses of the outdoor kitchen, which can accessorize either built-in cooktops or the freestanding grill models that are currently the most popular. Thirty-inch and 41-inch grills with carts are the biggest sellers, but Terry also sells quite a few of the 53-inch models. Most rest on a patio or deck with only a few installed inside screened-in porches, such as the Middledorfs’, he adds.

Terry, who has been in sales and, in general, in the kitchen appliance business for more than 24 years, has seen many changes. “I’m busier today than five years ago,” Terry says, which in part is due to the larger selection of high-end appliances for inside and outside combined with the desire of local residents to stay closer to home.

The luxury or high-end outdoor appliance business was a small segment, about 1 percent, of kitchen sales not long ago, Terry adds. Now it’s a major percentage, especially for those in their 40s and 50s. What was once a status symbol has changed to a priority because homeowners are enjoying outdoor cooking so much, he says.

Terry often gets referrals from appliance dealers to help buyers narrow down what’s required to establish the best cooking space, including what’s needed for ventilation and what design would fit their uses. HADCO often works with landscape architects and homebuilders to find the right fit for each buyer. While waiting for installation or after the design is complete, outdoor kitchen chefs or future chefs can attend cooking classes offered at the showroom.

Besides HADCO’s extensive showroom in Laurel, The Fretz Corporation also brings manufacturers, such as Sub-Zero, Wolf, Asko, Best, Franke and Independent, to life in its Columbia, MD showroom and on its Web site, www.fretz.com, while Foremost Appliances recently opened its showroom at The Washington Design Center. Marty Friedman, president of Eastern Marketing Corp. who attended Foremost Appliance’s opening event, has seen up to four undercounter, built-in refrigerators installed at one outdoor kitchen. Among the top-of-the-line refrigerators is what Friedman calls Marvel’s “wine cellar.” It holds temperatures exactly for storing and maturing wines for years not weeks, he adds.

From Garden to Grill

Manufacturers and distributors of high-end appliances, both locally and nationally, are not the only ones to get in on the outdoor kitchen action. Local landscape architect firms, especially those that provide design, are seeing an upswing in outdoor kitchen requests and installations. McHale Landscape Design Inc. installs some form of outdoor kitchen on almost every job, says Kevin McHale, president of McHale Landscape Design Inc. This company’s experts “consider the extra details up front, such as incorporating lighting, built-in audio and video and even heating elements to extend the usable season up to eight months,” McHale says. Installing plasma screen televisions in the stonework above outdoor fireplaces is also something they are used to doing.

Previously, cedar, mahogany and redwood were used to establish outdoor kitchen areas, but they never seemed to seal right, McHale says. Now the company often uses sheets of PVC, a synthetic material, that its carpenters mill onsite into fine cabinetry and trim, often matching the home’s interior elements. PVC doesn’t shrink, swell or biodegrade and can be worked like wood. “The designs of these high-end outdoor kitchens can become very detailed,” McHale says, and materials, such as granite, need to be “measured twice and cut once.”