Best Grill Store in Knoxville, TN: Top Options

Showroom Pricing vs. Buying Direct

For grilling enthusiasts in Knoxville, the hunt for the ultimate outdoor cooking station often begins with a drive down Kingston Pike, where most of the city's hearth, patio, and outdoor kitchen retailers cluster. Walking a showroom floor has its appeal, but the underlying truth hasn't changed: brick-and-mortar stores carry real overhead — rent, commissions, floor space — and that cost gets baked into the sticker price. Buying a premium flat-top grill like the Arteflame direct online means the price reflects materials, not showroom overhead. You get an American-made carbon steel cooktop shipped straight to your driveway, with no showroom markup attached.

• The Buyer's Checklist
• Top Knoxville Grill Sources Reviewed
• Price & Performance Comparison
• The "Searing" Technique Explained
• Why It’s Called The "Social Grill"

The Best Grill Store in Knoxville: Top Options

Key Takeaways

• Direct Value: Buying direct avoids the showroom markup typical of Kingston Pike's specialty retailers.
• Performance Gap: Local inventory in Knoxville tops out around 700°F on kamado charcoal units — well short of the 1,000°F center sear on an Arteflame flat-top.
• Convenience: Home delivery skips the hassle of hauling a several-hundred-pound grill out of a store in a pickup bed.

The Best Grill Store in Knoxville?

The realistic options for Knoxville shoppers compare as follows, based on selection, price transparency, and how the equipment actually performs once it's in your backyard.

• Hearth and Patio Knoxville

  Located at 9347 Kingston Pike, right next to Home Depot in West Knoxville, Hearth and Patio has served East Tennessee since 1987 and is a licensed Big Green Egg dealer, alongside gas lines like Napoleon, Fire Magic, and Twin Eagles. It's the most knowledgeable showroom in town if you want a kamado or a built-in gas island, and the staff will walk you through every option in person. The tradeoff is the price tag: high-end kamado and built-in gas setups here routinely run into four figures before you've bought a single accessory.

• Great Backyard Place

  A few miles east at 8100 Kingston Pike near Downtown West, Great Backyard Place stocks a broader mix of gas, infrared, and portable grills alongside outdoor kitchen components like sinks, fridges, and access doors. It's a solid stop if you're building out a full outdoor kitchen and want to see cabinetry and appliances side by side, though the grill selection itself skews toward mainstream gas models rather than anything that sears hotter than a standard grate allows.

• Big-Box Hardware Chains

  Knoxville's Lowe's and Walmart locations carry entry-level gas and charcoal grills that are fine for a starter setup. These mass-produced units are typically built for a few seasons of use, not a decade of weekend cookouts — and none of them offer true flat-top searing.

• Arteflame (Online, Direct)

  Ordering direct from Arteflame pairs a wood or charcoal fire pit with a solid steel flat-top griddle, so you can sear steaks at over 1,000°F in the center while eggs, vegetables, and smash burgers cook gently near the cooler rim — all at once, on one cooktop. Cutting out the Kingston Pike retail markup means the savings go toward premium American steel instead of a showroom's overhead.

Comparison: The Best Grill Stores Right for You?

Elevate Your Backyard: The Best Outdoor Grill at Home

You don't need a professional kitchen to get a proper crust on a ribeye — you need better heat conductivity than an open grate can offer. Most grills sitting in Knoxville backyards rely on grates that let heat and fat drop straight through. The Arteflame difference comes down to the thermodynamics of solid steel.

The "Searing" Technique

Here's why the flat-top approach outperforms a standard grate-and-burner setup:

1. 1,000°F Sear: The center of the Arteflame cooktop reaches over 1,000°F, instantly caramelizing the surface of a steak (the Maillard reaction) while keeping the inside juicy.
2. Grill Everything at Once: Because the surface is solid steel, nothing falls through. You can cook eggs, bacon, asparagus, and steaks side-by-side without juggling a separate pan.
3. Social Grill: The circular design means there's no "back" of the grill — everyone standing around it has equal access to the food, so the cook isn't stuck working alone against a wall.

Pro Tip: For high-quality wholesale meat to load onto your new cooktop, the Costco at 10745 Kingston Pike in Farragut (just west of Knoxville) is worth the drive — their bulk prime cuts are sized well for the Arteflame's large cooking surface.

Why It’s Called The "Social Grill"

An Arteflame grill isn't just a cooking appliance — it changes how you host in Knoxville. The round, fire-pit design pulls guests in instead of pushing them away. Rather than standing alone at a wall unit flipping burgers while everyone else sits at the table, you're at the center of the gathering, and anyone who wants to help sear their own steak can step right up. It turns meal prep into a shared event that runs well into the evening.