Camping and grilling go together like hamburgers and French fries. Grilled meals are the hearty All-American fare of which great summer memories are made.
For our 4th of July meal, my wife and I will likely cook a couple of lean steak & veggie kebabs, which are somehow both healthy and delicious. Of course, if someone slips me a bacon cheeseburger I won’t complain. (Just please don’t tell my wife.)
Sadly, most campground grills leave much to be desired. Either they are falling apart from neglect, or they are massive devices apparently designed by Cro-Magnons for roasting rhinoceros.
Enter the Weber Q100 “Baby Q” Grill. This is an excellent travel-sized, propane-powered grill. It works so well, you may find yourself using it at home as your primary barbecue grill of choice. My wife and I have owned our Q100 for more than six years and it’s still going strong. The Weber is built mostly of solid cast aluminum, so it won’t rust. It’s thick and sturdy, so it won’t fall apart.
The Weber Q100 “BabyQ” Grill is a small grill that packs plenty of cooking punch. (Click the pic for more info.)
It has a substantial 189 square inch cooking surface, so when cooking for 2-4 people you won’t run out of room. It not only gets hot fast, it gets hot evenly (which is more than I can say for the relatively expensive Hyundai-sized grill at our house). The Baby Q imparts superb sear marks on steaks and other meat.
The Baby Q is an ideal size for camping and tailgating. It would literally fit on a pickup truck tailgate. We usually place ours on a picnic table, if our campsite is equipped with one.
Dinner’s on the grill. (And the grill’s on the picnic table!)
There’s an optional canvas cover that fits the grill like a glove. Weber makes other covers (including some that fit the various storage carts). My wife and I have a rolling storage duffel bag – which is an excellent product, but unfortunately it’s no longer available.
We either haul our grill in the bed of our pickup truck SEEMORE, or in the back seat. It fits well in either place.
Build quality is high. In an era of cheaply made plastic products, the Weber is built like a cast aluminum tank. Properly maintained, it will last many seasons of grilling.
The design is downright curvaceous and attractive. It’s also functional, with a built-in removable drip pan that collects most of the mess. This makes clean up a cinch. Weber sells extra drip pans in packs of 10.
Note that Weber makes an upgraded model that costs about $20 more. The Weber Q120 includes a built-in temperature thermometer and fold out side work tables. Are those features worth an extra $20? Maybe. I must concede that the thermometer would be a handy addition to the grill. But we’ve been very happy with our basic Q100.
If you want to do like Bob Dylan and go electric, Weber even make a Q140 electric grill. I could certainly see some advantages to this approach. In our case, we’d simply fire up the generator and toss our dinner on the grill.
Weber also makes a solid storage cart for the Q series of grills that makes the portable grill a stationary one. This is actually a brilliant idea. When you are not camping, you can simply store your grill in the cart and use it as your primary grill at home. If you are grilling for 2-4 people, why not?
Weber makes a number of optional accessories for these grills, including a propane hose adapter kit. The kit will allow you to use any propane tank, not just cute little green ones. If you like, you can attach your grill to your RV propane supply.
We’ve owned our Weber Q100 Baby Q for many years and it’s still a fantastic little grill. Highly recommended.