Black stones very popular here.
All the owners seem to luv them.
Almost like a cult. Maybe they are just that awesome?
They're a tool. The question is whether they're a better tool than others for specific tasks, and whether those tasks are worth paying for.
To me, I had two kamado grills (one large and one small) and a hand-me down Traeger pellet grill that I got for free. The advantage of the Traeger was ease of use--I just turn it on and grill. The disadvantage of the Traeger was that there was nothing it could do that my big kamado couldn't do, and there was nothing that it could do BETTER than my big kamado. It just did it with a little less hassle of setup and cleanup.
So I was thinking of getting rid of that, and either getting a gasser or a Blackstone. The gasser would be to do basic grilling without having to deal with charcoal on the kamado. But I ultimately decided that it wasn't the answer, because like the Traeger, it didn't do anything better. It would have purely been a convenience thing.
The Blackstone, on the other hand, does certain things better AND easier than my kamado can. There are certain cooking tasks for which a griddle is absolutely perfect. A kamado CAN do griddle work, but it kinda sucks at it. Whereas a Blackstone CAN do grill work, but it kinda sucks at it. So pairing the two together was having the best of both worlds.
So I love it because it does the stuff my grill isn't good at really well; it's the perfect tool for that job.
