It looks like a steel lunch box. You know, the kind you’ll bring to school or work if you prefer eating home-cooked meals. Except, the Gentlemen’s Hardware Portable Barbecue is actually a compact grill that you can use to cook your food on the go.
Billed as a “suitcase-style barbecue pit,” the contraption allows you to have a functional grill while carrying nothing more than the equivalent of a large lunch box or a small briefcase. Whether you’re heading to a picnic at a park, some day drinking at the beach, or an all-nighter at a tailgate, this thing lets you bring a usable grill along without the usual uncomfortable size.
The Gentlemen’s Hardware Portable Barbecue collapses into a briefcase-style box measuring 12.75 x 17.5 x 4.5 inches (width x height x depth), so you can carry it using the handles at the top or slide it in a backpack while you’re on foot, making it easy to bring along anywhere you go. It closes shut, too, using a pair of clasps on top, ensuring the darn thing won’t accidentally open and fling the detached parts all over the ground. When opened, it turns into a functional grill with a cooking surface of roughly 13 x 12 inches, which should be enough to accommodate food for two or three people (depends on how much they eat), making it great for heading out with a small group of friends.
Once opened, the grill’s fold-out legs allow it to stand upright in a secure manner, allowing you to set it down on sand, rocks, and dirt, as well as on tables and other usable surfaces. Both the grates and the coal tray can fit inside the confines of the box when closed, which you can then easily take out and set in their designated positions when it’s time to start cooking. From there, you just use it like any charcoal grill: fill the tray up with coal, light it up, and line the grates with food. Of course, the darn thing will get as dirty as regular grills, too, so you’ll have to keep up with regular maintenance and cleaning, unless you want it to look like an absolute pigsty.
The Gentlemen’s Hardware Portable Barbecue is made from steel, so it should hold up to the daunting challenges it’s bound to face in the outdoors, with the outer panels getting a navy powder-coated finish to make it a lot easier on the eyes. From the looks of it, this thing should function like any regular grill, so you can use it to cook burgers, sausages, and even steaks, albeit in a size that should limit the amount of servings you can cook at any one time. Sure, it’s not the kind of grill you want if you’re cooking for a veritable party, but for smaller gatherings, the darn thing should get the job done.
Want one? The Gentlemen’s Hardware Portable Barbecue is available now.
- INCLUDED IN THIS SET (1 OF EACH): cooking grill, charcoal grill, charcoal tray, metal carrying case