My husband has decided on only getting the Green Egg and using it as a grill. According to him it's suppose to be the greatest invention ever! Yeah, we still have another grill hanging around, but the Egg is the only one we ever use any more. I think we're going to gift the charcoal grill to our daughter and new son-in-law. They're pretty much starting from nothing, so they'll appreciate it. Annette, I like your set-up. We're planning on something fairly similar. We intend to add a second, smaller Big Green Egg later. This'll allow us to use the smaller one when we want to cook just for us two, and when we have guests we can use the smaller one for an appetizer and the larger one for an entree. We also want a smaller one so we can take it camping. "If you want to cook on a covered porch, you must use a strong vent hood." ... i agree. Been there, done that. Won't do it again. Wondering how we're having such different experiences ... here's what I suspect: My covered porch, which works FINE with a no-hood grill is set up like the one on the left -- covered porch is attached to the house /is open to the air on three sides and gets a pretty good breeze. My porch is about 6' above ground level /steps on both ends -- could that make a difference? I wonder if people who are having a different experience have a porch more like the one to the right -- an "indented" porch? Or at least a porch that in some way gets less breeze.

Yeah, I have to squint but I think I see what you're talking about. The problem with putting the dining area behind the kitchen is that the kitchen will be totally closed off from the outside with little natural light, which would be a problem for me. Also, I'm not sure about your concern re conversation; either people are in the kitchen during food prep, or they're at the table eating, not usually both at the same time. The only proximity issue is carrying food from one to the other. I'd leave it as is.

calidesign, can you please explain 'vastly superior'? It seems to me that there is a smaller work triangle and better traffic flow in plan #2 (with pal's minor change, and a CD fridge). Plus, in #1 the fridge needs filler between it and the wall, in order to fully open the door: Adding a pantry to the right of the fridge would improve the plan, but the range hood would make a better focal point from the LR, and having the range on the sink wall would get it out of the traffic from the entry to the left:

FWIW, here are my thoughts. I am on eastern Long Island. I installed an outdoor kitchen in 2017. Some things I would do the same and some I would do differently. I have an L-shaped kitchen with a 36” Lynx grill, an Avanti fridge, a large Blanco sink and a few storage drawers and access doors. Grill is on short side. Sink and fridge are on long side. Counter seating for six on the long side and end. If you have significant sun/wind exposure, pay attention to which side the grill and fridge face. Even though I have an outdoor-rated fridge, the sun hits it dead-on for several hours each day. Sometimes I feel like I have tomdrape a beach towel over the counter and let it hang in front of the fridge on very hot days to reduce the amount of time that the sun is hitting the front of the fridge. The wind most frequently comes at a 90 degree angle to the grill and sometimes causes the grill flame to blow out when it is set very low. So in my setup, I probably would switch placement of the grill and the fridge. Get as big a sink as you have room for. The outdoor sink is the best place to clean the grill grates, among other things. The Lynx grill was very expensive. It cooks great and is very powerful, but I think the build quality could be better. The Avanti fridge was very inexpensive and is great. I didn't want to spend a lot because I was convinced that the elements would make it fail, but it has worked like a champ.