Gear Patrol | Spirit of Adventure, Passion for Gear

Fire escape hearth

Weighing in at 32 pounds, slightly less than the totalitarian Mongol it’s named after, the Genghis Kahn Hibachi ($180) offers up more than one way to get meat cooked. The stout, yet compact cast-iron grill provides three cooking schemes: flat griddle, 16-skewer shish kebab attachment, or a convex grilling grate with V-Grooves — an improvement [...]

Chef by a thousand cuts

Redefining Blow Torch

Cooking over charcoal can impart many excellent flavor characteristics to your meat of choice — lighter fluid just isn’t one of them. Swedish inventor Richard Looft created the Looftlighter ($80) to end charcoal-grilling man’s dependance on the explosive fluid once and for all, granted they have an electrical outlet close at hand. Looking like a [...]

Skewering the Competition

The first man to use a skewer while cooking food over a flame was the undisputed genius of his time. The fire cooked his catch, not him, and he could eat right off of the stick afterwards. Then someone invented plates and botched it all up. The price of progress in this case was mountains [...]

BBQ Meets the Autobahn

German engineers have made countless innovations in the automotive world, and hold a reputation as some of the best in the business. The question is, do these technical skills translate to BBQ? Brennwagen is a relatively new company, founded in 2010 by former Formula 1 engineer Florian Wagner. A quick look at his grill’s low [...]

Made from Concentrate

If you’re willing to adventure a little off grilling main street you’ll find there are some great American-made options like the Minden Master Grill ($479). Designed with a more realistic and urban-friendly compact form factor, the Minden is an ideal fit for households not yet ready to sell their first born child for a barnyard [...]

Bring the bar to you

Think of the Alpina Mobile Bongos Beer Bar ($11,300) as a graduate degree in outdoor drinking. The mobile party center features an integrated kegerator, 8kg of ice storage, and customizable tops for adding everything from a gas-powered grill to extra serving areas. Thanks its four sturdy wheels and a specially designed refrigeration system, there’s also [...]

Savvy Slab

Made from locally sourced Burgundy clay and kiln baked at 2000°F, the Black Flame Top Grilling Stone ($49) features proprietary “Flame” technology allowing it to work perfectly in all cooking scenarios be it gas, charcoal, wood, electric, oven or broiler. Using the principle of radiant heat, the handmade stone provides an even cooking surface for [...]

Trifecta anyone?

Why choose between gas, charcoal, or wood when buying a grill, when you can have all three? That’s the holy trinity the new Kalamazoo Hybrid Fire Grilling System ($10,000+) offers. The magic happens via special drawers installed above the grill’s main gas burners, which can be filled with either wood or charcoal and lit from [...]

Killing Guesswork Grilling

Some men are grill-capable the day they leave the delivery room. Others have an uncanny ability to turn great cuts of meat into fresh sets of mud-terrains. If you or someone you know falls into the latter bucket, these Steak Button Thermometers ($20) will help. Their big, easy to read dials are essentially idiot-proof, even [...]

Follow That Grill!

The Element Portable ($150) is Fuego’s latest gorgeous grilling creation. Not only is it small, but it’s cleverly designed aluminum legs also fold up to become a convenient handle for easy toting, while a huge red rubber band ensures the lid stays in place. A shoulder strap is also available — making the Element Portable [...]

Oven Armor

Aprons and oven mitts in many ways perform similar functions. One prevents stains from scarring your clothing, while the other prevents scars from ruining your hands. This brilliant design combines both features in one convenient product, making it a bullet-proof vest of sorts for chefs. It even has two buttons at the waist for hanging [...]

Where Grilling Meets German Efficiency

Meat searing monuments like the Weber Ranch Kettle charcoal grill will always hold a special place in our carnivore hearts, but there’s something strangely attractive about the idyllic vision of grilling painted by the Holzpellet grill from Bob Grillson ($7,470). Ok, so maybe it’s just this German beauty’s magnetizing lines. Or maybe it’s just Bob’s [...]

Flippin' good

Add a touch of personalization to your grilling with the Sportula ($25). Its laser-cut heavy-duty stainless steel and hard maple handle will hold up to the heaviest cuts of carnage, and it’s available in a wide variety of laser-cuts, ranging from collegiate teams to hobbyist logos. Seeing your alma mater’s logo backlit with fire and [...]

Use This Neck and Save Yours

The genius who put a lighter at the end of a long stick is hopefully up for canonization in some religion as a finger saving saint. Clearly Zippo’s Flexneck Utility Lighter ($23) is the neck err…next evolution. Thanks to its flexible extension and slim powerful nozzle, with this in your hand, there’s no need to [...]