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Photograph by Steve Barker

Cookouts and cars go pretty well together, a fact that hasn’t escaped custom grill maker Steve Barker. The former kitchen and bath renovator extended his love of muscle cars beyond souping up ’ 55 Chevys in his spare time. He made BBQ history a couple of years ago when he tricked out the grill in his backyard to resemble a hot rod engine, attaching exhaust pipes to release smoke. Now, he’s moved on to more pressing matters — a newspaper dispenser that serves steak instead of headlines.

The muscle car grill became such a conversation piece that Barker decided to build a BBQ business. Today, his cookers start at $1,300. In addition to the headers, he also welds diamond-plate shelves onto homemade stainless steel grill boxes, and uses Wysco pistons as control knobs. A shifter handle opens the lid, and each grill is mounted on an engine stand so that it swivels. Barker even customizes the grilling surface so racing fans can brand the name of their favorite engine (a Hemi, say) onto a strip steak.

The clever grills eventually caught the atten-

tion of a newspaper publisher in North Carolina. Instead of a hot rod, the client craved a grill made from an old newspaper box. Barker gutted, sandblasted, and powder coated a dilapidated vending machine, then installed a burner, an igniter, and a porcelain-coated grill. He also cut out the back to fit a propane tank and set the thing on wheels. “It came out perfectly,” says Barker. “I even cooked a couple of hot dogs on it before I sent it out, just to test it.”

But Barker’s pièce de résistance might just be a BBQ he’s assembling in the form of a baby grand piano. Five feet wide and 6 feet long, the lid opens into a dining table. Inside is a storage area, a refrigerator, even an icemaker. When he finishes the masterpiece, Barker intends to leave his native Ohio for Florida … where you can grill all year long.

—Megan Mansell Williams

>> Steve Barker’s Grills: musclecarbbqgrills.com

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