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Owner's Business Idea Is Sizzling

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By LAURA KINSLER, The Tampa Tribune

Published: January 16, 2008

TAMPA PALMS - Michael Baker is a self-professed barbecue snob. He grew up in a family that would drive a hundred miles out of the way for a good pulled-pork sandwich topped with coleslaw - North Carolina-style.

"If I stop at a barbecue place and don't smell anything out in the parking lot, I get back in my car and leave, because I know they aren't cooking with wood," he said.

Baker rarely dines out in even the most popular barbecue restaurants. One exception is Eli's Bar-B-Que in Dunedin. He discovered it by following his nose until it led him to the concrete shack on the Pinellas Trail, where people line up on weekends to eat slabs of ribs at picnic tables in the dirt parking lot.

Baker's backyard in Northdale is home to four grills and two smokers. That doesn't include the giant smoker on its own trailer. It's big enough to cook eight pork butts, 20 pounds of chicken and two beef briskets at the same time.

"I store it in the garage," he said. "I park my car in the driveway."

He makes his own rubs and sauce. Baker is a certified barbecue judge for the St. Louis Barbecue Association and the Florida Barbecue Society, and he travels throughout the Southeast tasting the best it has to offer.

Now, he is turning his passion into a business. Baker and his son, Trevor, opened Outdoor Kitchens & Grills, New Tampa's first All About Grills store, which specializes in high-end grills, smokers and custom-built outdoor kitchens.

The store in the Shoppes of Amberly features various designs starting at about $5,000 for a 30-inch gas grill with rotisserie, built in refrigerator and tiled countertop.

The true entertainer, however, might go for the $13,599 option, which includes a 42-inch grill/rotisserie, two-burner cooktop, searing station, refrigerator and ice chest.

Other units have gas grills and wood smokers. They can be fitted with lights and stereo systems.

The less serious barbecue cook can stop in for Baker's selection of tools, sauces, rubs, cast-iron cookware and his wood chip bar. Outdoor Kitchens & Grills sells seven types of wood chips and wood chunks at a bulk rate of $3.50 per pound.

He keeps apple, hickory, oak, mesquite, cherry, alder, maple and pecan on the wood chip bar. Each adds a distinctive, smoky taste to whatever is being cooked and is popular in specific regions.

"I do a combination of oak and either apple or mesquite, depending on what I'm cooking," Baker said. "With mesquite, you automatically think Texas. Hickory is good with anything; that's what they use in North Carolina. Alder is popular in the North. It's really mild, so it goes well with fish.

"Here, a lot of people use orangewood or other citrus. It gives a nice, sweet taste to the meat."
Outdoor kitchens have become a common option for people buying new homes, but they're also becoming a popular choice for home remodeling projects.

"That's a growing part of the market," Baker said.

"People are having more and more trouble selling their homes, so they ask themselves, 'What can I do to upgrade my existing house?' They go for the outdoor kitchen or fire pit."

IF YOU GO

WHAT: Outdoor Kitchens & Grills

WHERE: 15355 Amberly Drive

WHEN: Open from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Saturday, 1 to 5 p.m. Sunday

INFORMATION: Call (813) 971-4121 or visit www. allaboutgrills-NT.com.

Reporter Laura Kinsler can be reached at (813) 865-4844 or lkinsler@tampatrib.com.

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