Grills & Smokers

Best $30 I’ve spent in a long time… Weber Smokey Joe Silver Grill When the weather warmed up this spring, my husband and I decided that we needed a grill. Our biggest motivation w...

Weber Smokey Joe Silver Grill Weber Smokey Joe Silver Grill Key Features Type:Grill Fuel Type:Charcoal Cooking Area:165.13 sq. in. Top Lid:With Lid / Top Hood ...

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You love your vegetarian friends. It’s thirty bucks. Throw them a (proverbial) bone.

Yes, it is yet another review where the vegetarian issue is hauled out and thrown in your face, and I apologize, but there is no way for a life-long veg to write about a BBQ without mentioning it. Anyway.

So, this thing has landed in our yard because

* it was $30

* it was still a Weber, which I consider a highly reliable brand, and looked every bit like a regular kettle-style BBQ only smaller

* we were having a party

* we don’t eat meat

* we didn’t want to cook our stuff on borrowed grills covered with…meat

Yes, it’s the "vegetarian grill." Meat landed on a red one adjacent, and everyone was happy. If you are a frequent giver of large-scale BBQs, this might be worth the investment just to placate the few whiny vegetarians around.

I am not much of an outdoor grill type (see above for painfully obvious reasons why), but this thing is converting me: it is so painfully simple to use. It was painfully simple to assemble, too, and ended up being surprisingly sturdy for a $30 item. Throw in charcoal, fire it up, throw on vegetables, wander off, return, eat. We have a sort of indoor grill feature on our range, but it doesn’t get used for much more than the odd "veggie burger" or lazy man’s quesadilla. I had forgotten about what happens when charcoal and food meet. I blame this entirely on the meat-and-potatoes crowd, because they don’t even mention the potatoes (which came out wonderfully on the Smokey Joe), and most people have it in their heads that it is impossible to have a bona-fide meat-free burn-up.

The only hassle is a trivial one: it is a short little thing. Fortunately, we are lazy slobs, and have no interest in wandering around being King of the Grill (complete with asinine "Kiss the Chef" aprons) making sure everything is cooked to perfection. Setting it down on a sort of concrete deck in the middle of assembled chairs meant people could just lean over and grab their stick of veg whenever it became charred to their liking. This might actually be a feature: the low-riding Smokey Joe will discourage that obnoxious BBQ expert, and let anyone and everyone casually slide over when their preferred degree of black has been reached.

In conclusion,

C’mon! THIRTY BUCKS! Buy it, as a starter model or as a back-up to your $500 behemoth! Please! Your vegetables will love you!

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Tags: Charcoal, Lazy Man, Smokey, Weber