AWSI: Weber's Gourmet BBQ System is Cool But Incomplete...

The Home Depot “Thrill of the Grill” page on their weekly ad drew our attention to a “new!” $399, “EXCLUSIVE WEBER SPIRIT E-210 2-BURNER GAS GRILL FEATURING GOURMET BBQ SYSTEM.”
Yes, those were Home Depot’s shouts (as in all caps).

Home Depot weekly ad.

Seriously though… what’s not to like about a BBQ which features a 7-in-1 expandable system, which in the ad appears to be like circular inserts that can pop into the middle of the rectangular grill?

Out of the box, it comes with porcelain-enameled cast-iron grates and a large porcelain-enameled cast-iron griddle. With the grate system in place, a generous surface area allows for classic grilling or your favorite foods. But when you want to push the boundaries of what it means to grill, remove the 12 in. center grate and drop in your griddle. Now anything you can prepare in a skillet on a stovetop, you can cook in the griddle on your grill – with authentic grilled flavor.

The GBS (Gourmet BBQ System) grate system is compatible with 6 additional GBS cookware pieces for serving up a wide variety of other main courses, side dishes and desserts. Simply replace your griddle with one of the following:

Poultry roaster ($44.99)
Pizza stone with carry rack ($34.99)

[The above can be found in store]

Wok ($54.99)
Korean BBQ ($44.99)
Sear Grate ($34.99)
Ebelskiver Danish pancake maker ($44.99)

[The above online only]

And if you want a cover for your Spirit E-210 grill, that’ll set you back $49.99.

The flexibility it offers is very cool and opens up a world of possibilities.

Being touted as “an exclusive,” we figured it would be a featured item on the Home Depot “showroom” floor. Boy, were we wrong.

The Weber Spirit E-210 in store.

Inside the Depot, it appeared in a line-up of grills. Nothing special. In fact, it felt to us like that ad was just something to get you into the store and then up-sell you on another grill. Note the 3-Burner Weber is over $500.

What was disappointing to us is that they didn’t demo the swap-ability well. Even if the other pieces aren’t available in the store, they should have shown them in a display with a “live demo” that replicates what’s going on in the ad’s picture or what appears on the website.

Weber GBS – Collect them all.

The other thing that struck as as weird — is that “the system” didn’t include a way to store all those swap-able grates. Huh?
Underneath the grill there is only room enough for the LP tank. Seemed to us that having a way to keep all those grates contained would be a sure winner — take the package over the top.

**
So we went online to see if there were any further details about this awesome GBS. Now that was a challenge onto itself.

We hunted around for a press release that announced this “new” product. Found nothing except an announcement from November 2012 (Weber’s 2013 Accessories Line-Up Includes Additions to Popular Gourmet Barbecue System and Accessories for Grilling the Great American Burger) which rolled up a bunch of “accessories” into an announcement covering more than 20 new grilling tools. Huh? New for 2013. Announced in 2012. And on the showroom floor at Home Depot as “new!” — we don’t get it.

Or, to play off a popular business phrase: all sizzle, no steak.