Category: Barbeques

Barbeque Season is Upon Us

If you haven’t been using your gas barbecues all winter long, now is the time to get them ready for the summer.

Don’t wait until Memorial Day to find out that your grill isn’t working correctly.

Things can happen to them when they’re put away:

Valves can freeze, spiders nest in the gas lines and burners may need replacing.

Check your barbeques now or call us for our tune-up service.

Your investment in your barbecue won’t be lost if you maintain them properly.

We stock many different bbq parts and if we don’t have what you need, we can usually order it.

If you’re thinking about a new grill or smoker we carry natural gas, propane, infrared, pellet, clay smokers and even charcoal grills.

Summer is almost over

That doesn’t mean it’s the end of barbecuing, smoking or grilling season. Don’t put those backyard toys away!

You can still use them all winter long. In California, we do our backyard grilling and smoking all year long.

In fact as the summer ends, the weather cools off and outdoor cooking or eating is more desirable. The nights might even be chilly. Not to worry!

Wilshire Fireplace, Okells and Wilshire Tulanians Fireplace and Barbeque can help you with those chilly evening.

All seven stores from San Diego to Sherman Oaks sell patio heaters. We sell both wall mount gas heaters and wall mount electric heaters. Don’t have a wall to hang your heater? Not a problem because we also sell those stand up heaters that you see in all of the restaurants.

The stand up heaters are available in either natural gas (hook up to your house gas) or liquid propane which uses a refillable tank. It doesn’t stop there. The natural stand up heaters are available as portables or permanent mount.

All Wilshire Fireplace shops offer installation for the permanent mount stand up heaters or we can arrange to have the wall mount type of heater installed for you.

The brands we carry in gas heaters are Sunglo, Sunpak, Twin Eagle, Luxor and Patio Comfort. We also offer delivery and set up at all seven stores. In electric we carry the Twin Eagle and Infratech heaters. Whatever your need, Wilshire Fireplace Shops has it.

Now that you took the chill out of your backyard it’s back to the barbecues.

Wilshire Fireplace and Barbeque Shops sell both portable and built-in barbecues. We also sell smokers and The Big Green Egg so… Just because the summer is over doesn’t mean you can’t buy a new grill.

If you already have that barbecue of your dreams you should be maintaining it. Just like a car there is maintenance that needs to be done to your BBQs if you want to be able to use them for many years, protecting your investment. Those are your babies… take care of them!

Wilshire Fireplace Shops offers a service where we come to your home to service or repair your barbecue. We also service patio heaters!

If you are one of those who decide to put your grill away for the winter, now is the time to service it. You wouldn’t want to pull out your barbecue on Memorial Day for that first party of the summer only to remember that it needed a little repair, would you? Do it now. Have it ready and able when you decide to use it again.

Wilshire Fireplace and Barbecue Shops carry a lot of different barbecue parts for most of the different brands and models or we’ll order what is needed to repair your grills.

We have new grills, burners, knobs, heat diffusers, flavor grills, warming racks… whatever you need to make your barbecue almost new again.

Wilshire Fireplace and Barbecues Shops are located in San Diego, Encinitas, Costa Mesa, Beverly Hills and Pacific Palisades. In Hermosa Beach Wilshire is known as Okells Fireplace and Barbecue and in Sherman Oaks we’re Wilshire Tulanians Fireplace and Barbecue.

Barbecuing Hamburgers

Whether using gas grills or charcoal grills, hamburgers are always a hit.

You can give hamburgers a nice char with any of our infrared barbecues which include the brands Fire Magic, Lynx, Twin Eagles, American Outdoor Grill (AOG) and Solaire. Even Weber has a type of infrared system in their Summit line. Infrared cooking uses intense heat to char and seal in the juices of the meat.

You can achieve the same taste with infrared that you get with charcoal or hardwoods. People think you are tasting that good taste of charcoal but in reality it’s the searing that gives meats that charcoal taste.

With most of our barbecues, whether they are built-in or stand alone cart models you can get a portion of that grill dedicated to infrared cooking. That means if you buy a 3 burner grill from Twin Eagles, for instance you can get it with two standard burners and one dedicated infrared burner. The best of both worlds!

With Lynx grills, their infrared burner can also be used for lower temperatures because you can dial it down to between 200º and 250º for slower grilling. It’s designed that way where some of the other brands have only on and off.

Want to grill a burger? Start with the best meat. Whether you want to admit it or not, fat makes for the best tasting burger. Use ground beef that isn’t more than 80 – 85 percent lean. That means you are getting at least 15 to 20% fat in that ground beef.

Also make sure it is fresh. If you are using frozen ground beef ALWAYS make sure that it’s completely thawed before using it. You wouldn’t want to bite in to a raw burger no matter how rare you like it.

Don’t limit yourself to only salt and pepper when seasoning your burgers. Be creative. There are a lot of great barbecue rubs and seasonings out there or be creative and make your own. It’s easy!

Ground beef can harbor germs where a steak usually doesn’t. For that reason you should try to use an instant read thermometer to make sure that the center of the burger reaches the temperature of 155º. When you take a burger off of the cooking surface it continues to cook for a short time so let them rest before eating.

A neat trick for great burgers is to make a small indentation in the center of the pattie. That way they stay flat when grilling.

Make sure that your grill surface is hot before putting the meat on to the grill. Also oil the surface with any good cooking oil before adding the meat. A hot grill and the meat will release easier without sticking. Don’t start peaking either. Let the meat caramelize on the grill and it makes removing them simple.

Although you might like to do it, never press the burgers when they are cooking on the grill. This just presses out all the great juices. Leave them alone until done!

If some of the burgers get done before the others you can always move them up to the warming rack while the others get finished. A warming rack is not just for buns and vegetables.

Most of all enjoy your barbecues and experiment with all kinds of foods!

Enjoy!