My grill had a shelf. I decided the shelf was not doing enough.
I replaced it with a high-output propane burner, which immediately made the whole setup more useful and more complicated. The burner could work by itself, but the real point was everything I could put on top of it.
There was a searing box with a regular grill grate. There was a pizza oven with a ceramic insert. There was also a flat griddle for eggs, pancakes, breakfast sandwiches, and anything else that benefits from a large hot rectangle.
The attachments were not subtle. I lined them up on the patio, moved chairs around them, took photos from several angles, and started checking temperatures. The setup looked less like a grill upgrade and more like I had opened a very small outdoor appliance store.
I liked the modular part. The pellet grill could keep doing the slow work. The propane burner handled the fast, hot work. Then I could swap the top depending on whether I wanted a hard sear, a pizza, or breakfast outside.
That last option was the one that amused me most. Grilling dinner is normal. Walking onto a Brooklyn patio and making pancakes on a flat top felt like I had gotten away with something.
Space outside the apartment was limited, so every object had to earn its spot. One burner with three personalities was easier to justify than three separate machines.
The grill still smoked meat. It could also make breakfast. That felt like a serious promotion.