Bozeman, Montana, USA

Roby Burch, the manufacturer of the suspended Burch Barrel, believes food and fire bring people together and this new product is designed to optimize that effect.

The new Burch BBQ and fire-pit represents a paradigm shift in the social and culinary experience of open flame cooking.

Designed by Design Prosody’s Drew Jordan, Alex Undi, and Colin Lew, the Burch Barrel isn’t like any conventional barbecue pit out there, and that’s a conscious choice on the part of the designers, who believed that it was possible to create a better product that works as a grill, smoker, and as well as a fire-pit.

The Burch Barrel gives unprecedented control over the barbecue process.

The user can operate the barbecue lid without having to touch it, or rest the grill on any uneven surface without worrying about it falling over, you can even lift the grill plate off the coal-pan to add more fuel.

Moreover, when you’re not grilling food, the Burch Barrel doubles up as a portable fireplace for those perfect sunset social gatherings.

The barrel’s design is immediately striking, with a large tripod system that has the barrel suspended from the very center.

This unique format keeps the barrel balanced and vertical at all times, allowing the user to mount it on rocky terrain or even on slanted surfaces without any fear of the barrel tipping over.

Inspired by a camera’s tripod, the Burch Barrel comes with telescopic legs that let you orient the
unit to be stable, no matter how unstable your ground is, giving it a competitive advantage over
regular barbecue grills that traditionally require a flat surface like a pavement to begin with.

Right on one of its telescopic adjustable legs lies a movable grip that slides up and down to lift and lower the grill’s lid.

Rather than holding onto a potentially hot handle, this sliding sleeve lets the user to easily check on the food while keeping away from the fire and hot metal.

Additionally, the lid itself comes with an interlocking system that allows the user lift the food grate up along with the lid, giving you complete access to the coal-pan, allowing you to add more fuel over time without taking your food off the grill.

The mechanism allows the user to adjust the height of the coal bed too, bringing it either closer to your food for a great sear, or moving it to as much as 12 inches away to decrease the thermal energy, but to amp up the smokiness.

The coal bed works with both wood as well as charcoal, burning them cleanly while giving you the ability to choose between char-grilling the food or roasting marshmallows over an open bonfire.

For more calibrated control, the Burch Barrel packs a redesigned venting system that routes the air in a pathway right from the upper rim of the barrel.

Air from the top travels to the base, stoking the flame, while keeping the grill relatively clear of debris or oils and soot that may clog or corrode it.

With the Burch Barrel, the barbecue doesn’t remain a one-person apparatus but rather, the nucleus of social bonding.

People can gather around the Burch Barrel, collectively participating in the grilling experience, rather than sitting at the picnic table while one person toils over food prep with their back faced to the rest of the group.

It is equally at home cooking a heap of mountain oysters at a ranch branding in Montana as it is on the sandy shores of a beach party, as the centerpiece of late-night surfing stories.

Project: The Burch Barrel
Designers: Design Prosody
Design Team: Drew Jordan, Alex Undi, and Colin Lew
Manufacturer: Burch Barrel Holdings, LLC.