Big Green Egg and Gas Grill Table

I had the privilege of learning how to use a friend's "Big Green Egg" grill which is a Kamado-style grill- the beauty of the BGE is that it is simple, free from mechanical parts that can break, has a lifetime warranty, and you can grill, bake, smoke, and slow cook all kinds of great food over wood charcoal. They really are amazing, and everything I have made on mine tastes great.

Previously, I've owned several gas grills, and charcoal/Weber grills- which are great, but they don't last very long. A BGE is more expensive, but will last forever if you use it properly.

When my gas grill finally bit the dust, and I posted it for scrap on Craigslist (you'll never see an Egg for free on Craigslist, but you see hundreds of dead gas grills) I went to my local BGE distributor, and put down my money for my very own Egg! Woohoo!

I was super excited to have my own Egg at home, so of course I cooked on it right away, with Mabel there to supervise.

Now you can buy their tables, which are nice, but I wanted something custom, and something sturdier than what was for sale. And yeah, they want thousands of dollars for their brand-name tables. I was able to build mine for less than $200 and about a weekend of fun work-

I went to my local lumberyard (Menards) and found a piece of chipped granite, in their scratch & dent pile, for $30- it had two rounded sides, and two flat/straight cut sides, so it was perfect for an outside corner on my table- I wanted a surface that I could put hot items on, and this fit the bill perfectly-

There are hundreds of plans out there for "Egg Tables" and after reading dozens, I had an idea in my head of how I wanted my table to be, and I had the perfect spot on my deck, right outside my kitchen door, so it would be an extension of my kitchen- I didn't do a CAD drawing, just jotted some notes, and measured my Egg multiple times- just by looking at the pictures, I think you can see the basic idea- and the stone piece really dictated the rest of the table, and it's design.

I notched the 4X4 posts to make the structure super-strong, give it a more finished look, and secured everything with deck screws. (just notched by making multiple cuts with my circular saw, and finishing with a wood chisel) Google "how to notch a 4X4" if you're not sure how to do this, it's pretty simple.

I built the table in-place, because with a 4X4 and 2X4 structure, with deck boards, this sucker is heavy, and not a mobile table- I then stained it with a quality outdoor deck stain, to keep the Cedartone color, and because I wanted it to last a long time.

As you can see, the supports under the granite are just 2X4, set low, so the granite is flush with the decking- I used galvanized brackets/hangers for the 2X4 under the center. The granite just rests on top, it is heavy enough to not need to be glued/secured, and I wanted to be able to take it off, if I ever did want to move the table, decreasing the weight would be very helpful- it works great!

As you will see in the next photo, I placed the egg on a 12" round paver- these work great, you obviously don't want your Egg in direct contact with the wood structure, so the concrete is perfect- also, you want about a 1/2" gap in the circle you cut in the top for placing the Egg.

Get a couple of friends to help you lower your heavy Egg in place- you can pay them with good food when you fire up the Egg.

As you can see, I also added a table-top gas grill to my table- this is just a $99 Cabelas, small gas grill that we use if we just want to cook a few burgers quick, and don't want to fire up the big grill- I love having both gas or wood to cook over, and we use our table and grills year-round, in Minnesota.

Pizza on the BGE is amazing. Buy a pizza stone, you won't regret it!