Introducing the Trillium Flat Pack Fire Pit & Grill

For years we've camped with our drum style "smokeless" fire pit. It works well and is great to cook over, but it uses entirely too much real estate in the bed of our truck. Matthew has always believed the best designs start with a problem worth solving, so he got to work.

Early this summer, right before we headed up to Saddlebag Lake, we had the first version cut by our fabricator. In fact, we picked it up on our way to the campsite. It was rough around the edges. Literally. But it worked well enough to throw in the truck and take to 10,000 feet. We cooked on it, sat around it, and came home with a list of things to fix.

That's how it goes with a new product. The first version teaches you what the second version needs to be. And the second version teaches you what the third needs to be. Version two got a proper field test when we cooked 20 pounds of Korean style short ribs on it. It handled every bit of it. We refined the Trillium several times over the course of the summer, tweaking the geometry, the airflow, and the way the panels slot together. Each iteration got a little cleaner, a little sturdier, and a little easier to assemble.

By the time Demo Days came around in Alameda in August, we felt good enough about where it had landed to debut it in public. It drew a lot of questions, and a few people trying to figure out how it went together, which is always a good sign.

The Trillium is a three-panel, laser-cut steel fire pit that slots together without tools and packs flat when you're done. It comes with a raised cooking grate so you can go from campfire to camp kitchen without missing a beat. We think it's one of the most useful things we've built, and one of the most satisfying to watch come together around a fire.

The Trillium Flat Back Fire Pit & Grill is available now.

Our kid on grill duty