Your home should be your castle, and as one outdoor kitchen expert puts it, it should be your resort, too. Casey Loyd, the president of Cal Spas (www.calspas.com), a company that originally focused on hot tubs and now produces everything needed for an open-air home retreat, long ago saw that people were socializing in public less and entertaining at home more. To capitalize, the company began rolling out lines of saunas, fire pits, and outdoor kitchens. “Our mission is the home resort,” he says.
Considering that a kitchen is the room that most often brings people together, building an outdoor equivalent offers a slew of new possibilities. With many of these kitchens designed to incorporate televisions, built-in refrigerators, and barroom-style beer taps, outdoor entertaining not only becomes easier, it also brings new excitement to the backyard.
The Crowd-Pleaser
“This barbecue is designed to bring the neighborhood together,” says Loyd, whose company markets outdoor kitchen components under the name Cal Flame (www.calflamebbq.com). “It’s not just a barbecue, it’s a gathering area for meeting, greeting, and cooking.” As such, the company’s GPV 3100 outdoor kitchen, loaded with options in the model shown here, displays most of what a host needs for a backyard bash, including a high-mounted TV screen for instant entertainment. Ranging in price from $6,999 to $34,000, the GPV 3100 is available with a bevy of options beyond the centerpiece grill, including customized LED lighting, a stereo or iPod docking station, side burners, a refrigerator, and a raised back for bar-style seating.
Currently the most frequent requests that Loyd hears from customers are those intended to “keep the family safe from toxins.” To that end, the company designs its G-series grills, such as this one, with cast steel burners, which heat evenly, require a lower amount of fuel, and, as a result, release fewer toxins than many traditional grills.
Another heat-related trend is what Loyd calls art flame pieces, such as the company’s Rays of Light fire pit (opposite page, $10,999). Doubling as a table, the pit’s interior cylinders hold Sterno or candles, so that after the cooking is done, host and guests can sit and eat around the flames.
Island Living
According to Paul Nigon of the Outdoor Great Room Co. (www.outdoorrooms.com), people tend to go in one of two directions when they’re planning an outdoor kitchen. They either go all out and re-create their indoor kitchens, “with a separate grill, sink, fridge, U- or L-shaped countertop, back bar, kegerator, wine cooler …” he says, or they opt for an all-in-one kitchen island, such as the one shown above.
The St. Martin barbecue island has most of what an outdoor cook needs in a compact space. Each model usually includes a grill, refrigerator, side burner, marine-grade stereo, and under-counter lighting. Prices for the St. Martin start at about $6,000; but the model pictured here, with a granite tiled countertop and granite base, is about $9,000.
While this is definitely one way to go when building an outdoor cooking area, for those who take the other approach and decide to build an actual outdoor great room—likely a centerpiece of any backyard—the company offers full design and build services through a national network. Such a room might start with a pergola or arbors as a framework for other components such as seating, lanterns, and a fireplace.
The company is based in Minnesota, which begs the question of how often northerners can actually use an outdoor kitchen. The answer, actually, is quite a lot. “In Minnesota in the summer,” says Nigon, “people want to be outside and cook outside five times a week, at least. But we like a fireplace or a fire pit, which provides heat and warmth.” Just in case.
Into the Woods
The parent company of Atlantis Outdoor Kitchens (www.outdoorkitchensbyatlantis.com) is a Roanoke, Va., cabinet manufacturer, which explains why the firm’s durable outdoor kitchens look as polished as their indoor counterparts. The weather-resistant wood in the outdoor cabinetry lends itself to an appearance that blends with the yard but is anything but rustic.
Based on their weather-resistance qualities, three types of solid wood doors and drawer heads are offered: teak, a favorite with boatbuilders and makers of outdoor furniture; cypress, another boat wood and a component in exterior construction and dock structures; and bamboo. The latter, pictured in this rendering, is perhaps the greenest product of the lot, not only for its sustainability but because it is long-lasting and easy to maintain, needing only an application of oil from time to time.
To top off those cabinets, Atlantis offers a full range of worthy appliances. The setup below, for example, features a built-in grill, from brands such as Vermont Castings and Lynx, side burners, and—always important—a cocktail station equipped with LED lighting, a sink, and an ice bin. A layout similar to this one in bamboo, which Atlantis calls the Entertainment Station, comes equipped with all of those features and a refrigerator, and is priced at about $10,500 (excluding the countertops), but can vary according to customers’ preferences.
All Fired Up
The centerpiece of this San Pedro, Calif., outdoor kitchen is its wood-fired oven, which provides an almost limitless array of baking options on the 41-inch interior cooking surface. “The owners use it for pizza, pasta, roasts, breads, and more,” says Sergio de Paula, president of Fogazzo (www.fogazzo.com), the oven’s manufacturer. De Paula’s company, which has installed outdoor ovens in all 50 states and in more than 20 countries, also designs and builds the complete kitchens that surround them. “Anything that can be baked, roasted, or grilled in a conventional gas oven can be done in this wood-fired oven,” he says, “with additional flavor and flair.”
A wood-fired oven offers opportunities for limitless culinary experimentation, particularly in the choice of fuel, which in this case imparts different fragrances and flavors to the food, depending on the wood. According to de Paula, fruit hardwoods such as peach or plum burn cleanly and lend fruity fragrances; walnut provides nuttiness; and oak has a rich-smelling burn. Almond, pecan, and eucalyptus are also worth using, while avocado, a soft wood, is odorless and is recommended only as a fire-starter.
This complete outdoor kitchen includes a double sink cut into a granite countertop, a 52-inch Viking gas grill and side burner, double warming drawers, a bar, an ice maker, and a refrigerator. The countertops have openings for umbrellas, which provide shade on warm, sunny days. And for cool evenings, gas heaters provide heat. The project was built for about $55,000, including construction, electrical and plumbing work, and appliances.