General

Vieluxe: The Weber Luxury Grill You’ve Probably Never Heard Of

Background

In 2001, grilling was more popular than ever. According to the Barbecue Industry Association, over 15 million grills were sold in America the previous year, up 32% from 1997. About 75% of households owned a grill, and over 50% used them all year long. The most popular book at the time was How to Grill by Steven Raichlen.

The Dot Com Bubble had burst in 1999 and the Housing Bubble was just starting to build in 2001. Homeowners were upgrading their kitchens with high-end commercial appliances. Appliance manufacturers like Viking and Jenn-Air started bringing expensive luxury gas grills to market around this time.

How did Weber respond? By creating an entirely new brand called Vieluxe. Vieluxe luxury grills were available in 44″ and 56″ models with suggested retail prices of $6,000 and $8,000 respectively. And quite noticeably, they did not carry the Weber name or logo.

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Vieluxe: The Luxury of Life

The brand name Vieluxe was a combination of the French words “Vie” meaning life and “Luxe” meaning luxury. The tagline “The Luxury of Life” and the theme of luxury were prominent in the advertising of these grills. Brochures featured images of beautiful people in beautiful places enjoying the good life with Vieluxe.

Sometimes the best restaurant to meet at isn't a restaurant at all
“Sometimes the best restaurant to meet at isn’t a restaurant at all.”

In a 2003 Weber press release, Vieluxe Brand Manager Shaun Chinsky said, “Vieluxe grills are painstakingly handmade using only the finest materials. From the welder’s arc to the polisher’s cloth, no detail is overlooked.” In a 2004 interview with GenieKnows.com, Chinsky was quoted as saying that Vieluxe “is like our Lexus”.

All day long you sit at the computer, sit in meetings, sit on a plane. When was the last time you got to just sit and talk?
“All day long you sit at the computer, sit in meetings, sit on a plane. When was the last time you got to just sit and talk?”

Vieluxe Features & Specs

Showcase_Vieluxe_Features

Vieluxe grills were built to the highest standards of quality, featuring a welded chassis of 16-gauge stainless steel 304 tubing.  They included a commercial-grade thermometer in the hood, heavy-duty 3/8″ welded stainless steel rod cooking grates, stainless steel Flavorizer bars, a rotisserie with infrared burner, a fold-away warming rack, and a funnel-shaped drip pan that directed drippings into a Teflon-coated catch pan for easy cleaning.

At a time when other Weber gas grills had the propane tank hanging on the outside of the grill, Vieluxe hid the tank inside a cabinet with “swing-out easy-change tank support”. Vieluxe was the first grill made by Weber to use continuous-spark electronic igniters powered by AA batteries.

Two unique patented features included a stainless steel work surface that “glides open on a steel rail and ball bearing assembly” to reveal two 14,000 BTU side burners and the Integrated Smoker System “with ported flues that disperse wood smoke evenly across the cooking surface, powered by a dedicated 8,000 BTU/hour burner.”

Vieluxe 360201 44″ Specifications
  • Dimensions: 65″ W x 33″ D x 50″ H
  • Weight: 370 lbs.
  • Cooking surface: 432 sq. in.
  • Warming rack: 117 sq. in., expandable to 247 sq. in.
  • 4 primary burners 50,000 total BTU/hr (12,500 BTU each)
  • Smoker burner: 8,000 BTU/hr
  • Infrared rotisserie burner: 10,000 BTU/hr
  • 2 side burners: 14,000 BTU/hr each burner
  • Rotisserie: 2 spit forks
Vieluxe 370201 56″ Specifications
  • Dimensions: 77″ W x 33″ D x 50″ H
  • Weight: 440 lbs.
  • Cooking surface: 648 sq. in.
  • Warming rack: 171 sq. in., expandable to 361 sq. in.
  • 6 primary burners 75,000 total BTU/hr (12,500 BTU each)
  • Smoker burner: 8,000 BTU/hr
  • Infrared rotisserie burner: 15,000 BTU/hr
  • 2 side burners: 14,000 BTU/hr each burner
  • Rotisserie: 4 spit forks

Ownership Is More Like Membership

Grill owners were entitled to the Vieluxe Concierge personal service program consisting of:

  • Complimentary Spring grill tune-up for the first 3 years.
  • Dedicated 24-hour customer care line to answer grilling questions.
  • Limited lifetime warranty.

As the brochure said, “With Vieluxe, ownership is more like membership.”

Luxury Hits The Chopping Block

Vieluxe grills were sold from 2001-2005 and then discontinued, presumably due to poor sales.

In 2006, a Weber insider told The Virtual Weber Bulletin Board that the key factor to the demise of Vieluxe was the high cost of hand fabrication. In 2005, Weber Summit Platinum stainless steel grills could be manufactured using the same tooling as the Summit Gold but at a fraction of the cost of Vieluxe. Not that these were comparable grills in any way, but time shows us that people voted with their wallets. Weber Summit grills are still with us today and Vieluxe is but a distant memory.

Vieluxe Brochure

It’s too late to buy a new Vieluxe grill and it’s unlikely you’ll ever find one used. But you can still enjoy its luxurious brochure. Here’s to champagne wishes and caviar dreams!

Download Vieluxe Brochure (PDF)

Viewing the brochure requires Adobe Reader.

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Special thanks to Mike Lang of AnotherPintPlease.com for tweeting recently about cooking on an old Vieluxe. His tweet reminded me of the existence of this old grill and inspired this blog post.

Clean, Maintain & Repair

All About Flavorizer Bars

One of the reasons that Weber gas grills work so well is because of a feature called Flavorizer bars. These are the inverted v-shaped pieces of steel that sit below the cooking grates and above the burner tubes.

Flavorizer bars serve four purposes:

  1. Prevent Flare-ups: Flavorizer bars quickly vaporize some of the grease that drips off the meat and sheds any excess into a drip pan below the bars. Lava rocks or other media allow grease to pool and flare-up.
  2. Even Heat Distribution: Flavorizer bars create even heating throughout the firebox.
  3. Protect The Burner Tubes: Flavorizer bars prevent debris from clogging the burner tube ports.
  4. Flavor & Aroma: The vaporized grease from Flavorizer bars adds to the aroma and flavor of grilled meats.

Types of Flavorizer Bars

Weber grills use two types of Flavorizer bars. Least expensive are porcelain enameled steel. Most expensive are 18-gauge stainless steel. Stainless steel Flavorizer bars are more expensive and will last longer, but both types will last a very long time.

Despite what you might assume, stainless steel Flavorizer bars are not rust-free. The marinades, salts, acids and high temperatures they are exposed to will cause rust to develop over time.

Cleaning

To clean the Flavorizer bars, start by burning off the grill at HIGH temperature for 15 minutes. This will turn most accumulated debris into ash. If you have cast iron grill grates, remove them before burning off the grill, otherwise you will burn the seasoning off the grates.

After 15 minutes, turn the grill off and let cool. Remove the bars and brush off any debris with a grill brush. A wide putty knife can also be used to scrape tough residue off the bars. Take this opportunity to clean the burner tubes, the inside of the firebox, and the drip pan.

Replace all the parts and your grill is ready to go. You may consider changing the order of the Flavorizer bars if you notice some wearing faster than others.

Flavorizer bars can be washed in hot, soapy water and scrubbed with SOS steel wool pads, but the burn-off method is easier. Weber says that citrus-based dish soaps should not be used.

Weber does not recommend using the dishwasher, oven cleaners, or a self-cleaning oven to clean Flavorizer bars.

When To Replace

Flavorizer bars do not need to be replaced until they rust through or burn through.

Know Your Model

To get the right set of replacement Flavorizer bars, make sure to know your grill’s model name and number. The dimensions of the bars and the number of bars (5, 7, 8, 11 or 13) will vary depending on the model.

Warranty

Weber warrants porcelain enameled Flavorizer bars for 2 years and stainless steel Flavorizer bars for 5 years against rust through or burn through. Both tend to last several years longer than their warranties, depending on how often you grill.

Where To Buy

You can purchase original replacement Flavorizer bars at Amazon.com or other online retailers. They can also be purchased by calling Weber Customer Service at 800-446-1071.

There are also aftermarket sellers of replacement Flavorizer bars using heavier 16-gauge stainless steel available at Amazon.com.

Recipes

Grilled Eggplant

Eggplant grilled with SYD All-Purpose Rub
Eggplant grilled with SYD All-Purpose Rub

My wife Julie likes to make grilled eggplant. Grilling makes this bland veggie taste great and the process couldn’t be easier.

Pre-heat the grill on HIGH for 10 minutes, then brush the grates clean and reduce the temp to MEDIUM.

Cut the eggplant into 3/4″ slices. Brush with olive oil and season with salt & pepper or SYD All-Purpose Rub. Grill 2-3 minutes per side until you get some browning and nice grill marks.

Enjoy grilled eggplant by itself, as a side to grilled meats, or as an ingredient in other dishes like an orzo with grilled vegetable salad.

Restore

Cleaning Inside The Firebox

A couple of weeks ago we discussed repainting the outside of the firebox to restore it like new. It’s also possible to clean the inside of the firebox as part of a restoration project.

Assuming that you give your grill a thorough cleaning once or twice a year, there’s little you need to do to maintain the inside of your gas grill firebox. Just brush any loose material with a stiff bristle brush or scrape it with a putty knife and you’re good to go. But if you’re restoring an old, abused grill, you might want to do a deep cleaning.

Enter an angle grinder and a cup wire brush. That’s what TVWBB member AnthonyJ used when restoring the Weber Genesis Silver C shown in these photos.

Anthony removed all the parts inside the firebox and removed the firebox from the frame before cleaning the interior with that powerful wire brush.
Anthony removed all the parts inside the firebox and removed the firebox from the frame before cleaning the interior with that powerful wire brush.
This photo shows the firebox back on the grill frame, with burner tubes, igniters, and stainless steel Flavorizer bars going back into the firebox.
This photo shows the firebox back on the grill frame, with burner tubes, igniters, and stainless steel Flavorizer bars going back into the firebox.
New stainless steel grill grates complete the restoration.
New stainless steel grill grates complete the restoration.
All internal parts installed.
All internal parts installed.
Weber Genesis Silver C ready to go back into service for years to come.
Weber Genesis Silver C ready to go back into service for years to come.

Anthony spent $60 buying this grill and then replaced the following parts during the restoration:

  • Flavorizer bars
  • Burner tubes
  • Cooking grates
  • Caster wheels
  • Igniters
  • Misc screws
  • Plastic Hinge for the side burner cover

You can read more about Anthony’s restoration on The Virtual Weber Bulletin Board.

General

TVWGG Hot Dog Taste-Off: Final Results & Wrap-Up

Welcome to the TVWGG Hot Dog Taste-Off!

hotdogcollage

We’ve tasted all the hot dogs we’re going to taste for 2014…five divisions covering 16 all-beef dogs. If you’ve missed any of our taste tests, you can go back to the first installment for details on how we selected and judged the hot dogs and read details from each division taste-off.

Last time, Kirkland Signature beat Bar-S and Armour to take the win in the fifth and final Stray Dog Division. To wrap-up the taste-off, let’s summarize the results across all of the hot dogs we tasted and provide some closing comments.

Overall Results

Brand Price Weighted Score
Oscar Mayer $2.98 66.8572
Ball Park Deli Style $3.99 65.7372
Farmer John $3.64 64.5828
Open Nature Uncured $4.99 63.4172
Nathan’s Famous $2.98 62.88
Oscar Mayer Selects Angus Uncured $3.98 62.8572
Applegate The Great Organic Uncured $8.69 61.7028
Ball Park Angus $3.98 61.68
Kirkland Signature $10.99 61.12
Hebrew National $2.98 60.5828
Ball Park $2.98 58.2856
Bar-S $4.99 57.1428
Applegate The Great Organic Stadium $8.99 57.1428
Organic Prairie $8.99 52.5372
Armour $2.79 48.5372
Wellshire Organic $5.99 47.3828
Oscar Mayer Beef Franks
Oscar Mayer Beef Franks

It turns out that the basic Oscar Mayer beef frank is the big winner, scoring higher than all other hot dogs in the taste test. And at $2.98 a package, they were among the least expensive hot dogs in the pack.

Conclusions

Here’s what we learned from tasting these 16 varieties of tube steak.

  • There are a lot of decent all-beef hot dogs out there. While there were a few stand-outs and a few bad dogs, most were decent with above average or very good scores. Personally, having tasted all these hot dogs, I would stick to the ones with scores of 60 or higher.
  • Appearance before grilling is not a good predictor of a tasty hot dog. While this was not part of our judging criteria, it’s interesting to note that some of the hot dogs that looked great before grilling did not taste great after grilling, and some of the more pale hot dogs grilled up beautifully and tasted very good.
  • Price is not a good predictor of a tasty hot dog. Some of the highest-rated dogs in our taste tests were among the least expensive. This may have to do with mass production and high sales volume for popular brands like Oscar Mayer and Kirkland Signature that drives the price down for a good quality hot dog.
  • Uncured non-organic hot dogs taste good. We got good results from the two hot dogs tasted in the Almost Organic Division that were cured using the sodium nitrate that occurs naturally in celery juice or celery powder.
  • Organic hot dogs were not superior. Highest-scoring Applegate The Great Organic Uncured was an expensive hot dog that finished 7th overall in the rankings. If buying organic hot dogs, do so for reasons other than taste.
  • There are taste differences between varieties within the same brand. We tasted three varieties of Ball Park hot dogs—regular, Angus, and Deli Style—and there were discernible differences in taste. In the case of Ball Park, the more expensive Angus and Deli Style dogs proved better than the regular variety. In the case of Applegate, the Stadium variety did not taste as good as the regular variety. In the case of Oscar Mayer, the regular variety tasted better than the Selects Angus variety.
  • Condiments level the playing field. Eating hot dogs on buns with condiments was not part of the judging, but we ate a lot of them that way after testing. Many of the subtleties you taste when eating a hot dog plain are lost when you wrap it in bread and smother it with condiments.
  • We’re tired of eating hot dogs. After tasting so many dogs in five rounds of testing, we’re ready for a break.

Thank you for joining us on this hot dog journey! Special thanks to everyone that provided comments and suggestions for hot dogs we should test in the future. Hopefully we’ll get to your favorite in 2015. We’ll broaden the tasting criteria to include dogs in natural casings, big 1/4 pound dogs, and some of the seasoned franks coming to market these days.

Now go eat some hot dogs and enjoy the rest of your summer!

 All Taste Offs
Recipes

Skirt Steak: Part 1

Two Types Of Skirt Steak

Skirt steak comes in two varieties: outside and inside.

Outside skirt steak is the more desirable skirt steak cut. It’s the cut you should buy if you can find it. Outside skirt steak comes from the diaphragm. It’s said to be the cut of beef that started the fajita craze years ago. It’s got good flavor and tenderness, but can be hard to find because much of it is shipped overseas to consumers willing to pay top dollar for it.

Inside skirt steak comes from the transverse abdominal muscle. It is wider, thinner, and tougher than outside skirt steak.

How To Identify Outside Skirt Steak

Outside skirt steak tends to be longer and narrower than inside skirt steak…sometimes much longer. Here’s an example of a single piece of outside skirt steak. In the meat counter it’s folded neatly into a compact shape but unrolls into something like this:

Very long piece of inside skirt steak

The problem is that skirt steak is not always identified as “outside” or “inside” at the supermarket. Even the high-end market where I buy skirt steak doesn’t label theirs, as shown here:

Is this outside or inside skirt steak? There's no way to tell from the label.

So I asked the butcher what they were selling and he said it was outside skirt steak. I asked if I could see the case box label and he produced this:

Outside skirt steak case box label

So not only did I learn that this high-end market is selling real outside skirt steak, but it’s also USDA Choice or higher which makes this a very nice cut of meat.

Don’t be afraid to ask your butcher what he’s selling. If he’s on the up and up, he’ll be happy to produce the case box label.

Preparing Inside Skirt Steak

On this occasion I found a piece of inside skirt steak at a good quality supermarket. Inside skirt steak comes as a single, long piece of meat, though not as long as the outside version shown above.

I cut this skirt into three pieces so it was easier to work with and marinated it in Korean barbecue sauce. If you were making this for fajitas, you’d substitute an appropriate fajita or carne asada marinade.

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I grilled the meat at high temp on my Weber Summit 450 gas grill. All skirt steaks benefit from very intense heat, either on the grill or on cast iron. You want a good crust on the exterior and medium doneness. Any more or less done than medium and the meat is tough and chewy.

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After cooking, cover loosely with foil and let rest for just a couple of minutes before slicing the meat thin across the grain and on the bias.

Give Skirt Steak A Try!

If you ever see outside skirt steak at the supermarket, give it a try. It’s a real treat! Otherwise, inside skirt steak will do and it makes for a great meal, too!

General

Gas Grills Rule

img_2356-1024According to the Hearth, Patio & Barbecue Association, in 2013 the grill industry shipped nearly 14 million grills and smokers in North America.  That number breaks down as follows:

  • Total Gas Grill Shipments (58 percent of sales) – 8,053,000
  • Total Charcoal Grill Shipments (40 percent of sales) – 5,590,000
  • Total Electric Grill Shipments (2 percent of sales) – 302,000

Gas grills continue to dominate as the most popular type of grill sold!

Learn more about 2014 grilling trends from the Hearth, Patio & Barbecue Association.

General

TVWGG Hot Dog Taste-Off: Stray Dog Division

Welcome to the TVWGG Hot Dog Taste-Off!

This is the fifth and final round of our summer hot dog taste-off for 2014. If this is your first visit to the taste-off, make sure to read the first installment for details on how we’re selecting and judging the hot dogs.

Last time, Applegate The Great Organic Uncured beat three rivals quite easily in the Organic Division. This time, we taste three mutts that did not fit easily into our previous division contests.

The Stray Dog Division

The entries in this division include:

  • Bar-S (Sigma): $4.99
  • Armour (Armour-Eckrich): $2.79
  • Kirkland Signature (Costco): $10.99

Bar-S claims to be the #1 best-selling hot dog brand in America. The most popular varieties found in supermarkets in San Jose, California were chicken/pork/beef and chicken/pork, but we kept shopping and eventually found an all-beef variety for our taste test. At $4.99, it was a bit pricey compared to better-known brands like Oscar Mayer and Ball Park.

Armour is an iconic American brand, and those of a certain age will remember the famous jingle about Armour being “the dog kids love to bite”. We searched high and low for this dog and finally found it hiding in a Mexican supermarket. The hot dog itself was on the small side, weighing in at just 1.5 ounces. This is 1/2 ounce short of the 2 ounce criteria we established for hot dogs in the taste-off, but the judges granted a waiver to this classic dog so we could taste it in the competition. At $2.79, Armour was one of the less expensive dogs in the taste-off.

Finally, Kirkland Signature is a popular hot dog brand sold at Costco. Not to be confused with the 1/4 pound version sold in the food court, this is a standard length, 2 ounce hot dog that comes 12 to a package, 3 packages in a bundle. We had to buy 36 hot dogs just to taste 2 samples! However, at $10.99 for 72 ounces of meat, Kirkland Signature represents the best dollar value of all hot dogs in our taste-off.

(Note that in these photos, the hot dogs are always shown in the order listed above.)

The Stray Dog Division – Front view
The Stray Dog Division – Front view
The Stray Dog Division – Rear view
The Stray Dog Division – Rear view
The Stray Dog Division – Without packaging
The Stray Dog Division – Without packaging

The hot dogs were grilled together and served to the judges.

Grilling the hot dogs
Grilling the hot dogs

Once the hot dogs were grilled but not overly cooked, they were brought indoors and immediately judged on appearance, then sampled and judged on taste and tenderness/texture.

Hot dogs ready for judging
Hot dogs ready for judging

The Results

Kirkland Signature swept the warehouse floor with both of its rivals, beating Bar-S by 4 points and biting Armour by 12.6 points. With it’s sub-50 point score, Armour is sent to the doghouse as our second-lowest-scoring hot dog in all five rounds of taste testing.

Here are the weighted scores:

  • Bar-S: 57.1428
  • Armour: 48.5372
  • Kirkland Signature: 61.12
Judges’ Comment Cards
  • Bar-S: Pale color, above average taste, decent texture
  • Armour: Very good appearance, odd baloney-like taste, bland, too soft, virtually no texture
  • Kirkland Signature: Excellent color and sheen, good smoke and spice flavor, snappy texture, hard bits in sample for one judge

So Kirkland Signature wins big in our final round of the TVWGG Hot Dog Taste-Off! Next week we’ll summarize our findings across all 16 entries and offer some closing comments about the hot dogs we tasted.

All Taste Offs
Restore

Repainting The Firebox

Weber gas grills are notorious for flaking, peeling paint on the firebox. The gas grill warranty covers the paint for two years, which is about how long it takes to start flaking and peeling on your grill! But to be fair, the firebox does get very hot and paint is no match for those high temperatures.

So what to do? You repaint the exterior surface yourself. You do not repaint the interior. The process is pretty straight-forward.

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Start by using a wire brush to remove any loose paint. Hit the flaky spots with fine-grit sandpaper to make them ready for painting.

You don’t have to remove the firebox as shown here…this is part of a full-blown restoration. You can simply mask-off the surrounding surfaces with newspaper and masking tape and paint in place.

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Use flat black high-temp spray paint to repaint the firebox. Two thin coats of paint is usually better than one thick coat.

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Depending on your particular grill, you can even repaint the lid end caps using the same process.

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The results are pretty satisfying. A fresh coat of black paint will make your Weber gas grill look good as new. Just remember to save that leftover spray paint…because you’ll be repainting again two years from now.

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These photos are from a 1992 Genesis 1000 restoration by Bob U. You can see more photos of this restoration on The Virtual Weber Bulletin Board.

Recipes

The HotBurger

The HotBurger
The HotBurger

What do you do when you want to grill hamburgers and you don’t have any hamburger buns or sliced bread, but you do have leftover hot dog buns?

You make The HotBurger™. An elongated hamburger patty that fits perfectly on a toasted hot dog bun. Season with salt and pepper, top with ketchup and mustard and one of those Stacker pickle slices and you’re good to go. Cheese is optional.

That’s The HotBurger™. Ask for it by name at participating Weber gas grills near you!

Your best source for Weber gas grill information and discussion on the Web