I would not go with an outdoor fridge. I've read that they don't last too long out in the elements. Also, what're you really going to do with an outdoor fridge? You're going to carry trays of meat from the kitchen to the grill ... no storage needed. Drinks probably, but is an outdoor fridge big enough for a party's worth of drinks? No. If you're talking about just family use, would you really want to keep an outdoor fridge stocked? No.

I'd prefer some type of a built-in cooler -- that'd really be useful for parties.

This will be primarily for family use with occasional larger get together but I agree with your thoughts about keeping it stocked. We already have a main fridge and a secondary beverage center which is enough storage for our drink needs

We did have an undercounter fridge in our bar island outside. It was great for beer and soft drinks when using the pool without going inside wet. We didn't have a pull-out trash because we needed a freestanding can for guests to deposit paper plates and stuff. Also not great to leave any trash there, it will attract rats. And we had storage cabs for plastic ware. The little fridge lasted 12 years and wasn't that expensive to begin with.

I'd like an outdoor fridge if I had a pool. Otherwise I just don't think I can spend enough time out there to be worth it.

We have had two outdoor kitchens - both were/are under roof so they are not directly in the elements. We have had fridges and storage in both. In the first house we had a lot of wildlife and finally had to empty the fridge as it attracted bears (yes they would open and help themselves - no damage ever done). In our current home we find the fridge useful but not required. If we had to chose one we would take the storage. Great for gloves, grill accessories like grill tools, woks and toppers. That would be the direction I would go. I would suggest making sure your doors/drawers are flush with your island to minimize water intrusion during rain. I agree about not having the trash rollout and putting more storage there as well. We keep a small trash can under our sink. Have you considered a sink? In both kitchens we put in a kitchen sink and disposal as I did not want the dirty grill grates washed in my indoor kitchen sink.

I can agree with that, with a pool it sounds like it could be worth it

a fridge and a sink are necessary in my opinion

Unless you have a pool, a refrigerator is not necessary - what would you be storing there. I am assuming the grill area is off the kitchen with easy access.

I'm in Southern California so there is a lot of grilling outside and the reality is that even if we eat outdoors, the patio table isn't further than the dining room table :-). And there isn't anything that I would keep in an outdoor refrigerator. If there are chilled foods, we just bring them out as appropriate.

FWIW- we had a fridge in an outdoor cooking area that wasn't close to our house (it was on our boathouse, a slightly inconvenient walk down the backyard) . We didn't use it like we thought we would. If we were entertaining we still ended up using coolers or ice buckets for drinks bc we never remembered to stock the fridge early enough to actually have everything cooled down. Yes, it was convenient if it was just us to have a few drinks hanging out in there.

We also thought we would keep condiments in the fridge, but it just became a hassle of one more thing to manage. It wasn't really big enough to put plates of food in it to prep for grilling. Or to store more than one big bowl with a side dish.

At some point, we added a sink and that was truly helpful.

Edited to add, we found it easier to manage a "right now" type of trash can because it was awful on the occasions we forgot to bring up the trash after being out there. It only took a time or two of thinking we were going to be out there all weekend, (and we would deal with the trash on Sunday afternoon) then having plans change then discovering a couple of gross things that had been in there rotting for a week. Nope.

Granted-- this says a lot about us! HAHA. But, it's "real life" for us... your family might be much more organized and generally more responsible in which sharing my experience is just an embarrassment! But, hopefully, it will help you think through some potential pitfalls.

I would forget about the refrigerator.