SAN FRANCISCO, Ca., May 30 – Your pork chops are tough; your veggies are limp; none of the spices in your cupboard seem to understand your gustatory plight. Gotta leaf through that stack of take-out menus to tickle those taste buds, right? Wrong.
Mercantila Does Barbecue Grills!
How did Ford Motors' assembly-line residue warm your meat-eating heart? In the Beginning. The idea of cooking meat over an open fire is as old as, well, fire. Grills are another story. It took Henry Ford's ingenuity - which found a way to re-package and market the wood-based schwag from his 1920s assembly lines - to introduce charcoal briquettes. (Ford's relative, E.G. Kingsford, drove that market - get it? Drove the market? Never mind.) And it took three decades from that little advancement for Illinois backyard warrior/welder George Stephen to saw through a metal buoy and slap a lid on it, thus producing the original Weber kettle charcoal grill. His neighbors might have called it "Sputnik", but they were racing each other to buy its offspring - which quickly multiplied by the millions and spread to backyards across America like so many galactic rabbits.
Innovations
Not that Americans are into making things faster and easier - or eating a lot, for that matter - but gourmet fave charcoal takes a while to heat up. So we added gas. And electricity. And while those gas or electric grills have gotten away from the traditionalist "barbecue" roots of slow-cooking huge hunks of meat, they're still grills, and their results are much faster, much cleaner, and inarguably delicious. And we're not turning our backs completely on our barbecue roots… only now we call high-capacity slow-cookers "smokers". As for Marlboro and Camel enthusiasts, now we call them "unable to read FDA warning labels". It's all very confusing, we know, but, we can clarify.
What’s In It For You?
Cooking capacity. What's the only thing better than grilled food? More grilled food! Whether you want your meals bigger or faster or both, features like expanded cooking surfaces, roomier cooking chambers, electric and gas-powered intensity, and innovative convection systems mean nobody's going to be left holding an empty bun for very long.
Cleanliness. Electric and gas grilling leave very little mess to clean up, and even charcoal isn't the here's-soot-in-your-eye pain it used to be, thanks to removable ash pans and catchers. Yes, you'll have to scrub the grilling surface from time to time, but it beats a sink of crusty pots and pans.
Control. Gas and electric is supremely easy to control (just turn a few knobs and stay awake at the wheel), and charcoal's come a long way as well. Premium materials like steel and porcelain coating help even out heat distribution no matter how undemocratic you are with the lighting fluid.
Meet your match:
Is smoking your thing? We'd tell you to quit, but that won't help sales any. Does charcoal make your heart sing? We've got a pill for that too. More of a gas guy? Fine! Just keep reading. You'll find a grill to thrill your little cockles, we promise.
| Top gun: Weber Ranch Kettle Charcoal Grill, $999.00 |  Sputnik? This is the charcoal grill that ate Sputnik. It's Weber quality, super-sized: 1,104 square inches of grilling surface (that's almost four feet of diameter - if you already knew that, O Scholar of Pi, we salute you). | | Top saver: Arctic Portable Gas Grill; $69.98 |  Before you call it cute, you should know that it's made of cast aluminum and steel, uses liquid propane to throw 11,000 BTU/hr, and folds into a clever portable package for on-site grilling wherever. Plus - oh, fine. It's adorable. | | Top shelf: Crown Verity MCB-72 Gas Grill; $2,536.49 |  With 10 burners, twin grilling surfaces, gas precision that throws a total of 159,000 BTU/hr, and wheels for portability, you could hold traveling Iron Chef competitions. Or pick a town park, fire it up, feed the masses, and run for mayor. | | | Save & Share |  Hot prices on Barbecue Grills!
$25.00 off any Barbecue Grill over $250. Enter Coupon code G9RS4J at checkout. Coupon valid through 6/10/2006 at | | | |
| Top Brand | | We're really going out on a limb here; it's like saying Kleenex makes the best tissue. This is the name synonymous with good grilling, and it's more than marketing: Weber's charcoal and gas grills - and even its smoker - are always favorites for their dependably great taste, no matter the price tag. Millions of Americans can't be wrong (if you keep election years out of it).
Make your dreams come true at The Weber Store | |
| Penny For Your Thoughts? |  We sell a lot of stuff. Is there any particular line of products that's always mystified / fascinated you? (Go on, admit it. We're retail freaks. We're into this.)
Tell us why you're so curious -- give us a good enough story, and we'll give you the inside scoop. (Nobody wants pennies these days anyway.) Send your reply to readers@mercantila.com | | |
