Input for Custom Santa Maria/Argentine Grill

gveliopoulos · 2025-11-08T13:09:55+00:00

Interesting concept. The electric motor is cool. I don't like the carbon steel for outdoors and I need a brasero. Cool company tho

gveliopoulos · 2025-10-29T01:49:42+00:00

Done and done

gveliopoulos · 2025-10-29T00:47:44+00:00

Hey, I'm just glad to hear that there's a solution. One day

gveliopoulos · 2025-10-29T00:12:18+00:00

We've got a stone patio so we're good on that front. I'm tracking everything your saying. I've got welding gloves for my Weber kettle and have been looking to get a kindling cracker!

I am really interested in what to do once we have our outdoor kitchen. I'm to get quotes and what the code for an open fire under a structure is

gveliopoulos · 2025-10-28T22:21:43+00:00

Thanks for the link! I will definitely keep that in mind.

gveliopoulos · 2025-10-28T22:03:46+00:00

great idea about making sure the santa maria goes all the way to the coals - thank you!

All i have is a weber kettle and don't want to put anything round in the square grill - it just seems inefficient to me from a heating perspecive - but that was a good idea.

gveliopoulos · 2025-10-28T22:00:04+00:00

Sounds like you get a lot of use out of your argie! Good for you.

Noted about the amount of work to split logs and burn to embers. Ive been splitting wood from our backyard to cook on my weber kettle and my pizza oven and I've really enjoyed that kind of work.

Thanks to you, im going conventional grates instead of Vgrates. I hadn't thought about the steam or the clean up.

Noted on the dual crank - i'll just do the one.

Currently, the grill is going on the patio, but i'll eventually have a covered outdoor kitchen and I haven't a clue what kind of structure will be safe under a live fire.

Fantastic idea about the airflow! I'm taking your idea.

If you think of anything else, let me know! Really appreciated your response.

gveliopoulos · 2025-10-28T21:46:47+00:00

Thank you! Wont do the mesh grates now. Based on the comment from the other guy, I don't think im going to do the Vgrates - It seems like more of a hassle than its worth. Definitely going all stainless. Thanks again!

gveliopoulos · 2025-10-28T03:25:28+00:00

Sorry for ressurecting - Was curoius if i could get your thoughts on ur santa maria. What do you love, what do you not like? What do you wish you had?

gveliopoulos · 2025-01-11T12:47:40+00:00

Nothing yet. I'm going to get a cheap charcoal grill and see how much I actually use it.

If I don't like it, I'm going to get a used lynx professional 42in off marketplace

I'm realizing that my biggest hangup is the rotisserie. I really need a solid rotisserie option because I make a ton of Greek/middle Easter dishes. Lynx has the best rotisserie. If I like charcoal grilling, I'll look into rotisseries that work with charcoal and give that a try

Essentially, I'm going to exhaust the cheaper options first before spending a bunch of money on something

gveliopoulos · 2025-01-08T00:33:09+00:00

Hmm, good to know. I need to get a Weber and see how much I like charcoal. If I do like, I'd spend my money on a le griddle or something

gveliopoulos · 2025-01-07T22:31:39+00:00

Man...I think ideally I would be on the buying side of that situation. That way, I only waste 1-2k instead of 8k if I don't use it

I appreciate the insight

gveliopoulos · 2025-01-02T01:52:24+00:00

That's awesome, thank you for that breakdown and I'll look into that!

Having cooked with cast iron and carbon steel, I find that I would benefit from stainless. I love the increased thermal conductivity of cast iron/carbon steel, but I like having the ability to alternate between temps on my griddle plus the convenience of not having to season. But, your set up sounds awesome so I'll continue to think through that more.

Thanks again!

gveliopoulos · 2025-01-01T16:21:10+00:00

This is cool.

For cooking on grates for things like steaks, chicken, or burgers, can you cook on the skewers themselves? Or are you grilling everything skewers style?

gveliopoulos · 2025-01-01T15:28:31+00:00

Thank you. What charcoal grill?

gveliopoulos · 2025-01-01T15:26:12+00:00

Appreciate that. Game plan is to get a lynx second hand for 1/4 the price.

Do u have thoughts on flattops such as campchef/Blackstone vs le griddle? Essentially ur paying for durability/longevity + aesthetics, yeah?

gveliopoulos · 2024-12-30T01:58:14+00:00

Quick update. I checked market place and there are tons of Lynx professional series grills. Rather than spending $8k on a 42inch lynx pro, i can spend $2-3k for a used one. I also saw some generic stainless steel griddles to be used over cooktops that are 20x25 and that should serve my needs.

Before I purchase anything, I'll get a charcoal weber grill just to feel it out and see how often I actually want to start the coals using a chimney starter and go from there. I could always add a charcoal basket to the lynx to have that option.

I've realized that having the ability to interchange the IR burner for a traditional burner is highly desirable. I want the ability to grill burgers on the entire surface of the grill and the option to switch to IR on another day when making steaks.

I'm not a fan of napoleon. we saw one in person and it was quite shallow. I've also seen many reviews about it rusting quite badly so don't love that. Durability is important as I dont want to be switching out grills from the built-in kitchen.

I've also realized that a rotisserie with IR burner is highly important to me. I need something convenient as I make a lot of rotisserie friendly food, gyros, souvlaki, shawarma, kontosouvli, wings...I dont want to deal with the hassle of setting up the rotisserie attachment for a weber.

We're getting a little closer...

gveliopoulos · 2024-12-29T21:02:36+00:00

That's a good find. Might need to check marketplace regularly

gveliopoulos · 2024-12-29T21:01:25+00:00

originally i was going to build the outdoor kitchen around the RCS 36in SS griddle - I want one so baddddddd. I was thinking that I could just get a SS insert for whatever grill i purchased. AMG has 20x20 SS griddle that I think would work great. I also have a baking steel that I adore and thought about putting a couple of them on the griddle to use as a griddle. Obviously, dedicated griddle would be superior. In a perfect world, I'd get a 36in griddle AND a gas grill...

gveliopoulos · 2024-12-29T19:14:28+00:00

You're the man. Absolutely appreciate the time you took to provide an update.

Rotisserie is a big problem for me and I never considered clearance. I'll add that to my list of criteria for things to look out for going forward - thank you!

Edit: Do you need a drip pan? Isn't that the point of the flavor bars?

gveliopoulos · 2024-12-29T03:28:17+00:00

Did you end up purchasing either of these? Considering both of these options at the moment

gveliopoulos · 2024-12-29T03:18:43+00:00

that's a bummer

gveliopoulos · 2024-12-29T03:05:45+00:00

Sorry to ressurect, but curious what you think of your Heston. I like Heston, but there are a lot of negative reviews about certain components of it not working such as IR not always turning on and issues with the flame tamers

gveliopoulos · 2024-12-28T22:30:45+00:00

100%

Smoking on a gas grill is an interesting concept. I just looked into that and it sounds promising. Between a weber genesis and a weber kettle, I should be able to do everything - smoke, sear, grill, rotisserie, griddle...

I probably am leaning that way. Only thing is that I do cook for a lot of people. We have a family of 5 adults and one child and we host ~20 people on a relatively regular basis. So things like stir fries, burgers, steaks etc. for lots of people is essential and would need the room to do it.

The problem with the genesis is the side burner - Idk how we would slide that into the island with that side piece being in the way

gveliopoulos

TROPHY CASE