Ready, Set, Grill: Prep Your BBQ For Spring In New Rochelle

NEW ROCHELLE, NY — As dwellers of the Northeast, many of us have that friend who uses their grill year round; in rain, snow or shine, and in sweltering hot or subfreezing cold temperatures. In fact, according to local expert Anthony “The Barbeque Guy” Drago of Stormville, more grills are sold in our region of the United States than anywhere else, and one in four grill owners in the Northeast barbecue through all four seasons.

For the other 75 percent of grill owners, however – the ones who tend to only think about barbecuing on a nice day, during certain seasons, or even just for certain holidays or occasions – it can be hard to tell when it’s appropriate to start thinking about prepping their units.

“Three out of four don’t even up the grill until warm weather comes,” said Drago, who’s been providing grill cleaning, service and repair throughout Westchester, Putnam and Dutchess counties for 35 years. “It’s the onset of warm weather that gets people thinking they need to get their barbecue ready.”

Drago said his phone starts ringing steadily as soon as the first nice day of the year arrives. But thinking about getting your grill ready now, while there’s still some snow on the ground and winter weather in the forecast, ensures you’ll be ready when that nice day finally comes.

The chief reason to keep your grill clean is safety, said Drago, with the biggest hazard being grease that drips down and sits in the bottom of the barbecue. Grease buildup can be particularly risky if you’re the type to fire up the grill and walk away to let it warm, since it can ignite and fully engulf the grill in flames in a matter of minutes.

Drago said he receives calls of this nature at least every couple of years, “where people say things like, ‘My grill totally erupted in flames,’ or the exaggerated one, ‘My grill blew up.’”

Moving upstairs from the undercarriage to the cooking grates, Drago said the best time to brush the grates on the grill is when it’s still warm. Unfortunately, folks rarely report taking such action since they generally want to take their food off the grill and dig in without having to worry about immediately cleaning. In fact, many grill users report seldom if ever cleaning their cooking grates.

Not only does having a clean grill decrease the chance of grease igniting, but Drago said a second good reason to clean your grill would be cosmetic and even olfactory in nature.

“If you’re entertaining people and you have everybody standing around the barbecue, the last thing you want to do is open the lid and see chunks of meat, or a piece of chicken, or have it smell like fish,” said Drago.

Image via Getty Images/News/Justin Sullivan