Pretty impressive -- thanks for sharing. And the fire won't break the terra cotta? Maybe you have to be careful it won't go from hot to cold quickly -- like a rainstorm?

neat;)

This is very neat. I have to show to my husband who insists in buying a grill that costs $500 for our balcony.

How easy or difficult is the ash cleanup?

Good question, Quercus. I don't know what to do with the ashes from my city grill either. I try to be careful not to get marks on my roof deck too.

gochrisgo - I guess it's a risk, esp. if we were to use it in winter, but I don't feel like it would just happen with a summer rain shower

quercus - you don't have to empty for a few uses, but it's light enough to carry down the couple of flights of stairs, rest it on the edge of our dumpster, use a big kitchen spoon and scoop out the cooled ashes (because I don't want to go dumpster diving for the bricks if I were to just turn it over and dump).

You can put in a metal colinder first, bricks, than charcoal.

The colinder catches the bricks and any unused charcoal brickettes. Just shake it around a bit to get all the ash to the bottom, it'll be easier to dump and you're ready for another bbq after you place the colinder back in.

Maybe even metal hooks that hook onto the pots lip to lift out the colinder easily after use.

cool idea!

wow - great idea
you could do a bunch of them for a party for next to no $$, if you could scavenge enough wire racks . . .

having used terra cotta tiles in the oven, and having had them all break, I think it is very, very likely to break from heat. There are probably a wide range of densities for terra cotta, and pots are unlikely to be the densest, toughest, most heat-stable.

I like this idea but would definitely look at it as a temporary grill. It will break from the charcoal. It may be a good idea to use only on concrete or non-flammable surfaces. When the pot breaks it will make a loud snap and the coals will come out.

It might break, or it might not break. If it breaks by cracking only, so what? It might even improve the draft for the fire!

I love Guido's idea of multiple barbeques for a party. You could have platters of stuff on a buffet table and let the guests choose and cook their own.

Years ago I bought a giant (3.5' diam), round-bottomed, metal bowl from a used restaurant supply company and, having no use for it, I stashed it behind the garage. It obligingly became all rusty and beautiful. This spring I set it on a 1' length of square, hollow, terra cotta conduit and bought a bought a circular grill rack for it. It's the best BBQ grill I ever had. Fire bowl, too.

I would never have thought of your idea, and I love it. I'm making a few for my kids to have s'more parties.

Aulaire,
You're talking about the underground drain pipe right? I think that is the same kind of material as a chimney flue. That stuff is super hard and is meant to take a lot of heat. It's a lot different than the terra cotta pottery for plants, it has some kind of an aggregate or something in it (I used to saw through it with a diamond blade on a grinder.) I don't mean to be a debbie downer I just think the pots could be dangerous.

it's a great idea! In Morocco, they use small terra cotta grills and like Aulaire said, "it might break, or it might not break"

Great idea you came up with! Also, I see from the pix that you have a wrought iron railing there, so if your terra cotta grill doesn't hold up, and you decide to purchase a conventional grill, you could probably use a chain and padlock, like for theft-proofing a bicycle, provided that there is a place to thread the chain on the grill base. I had a gas grill when I lived in a high theft area, and I chained it to the lowest rail of my little deck. Mine never walked away, though others did.

We're not allowed to grill on our balcony. But I would love to try anyway. My only concern is the smoke created by trying to start the fire. Is there a way to avoid the smoke? A plume of smoke would definitely send security banging on my door!

'It might break, or it might not break. If it breaks by cracking only, so what? It might even improve the draft for the fire!'

yeh it's all great fun until hot coals rain down on some poor neighbors head. and if you're doing this on a fire escape i hope it's your apt that catches fire and you trip over the pot on the way down... buddy.

Alton Brown did this on Good Eats years ago. No coals, just a hotplate in the bottom of the pot and a pie plate of mesquite on top of it.

In fact, the materials list is so very similar to his that I have to wonder if maybe this isn't completely original....

Kangarara,

You're talking about a smoker. The hotplate would create enough heat to ignite the mesquite and generate smoke. But there would not be enough heat to cook anything.

Didn't Alton Brown do this on "Good Eats"?

Kangarara and divinemsn - it's a take off of the smoker Alton did on Good Eats, you're close. We didn't claim to be original, just that we built it ourselves; like sissaphus said, they do something similar in Morocco.

Update: It did break, BUT it was probably because we hauled it around a lot...we have to take it down a flight of stairs now to the alley because the apartment company said we can't use it on the balcony (really, someone complained of the smell, it wasn't actually illegal there--it's a concrete communal porch over a little-used exit), so then one of our neighbors took it and planted a plant in it without our permission, we had to rescue it from that, then we took it to our friends', where they hauled it around a number of times. The bottom came off when it was cool and they went to move it again; the pot sides were still in tact.

Picked up a new pot at Ikea for cheaper (<$10), will not move it like we have in the past and will keep you posted on its longevity.

Still cheaper than 2 little webber grills, and way more fun!

After reading this yesterday, I looked around the web for similar grills. I found one (with instructions) that suggests ways to avoid cracks.

Do you think this would work with a planter made from a heavier stone?

chimney pipe
wow - great idea
you could do a bunch of them for a party for next to no $$, if you could scavenge enough wire racks . . .