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Virco Grill

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    This is the place where I will share all of my success (and failures) with my new Virco grill. So far no failures, just interesting experiments :-) & lots of success! If anyone has anything they would like me to add, just email it to me with pics/text and I will make a page for it here on my web site and put a link to it. I will also accept recipes and put them here. Eventually, this might grow into it's own web site with tips, tricks, hints, or anything else that anyone wants to add about BBQing or grilling. I say grilling because there are a great many purists out there who firmly believe that TRUE BBQ is only done over lump coal/wood fires and slow cooked, and that anything cooked over gas could, in no way be real BBQ. In some ways I agree, since I was brought up in Texas, I have had a lot of "True" BBQ. I even have a second unit, the "Brinkman Smoke n' Pit Professional". It still has many good uses. Eventually, I might even make a discussion web and integrate it into this site. If it gets that big, I will host it under it's own domain, but time will tell. For now, I will just build it under my other web site and see how it goes.

    Ok, on with my story. I had gone to Sam's club back in April 2002 because they had just opened a new one down the street and had sent out mailers to everyone around here to come in and shop "membership free" for a day. Being a Costco member for a few years now, I decided to go check it out. As soon as I walked into the store, there it was, the Member's Mark SS grill! I wasn't even in the market for a BBQ, but my wife & I had talked about upgrading our old budget Sunbeam gas grill for some time. It was a "hand-me-down" from a neighbor, and after $35.00 and a cleaning, it was good as new, (well, as good as a grill like that can be). It had served us well for a couple of years and did a fine job for those quick meals when you don't have time to fire up the Brinkman. Anyways, back to the MM. I probably spent a good 30 minutes checkin' this thing out while my wife looked around. I was pretty impressed with all of the features that it seemed to have, especially for the money, $599. So the gears started turning.

    Now I am the type of person that usually checks things out quite thoroughly before making a large purchase like this. I hate to buy something like this that I know is going to last a while and then 2 weeks or a month later I find something else that I should have gotten instead. That really irritates me! So, I didn't want this to be one of those cases. I decided to do some research and check out the manufacturer of this grill as well as compare it too others. Well, the comparing part was easy, I could not find another grill that even had equal features for less than $1500.00 to $2000.00 so I was pretty impressed with that. So on to checking out the company. I discovered that it was built by a company called "Grand Hall" (never heard of them). Next, went to work on the web to find that they are a Chinese based manufacturer who builds & imports these grills to specific specs for certain companies. Sam's has the Member's Mark, Sears has their Elite series grill made by them, they market their own line of grills called "Grand Cafe", and as of this writing, I was at Shopko today, (a local retailer like Target) and I noticed a new grill by CharBroil called the commercial series. I didn't look behind it on the plate, but I noticed the regulator and it said "Grand Hall" on it. So I think they are expanding there market some more. It was for about $499.00 and had some stainless on the hood and a little on the cart but everything else was porcelain or steel. But at the time I did the initial research, this grill did not exist (I think). None the less I felt that the company was probably fairly reputable and thought they would be around for a while. Then, I found that wonderful forum on http://ths.gardenweb.com/forums Wow!! what a wealth of information I found there! I learned about the wonderful customer service that Grand Hall had and how quickly they took care of all those customers who had problems with their casters, igniter buttons and what ever they needed. I even found a link to a guy's web site that had bought a MM and detailed with photos his unit and some of the problems and fixes he had for it. 

    I must pay him credit, thank you Alek for the excellent info on your MM http://www.komar.org/bbq/ Alek was also kind enough to find a Virco in the back at a local Costco in Colorado and the guys there let him go back, look at it and take some photos of it http://www.komar.org/bbq/virco/  It was at this point that I realized I might want to check this thing out. But, try as I might, I could not locate one at any of the three local Costco stores here in Salt Lake. All they had was a Kirkland unit for $749 which was far inferior to the MM at Sam's. I continued to attempt to find out more about this unit and tried to learn all that I could from everyone on this great forum at Garden Web. I even ran across a "Certified Grill Expert" who was convinced that the MM was a better value than the $799 Virco. Well, without being able to see a Virco I had pretty much made my mind up on the MM. This was the third week in May. I had all but decided I was going that Friday to get a MM from Sam's. Then, just for grins I decided to call my local Costco again. This time I talked to a manager who was able to help me a little further. He explained to me that the Virco was considered a "new" item for the stores in Salt Lake and that they were expecting their first shipment in around the 10th of June. That was great! Except that I really wanted a new grill by Memorial Day. He was nice enough to check his computer and found that there were four units at the St. George Costco, but this was a little over 300 miles away! It turns out that the store in St. George is serviced by the depot in San Diego while the three stores here in Salt Lake are serviced by the depot in Seattle. I didn't want to drive all that way just to look at a grill that I might not like. So, I did more research. I found that the company Virco had actually been around for quite some time. They had just recently got into the BBQ market but had been in business successfully for about 20 years. I was starting to re-think my commitment to the MM.

    I did some more reading on the forums and found that people who had problems with the Virco had gotten equally excellent customer service from Virco. The only difference was that the problems with the Virco seemed to be considerably less and they weren't the same problems such as casters or igniters common with almost every unit. They were simple things like a cracked knob or something much less related to quality issues. I started to think that the Virco might be a better deal. So, I started comparing items between the grills directly. Here is what I found:

    These are just the main differences I found. There is probably others. If I missed some important ones, please let me know. Now, as I said earlier I just would not be able to live with myself if I had bought the wrong grill, but I could not "See, touch or feel" the Virco. I think it is a guy thing? I finally decided that with all of the good I had read about the Virco I felt it was well worth the extra $200. So, I found another local guy here in Salt Lake on the forum at Garden Web and he too was having the same dilemma. So I decided to just "Go For It". I called the manager at the store the next day (Tuesday) and asked him if he would put one of these grills on hold for me and if he could get me the dimensions of the box. He said he would and gave me the dims and the weight at 400 pounds! I could not believe it. Turns out they weigh only about 200. I got hold of the other guy locally here and told him (privately of course) that I was going down to St. George that Friday to get one and wanted to know if he wanted me to bring back one for him? To use his words, he said "I am all over it!" So, I called back the manager asked him to put two on hold instead of one. He was happy to do this. That was Wednesday and he still had four units including the floor model. The next day, Thursday, I talked to the other Virco hungry guy and everything was still a go. I called Costco that night just to make sure that they hadn't found out about these grills being so hard to come by and sold them to the highest bidder! But, another store manager assured me that they were still there. But now the other two were gone! So, I hit the road early Friday morning, met the other guy in need of BBQ nirvana, got his check and was on my way. About 6 p.m. that night I was back at his house delivering a new BBQ to him. His name on the forum is Delray, you might have seen some posts from him. Here is a couple of pics of the BBQ's and us.

    Finally, about 7 that night I had my grill in it's final resting place in my back yard. I will post some pics of it later in it's happy new spot. Me and Delray were the proud owners of the first two Virco grills in the Salt Lake Valley. From what I understand all three stores in Salt Lake got a few of these units in on the 10th, but are now all gone and they are not sure when they are going to get some more in.

    I now know that I made the right decision. I have been back to Sam's several times since and still pass by the MM every time I go in there. I feel better about my decision every time! They do, however have a larger one that is a real beauty. But it is $1500! It is REAL nice but I didn't see that much more of a value there. At least not to me. Maybe next time when my Virco wears out in about 50 years!

    Well, when I first got it going that Saturday on Memorial weekend I fired up some nice fatty burgers to get this thing well seasoned in a hurry. Cooked those up with some hot dogs. Fed those to the dogs so I could save my appetite for the country style pork ribs! Those things have a lot of fat in them to season the grill too. The next day I did some chicken breast. Memorial Day we rotisseried a couple of chickens. Since then we have cooked more chicken, rib eyes, porterhouse, New York strips, lobster and sirloin. Everything turned out perfect and juicy. The longer that I use it, the better it cooks. I see a lot of people fussing over cleaning their BBQ. I am not sure that I understand that really, except for the grates themselves and the exterior. In my own experience I have noticed that the cleaner or (newer) a grill is, the less flavor it seems to have. All I do when I am ready to cook is turn all the burners on high for about 5-10 minutes them brush the grates clean. The drippings on the SS plates and the residue everywhere else just adds flavor. Besides that, any bacteria is destroyed under fire. I will include some pics later of the inside of my grill and the outside of it on my patio. It looks like night and day, but man the food sure does taste good off of this thing! I have done some experimenting with a couple of smoker boxes over the left burner, but it is kind of late now so I will add that chapter next time. Until then send me some recipes or your experiences and I will post them here. Happy Grilling.

BSBBQ

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