B.B.Q’s Galore Has Equipment to Get Any Taste Fired Up
To the guys at B.B.Q’s Galore, “firing up the barbie” means a lot more than throwing a few charcoal briquettes on the Weber.
The barbie, in this case, could be their supercharged Turbo model with fire-engine-red detailing, five grills and 75,000 BTUs under the hood--that’s British thermal units, a measure of its firepower. This baby can go from zero to scorch in the time it takes to slap on the secret sauce. It will set you back about $1,000 as a stand-alone, a bit more as a built-in.
Then there’s a stainless-steel model that goes for around $2,000.
If your tastes run to tamer grilling, though, the Costa Mesa store has smaller models--not just its signature Turbos but also a wide range of other brand-name barbecues, smokers, hibachis and a single-unit grill designed for wok cooking.
On the lowest end of the price scale is an aluminum throwaway model (great for the beach, the salesman says) that looks like a lasagna pan filled with a small grill and a few briquettes. Cost: $2.99.
If there seems to be something for every taste in outdoor cooking here, well, that’s what one would expect from a store that bills itself as having the world’s largest selection of barbecues--about 200 models in this store alone, plus parts for models going back nine years.
The salesman also boasts “the best selection of gourmet barbecue sauces you’ll find anywhere.” They’re flanked by racks of aprons, cooking mitts, chef’s hats, grill baskets and utensils for flipping the biggest, meatiest slabs of dead red.
B.B.Q’s Galore is owned by a 30-year-old Australian company. The Costa Mesa store, in business about a dozen years and the only B.B.Q’s Galore in the county, is among 13 in California, Nevada and Arizona.
Being Australian, the company considers itself to be the Rembrandt of the “art” of barbecuing, as store manager Rodney Maister refers to it.
What makes its barbecues so good? The grills of the Turbo unit are made of durable cast iron (or porcelain-coated cast iron for easier cleaning), and separate heat controls make for precision cooking, Maister says.
The Turbos run off either propane or natural gas canisters or can be hooked up to a household gas outlet. Some units feature rust-resistant brass components.
They are also designed to be used with lava rock, an efficient system of porous briquette on which juices drip, then burn back up as smoke to permeate and flavor the food. This burn-back feature is what distinguishes barbecued food from, say, broiled or pan-fried.
And just because it’s a barbecue doesn’t mean you’re confined to surf and turf. Maister says you can cook almost anything--including a cake--on his product. And that’s what lots of his customers--who have included former Arizona Sen. Barry Goldwater and members of the John Wayne family--do, eschewing the kitchen stove for great-outdoors grilling.
* B.B.Q’s Galore
2338 Harbor Blvd.
Costa Mesa
(714) 241-9324
Other suppliers and vendors of barbecue units in the county include:
* Amco Builders & Plumbing Supply
1514 Newport Blvd.
Costa Mesa
(714) 642-4184
* Fireplace and Patio Trends
320 S. Tustin St.
Orange
(714) 538-9661
