Poured Concrete BBQ and Outdoor Kitchen in Ocean Beach

The kitchen sits in the corner where the house meets the pool deck, right outside the sliding glass door. The wall turns at that corner, so the counter turns with it. One leg takes the cooking. The other takes the sink. Both runs stay tight to the house, with a window above each one, and the open deck starts where the counter ends.

The base is poured concrete, not a framed box. Concrete holds up against a wet deck and coastal air better than wood framing does. The trade is that the layout has to be final before the pour. The forms set the footprint and the finished counter height. Appliance openings get laid out in that same step, because nothing moves once the concrete goes off.

The cooking leg carries a built-in stainless gas grill, with a drawer stack and an access door under it. A lidded two-burner side range sits flush in the counter beside the grill. At the outer end of that run the counter steps down to a lower ledge. The wet end sits around the corner. There is a bar sink with a tall gooseneck faucet, and a lidded stainless drop-in unit next to it. Under them are a double-door cabinet and a tall single stainless door with a pull.

The base is finished in the same color as the house wall behind it, so the base and the wall match. The counter is a light slab with gray veining. It runs the length of the cooking side and caps the lower ledge at the end of it. The same slab turns the corner and carries the wet end. There are outdoor receptacles in the base and on the wall by the counter. Outside, those go in in-use covers, so a cord can stay plugged in with the box closed.

Two louvered vents sit low in the base, one at each end of the run. A built-in gas grill sits inside a closed concrete box, and that box needs air crossing it. The burner has to draw air from somewhere. Gas is also heavier than air, so it settles low. A vent at each end of the base gives it somewhere to go besides the inside of the cabinet. Vents are cheap while the forms are still up. Cutting them into finished concrete later is another job.