Hindquarter Chef-Owner Launches Line of Hanksville Grills

Ian Wyatt and Luke Stone of Hanksville Grills Credit: Courtesy of Katie Palatucci

The Hindquarter team has cooked wood-fired feasts for hundreds of catered events around Vermont. Now, chef-owner Luke Stone has taken his grill game a step further: He’s selling them.

After a decade of wedding attendees asking where they could purchase one of the five-foot steel grills on which the Hindquarter team cooks, Stone and his friend and cofounder Ian Wyatt officially launched Hanksville Grills at the beginning of August. The Hanksville OG sells at hanksvillegrills.com for $1,499, with free local pickup or nationwide shipping for $199.

At 95 pounds and three feet in diameter, the Hanksville OG is a scaled-down version of the Hindquarter’s “workhorses,” made with the same steel, Stone said. Several new safety features — including four legs for stability and stoppers that prevent grates from swinging all the way off — make the grills suitable for backyard use.

Cooking on a Hanksville OG grill Credit: Courtesy of Katie Palatucci

Cooking over a wood fire takes longer, acknowledged Wyatt, an avid home cook and owner of Wyatt Investment Research in Richmond. “But it’s more about the activity and the memories than getting food on the table as quickly as possible,” he said.

Developing Hanksville Grills took time, too — three years of discussions between Stone and Wyatt, then roughly a year of searching for the right welder. For their first run of 40 grills, they’re using a Montpelier welder and a midsize welding company outside Montréal. The Canadian-produced grills are made with American steel and hence unaffected by tariffs, Wyatt said — a “last-minute surprise,” as they were expecting tariffs of up to 50 percent.

Five grills sold in the first week and a half, Stone said. He and Wyatt are currently tweaking their cross-country shipping packaging and developing further attachments, including a flat-top griddle and a spit for roasting chickens.

The accessories are “to keep you going and getting creative with what you’re cooking,” Stone said, whether it’s farmers market vegetables or pans of paella.