HEARTH ARRAYS-CUSTOM GRILLS

Sometimes production equipment just isn’t ambitious enough for a project or chef with fiery dreams. In those cases we tackle hearth and equipment designs from an artist’s point of view. Function and form are at par in this category, as we create the custom array to key on the concept the customer has in mind. Nothing is stock, and nothing is repeated exactly the same way. Your build will be completely yours.

“I’m very much a control freak, so it’s unusual for me to let someone just run with something so important. Trusting the hearth to Ben and Grillworks was the best decision I could’ve made.”

- CHEF JEREMIAH LANGHORNE, THE DABNEY

We will help with every facet of your wood-fired dream.

When you engage us to build a hearth array, more than with any other type of live-fire project, you are getting our decades of hands-on experience not only in designing and building the equipment, but in navigating all the challenges of building a restaurant around the experience, be that advising on clearances, best practices or helping your team of professionals understand what to expect, plan for, and of course, avoid.

Our Process

Bring us the space available and the aesthetic it will become. We’ll take cues from this and put together a proposal that covers both the capabilities required by the kitchen and the look desired by the team. We want you and your customers to be thrilled with the outcome, and we will support the array and your culinary team for the long term.

Our Customers

We’re very fortunate to be trusted by Michelin-starred restaurants to build or, even more critically, redesign their hearth systems. These are concepts that depend on the live-fire element to complete the menu and the environment that brings customers back both for the food and the room.

Grillworks Hearth Array centerpiece under construction

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Projects of Note

The Dabney

Jeremiah Langhorne’s first restaurant has won accolades from Michelin, the James Beard Foundation, and been named the Washington DC’s number one restaurant by The Washingtonian.The Dabney’s concept highlights Mid-Atlantic cuisine, and is firmly celebrating Americana.

Stemming from the food and where it comes from, we decided that all the decorative elements possible should be sourced from the salvage yards in the iron belt of Pennsylvania, using true Americana metal that adorned historic buildings and machines to match his restaurant vision’s.

East Coast Iron Resurrected

The coal-producing box is created from one-hundred-year-old cast iron, in a past life likely the statement piece of a huge furnace. Its face bears a lion head, which hinges out to show the inferno burning inside. Spreading out from this central fire, the cooking stations are emblazoned with decorative elements borrowed from more cast iron rescued from different artifacts of about the same age. Underpinning all the vintage metal is heavy stainless steel, ensuring that the workhorses of the hearth last many years.

Twin stainless steel cooking stations are adorned with cast iron to match the central cage.

The fire cage, or brasero, has a century-old face backed by heavy gauge stainless steel to last for the long haul. Salvaged in Pennsylvania and built at our custom shop in Brooklyn.

The design gives the chefs a huge amount of space on which to work, while the show ensures the guests are riveted.

Maydan

Washington DC’s Maydan was a pioneer in the nation’s capital for first placing the cooking fire in the center of their room. Every customer walks by the action on the way to their seat, whether on the main floor or the upper deck. The hearth is in view from practically every corner of the restaurant.

Maydan Inspiration: The Hagia Sophia

Maydan’s concept is middle eastern fusion. Their menu is Lebanese, Turkish, Syrian, Israeli and borrows from practically every culture that calls the region home.

For this reason we chose the metal work found inside the most-famously-shared structure in Istanbul - The Hagia Sophia - as the inspiration for the build. This spectacular temple has been precious to Christians, Muslims and the secular, having served as church, museum and mosque (as it is today). The central fire cage shares its design with the wrap-around decorative railings seen by anyone visiting the mosque. In turn, the cooking stations that radiate outward share details that key off the cage.

Albi

Chef Michael Rafidi, the James Beard Foundation’s Outstanding Chef for 2024, created his flagship restaurant around Levant cuisine, powered of course by a live fire hearth in their open kitchen. Theirs is a visual backdrop as customers view the show that is their cooks at work at every station that feeds it.

Albi Inspiration: Traditional Levantine, modern style

In Albi’s words:

“Chef Rafidi takes inspiration from his family’s roots in Ramallah, Palestine, bringing to the table an experience that melds the ancient tradition of the region’s coal-fired cuisine with local, seasonal ingredients and a refined culinary acumen. In 2024, Chef Rafidi was named Outstanding Chef by the James Beard Foundation.

The heart of the restaurant is Albi's wood-burning hearth, and the Hearth Table which guests can reserve for Chef Rafidi's Sofra - a semi-improvisational tasting menu - and an intimate view of the open kitchen.”

For this build we wanted an old world look for the equipment that would add a flourish to the restaurant’s clean, modern aesthetic. We reclaimed turn-of-last-century decorative iron for the front face of the central coal-producing fire cage, and constructed its frame from an arcing cast that evokes, to us, the strength of historic bridges. High-heat kebob/robata boxes provide the workhorse cooking stations, and these we made in heavy gauge (1/2”) steel with decorative elements to round out the hearth’s visuals.

Malka’s 13’ hearth array, with nearly every piece on it moveable.

Malka

Malka is home to one of our largest full-custom hearth builds to date, all designed in close collaboration with multiple chefs, including their famous founder, Chef Eyal Shani. The latest in his collection of restaurants in the USA, West Palm Beach Malka is a jewel just steps from the sea. In their, and his, words:

“Opening a kosher restaurant is the most natural thing in the world. Every day I bow to the divine creation in my own way - sometimes it's called zucchini and sometimes it's called lettuce. But there were many people who could not eat my food - food that I have been making for years - for kosher reasons. They would look at it from the side and would like to lick it. In Judaism they say that kosher is a limitation, but this limitation produces wonderful forms of food.”

Malka Inspiration: Modern, hearth-driven high cuisine, and kosher.

“Chef Eyal Shani was born in Jerusalem in 1959. His culinary passion was first instilled in him by his grandfather, an agronomist and a dedicated vegan, who exposed him to local markets, fields, and vineyards from a young age. In 1989, he opened his first restaurant "Oceanus" in his home town of Jerusalem. There, he developed a unique culinary language based on regional Mediterranean products: olive oil, fish, tahini, fresh seasonal vegetables and of course, the tomato.”

We designed, from scratch, a system that could achieve any ambitious dish they could envision. It includes a hearth base that gives the kitchen a surface that will endure for the long haul, and moveable pieces that include a dual adjustable grill, twin kebob boxes, a smoke oven, standing solid plancha stations, shelving and an array of storage underneath.