Pricey New Gadgets
Heat Up Winter Grilling

Jan. 28, 2003 -- Rob David recently made his family a special marinated chicken dish, along with some tasty broccoli and spicy baked potatoes. All of which might not sound unusual, except that he grilled the dish in his backyard -- outdoors, in the snow, in subzero weather in Detroit. "I'll just run outside," says the 46-year-old radio producer, who has a special grill for this and says the longest part of the job is "putting on my hat, coat and boots."

It may be the height of some of the coldest weather in recent years, but American cooks have hit on a new obsession: winter grilling. Pushed by a $2 billion grilling business that could use some help, they're out there 2-feet deep in snow with a new generation of "infrared" grills (top temperature: more than 1,600 degrees) and pricey extras such as canvas-covered cooking islands. Some grill makers even introduce new models in January instead of July these days -- and are finding quite a market. Sears says its grill sales jumped 15% in December from last year, while Vermont Islands, a maker of grilling stations, has seen winter-month sales climb 60% in the past two years.

"My wife thinks I'm nuts," says Mick Tinnon, a Chicago businessman who braves the cold as many as five days a week, grilling up dishes like beef jerky, stuffed jalapenos and Chinese-style stir fries. Even with 30-mile-an-hour winds coming off Lake Michigan, Mr. Tinnon has been known to go the outdoor route. "Hey, I'm a guy," he says.

Some purists call the whole winter-grilling movement a bit silly -- after all, what's the point in a cookout if you can't relax on your patio with a cold drink? And traditional grill fare such as swordfish or corn on the cob may not hit the spot when there are football playoffs on the tube. Yet the growing ranks of cold-weather grillers insist the year-round approach makes perfect sense, especially in a down economy. Now their expensive grills can get year-round instead of seasonal use.

Of course, some polar-bear types have always refused to put away the grill tongs when frost hits the ground, while in warmer parts of the country a February barbecue seems perfectly natural. The rise of gas grills helped boost the trend, because they're easier to light. But now the makers of grills and accessories are working hard to turn winter grilling from an oddball hobby into a sizable -- and profitable -- niche. Industry experts credit all this grilling and chilling with helping to revive lackluster sales, with the number of grills sold in 2002 hitting 15.2 million (nearly back to the industry's record levels seen in 2000). Until recently, makers "hadn't given customers much reason to buy a new grill," says a spokeswoman for the Hearth, Patio and Barbecue Association.

Melting Aluminum

Now many makers are pushing hard with a new, pricey, winter-friendly lineup. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the rush to sell so-called infrared grills, like the Solaire InfraVection, a 42-inch stainless-steel hulk that costs more than $5,000. The infrared models run on propane or natural gas just like typical grills, but use a special kind of burner with thousands of tiny holes that turns red-hot. These grills get so hot -- 1,650 degrees, more than double the temperature of a standard gas grill -- that even cold windy weather won't slow down the steaks. (One reason for the infrared craze: A key patent on this kind of burner expired, making it cheaper for companies to offer them.) Solaire says infrared sales jumped 50% in 2002 from the year before.

But is a fire hot enough to melt aluminum really necessary to cook pork chops? No less an expert than Bobby Flay, owner of Mesa Grill and Bolo in New York and host of grilling programs on the Food Network, scoffs at the notion that grillers need special equipment for a winter cookout. "You need to have a deft hand," says Mr. Flay, who says he does cold-weather grilling all the time at his East Hampton, N.Y., house (using both charcoal and gas -- but he likes gas in the winter better because it's easy to light). "The grill can't take the credit or blame for a meal," he says, adding that infrared cookers are "excessive."

High-tech cookers or not, grilling in the middle of winter isn't always easy. When Peter Nystedt finished cooking a meal in his Worcester, Mass., backyard, he left his smoker out to cool overnight -- and found it sunk into the frozen ground the next morning, stuck there until the spring thaw. And then there's the surprise Darryl James McKoon got when he lifted the lid on his extreme-heat ceramic grill without opening up the vent first. "Flames went whoosh and singed my hair," says the Atlanta construction project manager. "I was fuzzy on the ends for a week."

What's more, just figuring out what to cook can be a challenge. Some winter chefs say they experiment with hearty meals, like roast pork or even grilled meat loaf, while others argue that traditional fare such as burgers and steaks work any time of the year (and cook in just a few minutes on a hot grill). In Dorset, Vt., Malcolm Cooper even does breakfast on the grill -- complete with bacon, eggs, pancakes and home fries. The wood-products salesman says it makes him "feel like an Eskimo."

Chicken and Truffles

Look for even more winter barbecues as retailers who once stopped stocking grills after Labor Day increasingly try to stretch the season. Even in January, Amazon.com offers more than 180 different grills and accessories (including heavy-duty vinyl grill covers rated for "subzero" temperatures), while Frontgate touts 17 upscale grills on its Web site, including a $8,995 grill island boasting "freeze-resistant porcelain-tile countertops." And while Home Depot didn't give grills any floor space during winter two years ago, now they've become "a year-round item," a spokesman says.

Hillard Pouncy is one of those who'll be shivering over the grill next weekend. The visiting lecturer at Princeton University in New Jersey is planning a Super Bowl party for 15 people, where he'll serve his own variation on beer-can chicken, a recipe where the birds are grilled sitting on cans filled with white wine and truffles. "The taste is sensuous," he says. Still, he says, there is a downside to minding the food while the guests stay warm inside. "It can get lonely," he says.

Email your comments to rjeditor@dowjones.com.