04 Jul 2007 1825H

Two notes for July 4th

We had a Weber grill, a black one, for about 20-30 odd years, which we trundled out every summer for the obligatory cookout. This year, since the family has expanded now that my sister has two kids, and we’re no longer stoked (so to speak) about using charcoal, I bought another Weber to replace it. And I didn’t go to the big box store to get it.

First of all, I’m impressed that Weber is still in Chicagoland. Big ups for that, although I’m sure the grill may not be manufactured here anymore. I like how Weber thinks about the whole experience as it permeates through the brand. I like how they support the user and create community around the grilling experience. I like how they teach classes and have restaurants and all that good stuff. Everything is firing on all cylinders. Thus, a few days ago, I bought a Genesis E-320, the top rated mid-sized grill from Consumer Reports, it wasn’t one that had a faulty fuel line, and today we fired it up with, as usual for the clan, too much food. Everything went well. I won’t go into how many animals were involved, but it was fairly slaughterlicious. Temperature control was good. For example, I had a picanha going which had been cut into four pieces and despite the thickness of the meat was able to eyeball it to medium rareness. Hard to do with charcoal, much easier with gas.

I liked the design touches on the E-320 that allow you to hang utensils from the side table, even the fuel gauge that takes the reading of how heavy the tank is to gauge how much fuel is left in the tank, and because it’s all stainless steel, the recommended method of cleaning the thing is to close the lid and turn up the burners to high, wait until the smoke stops, then brush off the debris. Beats harsh chemicals and sandblasting the caramelized debris of cookouts past off the thing.

Secondly, regarding where I bought this, big props to the Ace Hardware in downtown Skokie, IL. You might ask how has Ace managed to survive in an age of big box stores. Well, you might not be able to compete on price, but you can kill on service, as they do; free delivery too to my house, which saves me the trouble of having to rent a van, and it came off the truck assembled, which again, saves me the trouble. I feel good about the business and plan to bring them more.

In a way, I think this confirms what is said in the Paradox of Choice: when you’re choosing the best thing from a range of things, fewer options is better, and what’s important is that you feel satisfied at the end of the transaction. Go Weber.

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2 responses to "Two notes for July 4th"

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04 Jul 2007 1944H

tim writes:

Assembly and free delivery are huge. As America becomes more urbanized and gas becomes more expensive, it will become more necessary. That’s because there will be fewer people with trucks/SUVs, and it will be harder to get parking in front of high density housing. That’s the future…Seoul and Tokyo but in America.

05 Jul 2007 0625H

K writes:

I have an earlier version of that grill, I think. It all looks the same, but it doesn’t have that nifty gas gauge thing. As evidenced by the fact that we were going to do the barbeque thing, and then we realized the tank was empty. And so we broiled instead. :p

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