A Few Words about Quality
Our latest custom large-format hearth array, for Esh in West Palm Beach
I’ve got something to say about quality today. Please bear with me.
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The original Grillery, as Dad designed it.
Back when my father began building his wood burning grills in the late ‘70s, almost everything he saw people grilling with was disposable. Either thin painted steel that was inevitably landfill-bound one day, or “premium” but cheaply built and covered with a thin skin of stainless, essentially still the first, but window-dressed. Dad didn’t want that for what he was to make. So he settled on high-grade 304 stainless, ALL 304 STAINLESS, for his creation. Made just up the road from our farm by master welders, who made their mark in the Michigan custom car industry. From the get-go, overbuilt to the extreme. He used to say “a grill that you’ll pass down to your children, and they to theirs.”
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An Infierno being completed - view of the back’s stainless tube exoskeleton
Nearly FIFTY years later, I do it the same way. But taken even further. Our flagship Infiernos are framed in 2” 11 gauge square tube 304 stainless, with body panels in matching-heft plate, lined in full thickness fire brick. EVERY model is fully 304 stainless, covering NOTHING cheap or disposable.
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I just came back from the Vegas KBIS kitchen show. Walking around, there’s been some improvement in the baseline quality out there, but I still see an industry making a lot of grills with expiration dates. There’s 304 stainless, sometimes, but STILL usually just a skin, and many didn’t pass even my magnet test — which means it’s either so thin that a magnet sticks to cheap steel underneath, or it’s a lower grade (400 series) that’s cheaper than 304 and inferior in durability.
Our new Langelier Elite 36 installed in a professional Hestan kitchen suite
I have great respect for the companies that got America back into the grilling spirit with affordable grills many decades ago. But it breaks my heart to see so many of those rusting away on the side of the road, or disappointing true backyard chefs. Like my Dad, I never want to see that happen to ours. I want my creations to be forever, make them to be that way, and to be worthy of passing down to YOUR next generation. It’s hard, it’s expensive, and it’s worth it.
The Grillworks 54 ‘Pampas’
Thank you for listening.