Okay, fine! My reason for doing a site on grills is self serving. But I guarantee you won’t hold it against me. I could also do one on roofing and padlocks!
Our house got hit with a huge hailstorm this summer that destroyed the shake shingles. Our insurance offered to pay for a full roof replacement, and we were happy to take it.
When the crew came out to do the work, I went out to say hi and offer them something to drink. The whole time I was talking to them, they were staring at our grill. This was a Home Depot special that we’d bought for two reasons: to prepare for Y2K (in case of a power failure, we wanted a way to cook all the meat in our freezer that would need to be eaten quickly!) and because it was the only grill that weighed enough to withstand the wind gusts we get off the Rockies at 9,000 feet above sea level.
I’m an early riser. Two days after the roofers finished the job, when my wife woke up, she said, “Do you have any idea why the roofers were parked outside our house last night? I saw their truck when I got up to feed the baby.”
The roofers liked our grill, apparently, because later that day, I went out with a plate of burgers and noticed it was missing. Talk about low! I can’t believe someone would steal another man’s grill!
The only positives here are the fact that the grill was three years old. It was covered with thick black grease-gunk. No one could touch it without getting it all over themselves, especially in the dark! And as I’ve already mentioned, the thing weighed about three tons. I could see the tracks where the roofers had carried it up the hill. That hill is almost straight up. To haul the grill up it would have required at least four of them. Hauling bundles of shingles up an extension ladder is child’s play compared to that! I’m sure at least one of them got the mother of all hernias from that little endeavor.
So the roofers got the grill, but I’d like to think I got the last laugh. Plus they were actually good roofers.
My first thought after discovering the theft was to drive down to Home Depot and plunk down for the same grill. They only sell grills from early January to the middle of January though; since it was the middle of the July they wouldn’t be getting any in for about six months.
Replacing that grill was a lot harder than I ever would have thought. The only grills for sale were floor models with missing handles and broken gas cocks. You see where I’m going.
I couldn’t find a decent grill in the middle of summer anywhere but on-line. And even that was difficult. Voila! The inspiration for this site.
I’ve tried to collect every good link I could find for grills—gas, charcoal, cheap, deluxe, hibachi, etc. You want a grill, this is the site for you! I hope it helps.
A quick tip I learned from a bartender friend of mine: when you’re grilling steaks, only flip them once—put them on, let them cook till the top is slightly brown, flip them, let them cook until they’re done to your liking and take them off. The more times you flip them, the tougher the meat gets.