NorCal Ovenworks

I just received my BBQ and it is better than I expected. I wasn’t sure exactly what I wanted but they were helped me design the BBQ that best fit my cooking style. Thank you!

Don’t let his titles fool you, this is not an honest merchant. I bought a very expensive modified brasero that arrived very poorly packaged and broken. He blamed me for accepting the product. The problem is that he sent it with FedEx without signature request so the product was just dropped at my doorstep and i was stuck with it. He did not offer to take it back or any kind of refunds. His communication skills were pathetic during the several weeks that took to build and ship the product. My recommendation is to stay away from this merchant.

Wish I could give less than one star! Don’t buy from this company! Gary lied to me and told me I would have my equipment for my event I purchased over a month ago. My event is tomorrow and it hasn’t even left the facility. Terrible customer service

I bought a custom grill from NorCal and had to send it back becasue it was made incorrectly. He then refused to make me a new one. He did give me a full refund.

I bought a custom Santa Maria style grill from NorCal a little less than a year ago. I made it clear to Gary, the owner and chief designer/​engineer that I was a professional chef, and that I needed a grill that would hold up to commercial application and frequent moves, since I intended to use it for offsite events. He assured me that his grills would be as durable as I needed them to be, and that getting replacement parts as needed would be no problem. Well. First, the grill was damaged in two places when I received it. He had packed it for shipping on a cheap pine pallet and, unsurprisingly, the grill broke through the planks and one of its casters was pretty chewed up. There was also some serious metal abrasion on the pulley wheel. I contacted NorCal to inform Gary of this. No reply.
After a few months of use, the fire grate warped and started sticking in its tracks when hot. I contacted Gary to request a new grating. He told me to grind some edges with a Dremel tool. I also pointed out that all the grill’s fittings tend to shake apart and the thing starts throwing off bolts and bits after about 20 linear feet of movement. No reply on that score. I re-​tightened all those pieces with a ratchet (apparently the people who built it didn’t bother) and that way you can get about 60 linear feet before stuff just starts falling off.
About a month ago, a different caster threw all its bearings and fell off. I contacted Gary again, and he said that I can just take off the old casters and he’ll happily ship me some new, better casters. Well, he didn’t ship me anything and now I have to order new casters myself, to the tune of about a hundred bucks for the set. Plus side: these casters are actually rated to take the weight of the grill. Down side: Gary in his infinite wisdom decided to WELD his inferior casters to the bottom of my grill, so now I get to figure out how to cut them off and THEN I can weld on some mounting plates and THEN I can attach my new casters. Since I am a chef and not a metalworker, I’m probably going to have to find someone to do this work for me, and presumably pay them a couple hundred dollars for supplies and labor.
My only regret is that I can’t give ‘ol Gary less than one star. If you’re spending what he wants to charge on a grill, you might as well go for a product made by real professionals with a real company who will actually provide you with reliably functioning products and good customer service. Aztec. Grillworks. Somebody like that. I really think 4K ought to buy you a basic level of reliability and service, and NorCal Ovenworks fails utterly to deliver on either front.

This company makes Argentine BBQ Grills, Brazillian Rotisseries, Wood and Propane Fired Pizza Ovens, Santa Maria BBQ Grills, Tuscan Grills, and Uruguayan Grills. Very high end equipment for the outdoor cook who is really into it.