How We Ended Up Owning a 700kg BBQ

People often ask us how Ballinluig BBQ Nights began. The truth is, it all started with one very large impulse purchase…

One day, Mike came across a BBQ for sale online at BM Grills and Smokers, in Peterborough. At the time, he didn’t really have a plan for what he was going to do with it—he just knew he wanted it.

I never thought to ask one important question…

“How big is it?”

That question was answered the day he arrived home with it on a trailer.

What rolled onto our driveway wasn’t just a BBQ. It was an enormous 145-gallon offset reverse flow smoker weighing an incredible 700kg—about the same weight as my last car!

The day Mike tried to move it himself and got stuck

At that point, there was no restaurant, no business plan and no grand vision. Just a giant smoker and a Mike who was very determined to learn how to use it and therefore justify his purchase. 

For just over a year he experimented with different meats, different woods, different temperatures and different cooking techniques. Friends and family became willing (and very well-fed) taste testers as we worked our way through what felt like an endless supply of brisket.

Thankfully, they never seemed to complain!

Along the way, we fell in love with the process of low-and-slow cooking.

The smoker is an offset reverse flow smoker, which means the heat and smoke are channelled underneath a steel plate before circulating back over the food and out through the chimney.

This reverse flow design creates incredibly even cooking temperatures across the whole chamber while allowing the meat to bathe in clean, gentle smoke for hours. The result is beautifully tender meat with a deep smoky flavour and that unmistakable barbecue bark we all love.

As our confidence grew, so did the idea.

What if we shared this with other people?

That simple question eventually became Ballinluig BBQ Nights.

Today, the smoker is at the heart of everything we do. It quietly works away for up to 14 hours, transforming brisket, ribs and pork into the dishes we proudly serve every Saturday night.

Looking back, buying that smoker without a real plan might have seemed a little crazy.

But sometimes the best adventures begin with saying “yes” first and figuring out the rest later.

And we’re very glad we did - most of the time.