Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader fancies himself pretty handy on the grill. His grill of choice for about 15 years now has been a Professional Char-Griller grill/smoker. (Here is the newest model of the one your Maximum Leader has used for the past 15 years and will highly recommend to you.)

Well, your Maximum Leader’s grill/smoker has served him very well over one and a half decades. But recently its fallen on some hard times. Sadly it has been left out a few times without a cover to suffer the elements. The ash catcher has completed fallen apart. Two of the cooking grates have been broken. (Your Maximum Leader will not say whom exactly broke them while attempting to “clean” them - but know that he’s looking at Mrs Villain right now…) And finally, the original paint has peeled off in a number of spots and the metal is rusting badly. (NB: your Maximum Leader has carefully sanded and repainted the spots with a high temperature resistant special grill paint, but the spots continue to peel and rust.)

Your Maximum Leader suggested to Mrs Villain that it might be time to buy a new grill/smoker. He figures he’d gotten his $99 worth out of the first one. Mrs Villain suggested that your Maximum Leader purchase a gas grill for the Villainschloss.

Well… This was something of a sore spot for your Maximum Leader. You see, he is an inveterate user of charcoal. He isn’t a gas grill type of guy. Grilling is something done over naturally created fire. And by definition when you smoke food (which your Maximum Leader does freqently) it must be using fire which produces heat and smoke.

Charcoal grilling isn’t for Mrs Villain. She doesn’t like the work involved. It annoys her that it takes 25-30 minutes to get coals ready to cook. It annoys her that heating is uneven. It annoys her that you have to watch for flame-ups. Basically, she loves the results, but can’t stand the process. This is to say she can’t stand the process if she has to do it herself. Most of the time, of course, she doesn’t even attempt to use the grill/smoker. It is the domain of your Maximum Leader.

That said, since Mrs Villain is home all summer (being a teacher and all) she likes to cook more over the summer. She would also like to grill more over the summer. But she doesn’t want to be a slave to your Maximum Leader’s schedule when it comes to eating dinner. So she wants a gas grill. One she feels she can control and use better and more often than a charcoal grill.

Well… Your Maximum Leader cannot ever forsee himself using a gas grill. It just isn’t him. But he loves his wife tremendously and wants her to be happy. He also doesn’t feel like coming home and grilling late into the evening during the summer. He also thinks it would be good for Mrs Villain to grill some on her own.

What to do? What to do?

Compromise of course.

The answer… A Professional Char-Griller Duo Model #5050 dual gas grill/smoker. Yes loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader got, what he hopes, is the best of both worlds. A gas grill (with side burner) for her; and a real charcoal grill/smoker for him. (Honestly, he might use both sides from time to time - and he can imagine that the side burner is really handy.)

You will get, from time to time, some updates on how the #5050 is working out. It will get used for the first time this coming weekend. Your Maximum Leader might need to smoke some bacon up since he is running low… He also plans on having some steaks on Saturday…

Carry on.