Portable Kitchen Charcoal Grill & Smoker

In 1953, Lester E. Watson of Tyler, Texas, and Jasper L. Corley of Birmingham, Alabama, designed the world famous Portable Kitchen® outdoor cooker. For more than 10 years, the Portable Kitchen® cooker was made in Tyler, Texas. Later, Lewis Hamlin moved operations to Little Rock and Jacksonville, Arkansas. The cooker then gained international stature with thousands being exported worldwide to barbeque aficionados.

Unfortunately, the advent of cheaper stamped metal charcoal grills and trendy gas grills of the eighties led to an early retirement of the heavy duty cast aluminum cooker, despite its superior design and manufacture.

Tired of rusted out, cheap charcoal grills, and convinced that a propane flame could never produce the flavor of charcoal-fed hickory smoke, Paul and Sarah James retrieved one of the original 1953 cookers at a garage sale.

The rest is history. Wholeheartedly believing that the Portable Kitchen® cast aluminum cooker is still the perfect charcoal cooker, the James family has set out to reintroduce it to the market.