Kalamazoo Outdoor Gourmet News and Press

MSNBC
June, 2006

Only the best gifts for dad on Father's Day... like a Kalamazoo Outdoor Gourmet Grill.

Father’s Day: Only the Best for Dad

By Teri Goldberg
Shopping Columnist
MSNBC

There are rumblings out there among guys that dads don’t get the attention they deserve. She has Valentine’s Day, birthdays, an assortment of other holidays and then on top of it, Mother’s Day, said one burly guy to his friend on the subway. Celebrating dad on Father’s Day was just an afterthought — a tie, some cologne, a card — he concluded. (And yes men do complain and need attention.)

So this Father’s Day, show dad he really does count. Think beyond the tie, the watch, luxury leather goods. Get him something he really wants...

The ultimate grill
By now, dad has enough grilling tools, aprons and steak sauce to rival his tie collection. But he still is the master of the grill. So this year, get him what’s truly hot — a gourmet-style grill for the backyard.

The choice of several celebrity chefs is a grill from Kalamazoo Outdoor Gourmet. Grills at the Kalamazoo, Mich.-based shop start at $3,790 for a modern-looking contraption called the Sculpture Charcoal Gourmet Stainless Steel grill to $20,590 for the most expensive model of the Bread Breaker series.

Steve Raichlen, author of The Barbecue Bible and host of PBS's Barbecue University, recommends Kalamazoo’s Bread Breaker Two Dual-Fuel Hybrid grill. This model retails for $11,290. “If grills were cars, this 500-pound machine would be a Hummer. What makes it so ingenious is that it can burn gas, charcoal or wood,” says Raichlen in the June 6 issue of Food & Wine magazine.

Michael Chiarello, Food Network television host and cookbook author, selects a [smaller] model: Kalamazoo’s Steadfast Two Plus Smoker Box Gourmet Stainless Steel grill, which comes with a price tag of $6,690, midrange for gourmet grills. “I think it is more than enough for most home grillers,” says Chiarello, who founded NapaStyle where the grill is sold.

Just some of the grill’s features include a motorized rotisserie unit with a 11,000 BTU infrared heat unit, a 32,000 BTU side burner, a side-mounted smoker box, [432]-square-inch grilling space, a stainless steel grilling grate, integrated precision thermometer and more. It also comes fully assembled!

Of course, other companies have jumped on the gourmet grill bandwagon...

“I have tried all the big name brands,” says Chiarello. “I would rather pay a little more … get 33 percent more BTU’s (combined 50,000!) and have a much better grilling surface. Everyone is competing in the $2,500 to $3,000 range, and they all end up having to give up some performance and construction quality to get there,” he says...

© 2006 MSNBC Interactive

Above: Steven Raichlen's pick, the Kalamazoo Outdoor Gourmet™ Bread Breaker® Two Dual-Fuel Hybrid Grill (BB2-D). It cooks with any combination of charcoal, hardwood and gas, and delivers 154,000 BTUs.





Above: Michael Chiarello's pick, the Kalamazoo Outdoor Gourmet™ Steadfast® Two Plus Smoker Box (SF2-S) gourmet grill and smoker.