HEARTH ARRAYS-CUSTOM GRILLS
Sometimes production equipment just isn’t ambitious enough for a project or chef with fiery dreams. In those cases we tackle hearth and equipment designs from an artist’s point of view. Function and form are at par in this category, as we create the custom array to key on the concept the customer has in mind. Nothing is stock, and nothing is repeated exactly the same way. Your build will be completely yours.
“I’m very much a control freak, so it’s unusual for me to let someone just run with something so important. Trusting the hearth to Ben and Grillworks was the best decision I could’ve made.”
- CHEF JEREMIAH LANGHORNE, THE DABNEY
We will help with every facet of your wood-fired dream.
When you engage us to build a hearth array, more than with any other type of live-fire project, you are getting our decades of hands-on experience not only in designing and building the equipment, but in navigating all the challenges of building a restaurant around the experience, be that advising on clearances, best practices or helping your team of professionals understand what to expect, plan for, and of course, avoid.
Our Process
Bring us the space available and the aesthetic it will become. We’ll take cues from this and put together a proposal that covers both the capabilities required by the kitchen and the look desired by the team. We want you and your customers to be thrilled with the outcome, and we will support the array and your culinary team for the long term.
Our Customers
We’re very fortunate to be trusted by Michelin-starred restaurants to build or, even more critically, redesign their hearth systems. These are concepts that depend on the live-fire element to complete the menu and the environment that brings customers back both for the food and the room.
Projects of Note
The Dabney
Jeremiah Langhorne’s first restaurant has won accolades from Michelin, the James Beard Foundation, and been named the Washington DC’s number one restaurant by The Washingtonian.The Dabney’s concept highlights Mid-Atlantic cuisine, and is firmly celebrating Americana.
Stemming from the food and where it comes from, we decided that all the decorative elements possible should be sourced from the salvage yards in the iron belt of Pennsylvania, using true Americana metal that adorned historic buildings and machines to match his restaurant vision’s.
East Coast Iron Resurrected
The coal-producing box is created from one-hundred-year-old cast iron, in a past life likely the statement piece of a huge furnace. Its face bears a lion head, which hinges out to show the inferno burning inside. Spreading out from this central fire, the cooking stations are emblazoned with decorative elements borrowed from more cast iron rescued from different artifacts of about the same age. Underpinning all the vintage metal is heavy stainless steel, ensuring that the workhorses of the hearth last many years.
Maydan
Washington DC’s Maydan was a pioneer in the nation’s capital for first placing the cooking fire in the center of their room. Every customer walks by the action on the way to their seat, whether on the main floor or the upper deck. The hearth is in view from practically every corner of the restaurant.
Maydan Inspiration: The Hagia Sophia
Maydan’s concept is middle eastern fusion. Their menu is Lebanese, Turkish, Syrian, Israeli and borrows from practically every culture that calls the region home.
For this reason we chose the metal work found inside the most-famously-shared structure in Istanbul - The Hagia Sophia - as the inspiration for the build. This spectacular temple has been precious to Christians, Muslims and the secular, having served as church, museum and mosque (as it is today). The central fire cage shares its design with the wrap-around decorative railings seen by anyone visiting the mosque. In turn, the cooking stations that radiate outward share details that key off the cage.
Are you ready to start the discussion? Even if you’re early in your ideas, we love hearing your thinking and can help in many ways, given our very specialized experience in this area, whether it be what type of cooking pieces should be included, or how to make things proceed smoothly with your local authorities and ventilation/suppression experts.
Call us at 855-434-3473 to chat, or fill out the form below to ask any question you wish!
Michelin-Starred Albi in Washington DC
Imagination fired?
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