Outdoor Kitchens in Saint Paul, MN

Saint Paul started its Winter Carnival in 1886, after a New York reporter called the city "another Siberia," and residents have treated the cold as something to celebrate ever since. That attitude is a good starting point for Outdoor Kitchens in Saint Paul. Plenty of Saint Paul households want more than July grilling: a few dinners outside in October, an evening by a fire in November, maybe a shoveled path to the grill for a winter cookout. A kitchen can be planned for all of that.

How cold it gets on this side of the river

Saint Paul's climate is classed as Dfa bordering on Dwa, the hot-summer humid continental type. The average January high is just 23.9°F, the average July high is 82.6°F, and the city's recorded extremes run from 104°F down to -41°F. Materials and equipment have to live through that full spread. That means:

• Countertops that do not absorb water, so freeze-thaw cycles do not split them
• Cabinet boxes that drain and breathe instead of trapping melted snow
• Gas and electric connections laid out so they stay aligned if the ground moves
• Covers and roofs strong enough to carry snow, chosen from products with published ratings

Cooking in shoulder season and beyond

A covered grill station is the single biggest upgrade for winter use. With a roof overhead, you can keep snow off the cooking surface and the prep counter, and a well-placed heater or fire feature turns the space into somewhere people actually want to stand. Grills, pizza ovens and smokers do not have to come inside for the season. Kalamazoo Outdoor Gourmet's winter guidance says those units can stay out, though if a kitchen will sit unused for more than a month, the gas and power should be shut off and the units cleaned and covered. Water is a different story. Sinks, ice makers and refrigerators need draining or shut-down as temperatures fall, so a winter-use kitchen in Saint Paul usually works best as a dry kitchen in the cold months and a full kitchen in summer.

Older neighborhoods and heritage districts

Much of Saint Paul's charm comes from older homes. Summit Avenue runs about four and a half miles from near downtown to the Mississippi, and most of its large houses went up between 1890 and 1920. It sits within two National Historic Districts and two City of Saint Paul Heritage Preservation Districts. If your home is in a heritage district, ask the city early whether a pergola, roof or visible masonry structure needs review. We are glad to give you drawings and a written scope to bring to that conversation, and we design with materials and proportions that suit an older house rather than fighting it.

Fitting a kitchen into a city yard

Saint Paul homes are split between owners and renters: about 52.9% of housing units are owner-occupied, and 83.7% of residents lived in the same home a year earlier. Owner lots tend to be city-sized, so we keep layouts tight. A straight run against a garage wall, a short L that wraps a patio corner or a freestanding grill island with seating on one side can each fit where a full bar would crowd the yard. For anything trenched, Gopher State One Call has to be notified at least 48 hours ahead, not counting the day of the call, weekends or holidays, and we handle that notice as the contractor.

Fire features and safety distances

Minnesota's State Fire Marshal defines a recreational fire as 3 feet or less across and 2 feet or less high, and sets a 25-foot distance from buildings and combustible material. Portable outdoor fireplaces need at least 15 feet. The state notes that many cities adopt stricter rules, so we check the current Saint Paul requirements for each project rather than assume. Gas-fueled fire features are a separate category, and we follow the manufacturer's clearances for those.

Talk to us about your yard

Call (612) 451-0418 or send photos. We visit, look at sun, wind and access, and write up a free estimate that spells out what we would build and how we would winter-proof it.

Call (612) 451-0418