Party Hub Product Review
By: Pam Melton
 One of my favorite sections of the National Hardware Show® every year is the Tailgating lot. It is unknown if there is some natural marriage between liking to do stuff yourself and tailgating, but it totally works for me. Probably the coolest thing we saw in 2011 was the Blacktop 360® Party Hub Grill-Fryer. I have suffered through dealing with all of the paraphernalia required to do wings at a tailgate. Not fun - but hubby loves to do wings and I love to eat 'em. When I saw this think that grills brats and deep fries wings at the same time - dude - I went nuts!
I am not going to repeat myself on the assembly issue-check out the video. The folks at Blacktop 360® are really cool, so I do feel kinda bad about giving them so much grief about no assembly required. But hey, as a former marketeer, I just can't let that one pass. Anyway, it gets ready for use pretty quickly without much fuss. The first time I put it together, it took less than five minutes. Now that I'm a pro at it, I can do it in two. I have found that the lead wire that goes to the grill section has absolutely zero slack, so I always check to ensure a secure connection before putting the cooking saucer on the base. About the cook ing saucer - it is lightweight and pretty easy to maneuver, however the edge on the one I have was not rolled, making it a little sharp and I did cut my hand setting it up once. I tend to be a bit loose in my movements, which does cause the occasional mishap. This is something that is likely to change as they make more of them, so if you get one, just take note.
One of my favorite features is the liquid catch bottle. This is a really simple thing, but it makes life so much easier. Since the capacity of the bottle equals that of the deep frying well in the cooking saucer, you can use it to transport both clean oil to the tailgate and used oil home for straining or disposal or whatever. The wide mouth of the bottle, the stability of its bracket and the built-in channel on the cooking saucer make it very easy to deal with post-deep-fry detritus without making a big mess. The one thing that I suggest here is to scoop out any major cracklins, as they can get caught on the little bar that goes across the channel. If that area gets clogged up, the mess factor increases.
The three position  lid turned out to be handier than I anticipated. The ability to stage food and keep it hot at the tailgate is absolutely fabulous. It is especially helpful when you are deep-frying because you absolutely have to do it in batches. I was also pleased with the utensil storage bracket. It's a tight, efficient and very cool looking system. All in all I'd have to say that compared to all of the other grills with which we have tailgated over the years, this one is the most appropriate for our particular needs so far.
When it comes to cleaning and packing up, it works best for me to put the saucer in a garbage bag before packing the Party Hub into the carrying case, and give it a good cleaning at home. If you have a little water at the tailgate, absolutely try to wipe it down while the saucer is still warm. Regardless, a little oven cleaner, a wipe and a rinse do the trick for me. I am a little skittish about how the infrared grill assembly is going to clean-up over time. Droppings get through the grill section of the saucer and I question what's going to happen when I have to clean something challenging off of that assembly, but so far, so good. I've taken to flipping the saucer upside down and putting it in the bag first, then placing the base appropriately. That tote bag is the bomb! I did find another tote bag to store the lid, bottle, etc. I just didn't feel comfortable sticking that stuff loose in the tote with the grill.
Since we are not in the office on any kind of normal schedule, our wonderful neighbors at Marathon Fitness often accept packages for us. When the guys found out that they had just brought over a grill, we scheduled a little cookout on the back porch (translation-loading dock) of the office. We have since grilled salmon, steak, chicken; deep fried wings, frog legs, french fries; cooked eggs, sauteed vegetables and fried potatoes on this thing. We have grilled on the back porch of the office, a houseboat, a boat dock, the front porch of my house, the backyard and of course the stadium parking lot. It's still working well, igniting on the first push and looking good.
 
The Blacktop 360® Party Hub is currently around $249.99 and is available at Blacktop306.com and several fine e-tailers, including Amazon. The Party Hub meets our tailgating product standards and what this does for the price doesn't make a certain part of my anatomy pucker up - 5 fingernails it is!
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