I guess I'm honored? Check my thinking on this.

[radshop]

The backstory

• Last night a guy who's sort of a friend, like an acquaintance-plus, if you follow, from the midwest surprised me by inviting me to his wedding party on Saturday for lunch at a nice park by the beach. She's from here in Orange County and he spends a lot of time here, too. I guess they got married in the midwest and live there, and are here to celebrate the marriage with the California friends. It's pitch-in (aka potluck). I said yes because of course I'll support my guy, and see other mutual friends, etc.
• Today he surprised me by letting me know there is a charcoal grill at the place of the party, and if I want to grill something that would be okay, but it's up to me, no pressure, blah blah. (I don't think it was a setup from the start. He's not that kind of guy. After he remembered to invite me and I confirmed, then he had the idea, I guess.) Of course I said yes; I'm eating too, might as well include some live fire fare.

The cooking situation

• I won't really have any time to spend on this except stop at the store and pick up the food Friday, then get up early Saturday and get everything ready.
• I kinda know that the grills there are basic 1-zone open charcoal grills. But don't know a lot about the exact situation, and I want to keep it simple and idiot-proof. My best thought is that I can do tri-tip and boneless chicken breasts/thighs, then slice & serve so folks can eat them without a steak knife. Provide a couple sauce options, and done. Simple but classy, and honestly way less hassle than dealing with sandwich fixings. What say you, pit dwellers?
• To make it even easier, I can sous vide everything and just finish it on the grill. I'd do the chicken breasts first, then drop the temp and add the tri-tip while keeping the chicken warm, too. It could all stay warm right to the park with the 120v plug in the back seat of my truck. Good idea, or over-complexificating it?
• In fact (just had this idea in real time): I can do the sous vide in my deep hotel pan inside an insulated carrier. Then when I take the food out, I can set a shallow hotel pan inside it and use it as the warming pan for the sliced food. But if I can't park close to the grill site, than forget carrying the water - ditch it at the truck.
• There will be about 15 people, and others are pitching in, so it's not on me to feed the group solo. But the hot grilled food will likely be perceived as a main course, so I want to have enough. How many pounds of tri-tip and chicken should I take? I'm horrible at this and always go either way under or way over.

=========================
EDIT:
Reading the responses I realize that I'm basically way over-engineering this by my own choice. I used to cook for groups of 10-30 regularly, and for a variety of mundane reasons, not so often these days. So basically, I have to decide if I'm going to spend the extra money and effort to go all out for my own entertainment, or scale it back to what's reasonable. The anwser is obvious - when have I ever been reasonable?
=========================

Preparation: I should be able to park fairly close; hope to carry everything in 2 trips if possible:

• Trip 1 - with a little planning, the following will all fit in the insulated carrier and a small shopping bag I can loop over my wrist if I end up carrying it all myself.
  • Hot food in deep hotel pan
  • Shallow hotel pan and lid
  • Some western style and asian style sauces
  • Knife
  • Cutting board
  • Serving tongs
• Trip 2 - I have a tote for the charcoal and charcoal related stuff, then can use a shopping bag or small backpack for the rest
  • Charcoal
  • Chimney
  • Starter cubes
  • Lighter
  • Spare lighter
  • Paper towels and baby wipes
  • Apron
  • Gloves
  • Bunch of trash bags
  • Ziplocs for leftovers
• Optional Trip 3 if needed
  • Folding table(s) (I have 2 sturdy, lightweight aluminum camping tables)

Thanks in advance for any help and/or moral support.

[FireMan]

Is he a hot dog guy or more sophisticated? 🕶

[radshop]

I think he's hoping for something more. He's been to my house and had the stuff I normally cook, which isn't high cuisine but a step above ballpark food. I think that's what he'd like. And I don't know the new wife or any of her friends, so I'd rather err on the high side than disappoint. I could have said no, but since I said yes I want to do it right.

[LA Pork Butt]

Does he know how over the top prepared kind of guy you are? If not he is getting a whole lot more than he asked for. My standard advice is only offer one meat, which if I were choosing would be boneless skinless chicken thighs. Trimmed and pounded flat they will cook quickly and offer more flavor than breast. My one meat thought is based on the frequent reality that with two or more you seldom can guess which people will gravity to causing you to run out of one and have excess of the other. My guess would be the chicken will be eaten by those diet conscious, and if you don’t have many of those you will run out of tri-tip.

[Mosca]

It’s 15 people and pot luck. Figure 8 couples, and 8 different foods. And even though whatever is being grilled will be perceived as the main/protein whatever, the food isn’t going to be the focus of the event.

I like LA Pork Butt’s idea of one meat and boneless skinless thighs. 8 lbs will be overkill, so that’s enough. Don’t go nuts, keep it simple for best results: shake some salt and rub on them, put them in a plastic bag and in a cooler, and bring a couple bottles of bbq sauce along, or make your own. That’s it. The simplicity is what is going to make it work; the easier you make it, the fewer variables you have to control in a situation that you will be walking into cold. If you want to look like the master chef hero, make it easy on yourself to look like a master chef hero!

[NumbWhistle]

When you've cooked for him before, did you prepare two meats? If not, I would tend to agree with others who suggested going with one meat - particularly so you don't have to figure out how much to get of each. Chicken thighs or wings are delicious and simple. I would think eight pounds should be more than sufficient.

That said, do what you are comfortable with. If you want to do two meats, go for it! If that is the case, though, I might be inclined to check with your acquaintance+ whether the crowd is more red meat vs. poultry and plan my ratios accordingly. Regardless of what you do, I'm sure it will be the star of the potluck!

[HawkerXP]

There is always good old pulled pork done before and reheated on the grill.

[TripleB]

I've had friends/acquaintances that have done that too. They don't tell you that you were invited to cook the food, but you know.

From your post - I HAVE A BIG RED ALERT. If this is a park grill, then it is an open grill without a top AND it is first come, first served on the grill, so it may not be available. You know that they are not picking there area to celebrate based on the grill. Also, you don't know what kind of shape it is in. Could be rusted out, bent cooking grates or totally broken.

I would take your PK Classic and Lodge Sportsman grill. better safe than sorry.

I served 15+ people before for a meet up dinner (women, men and adult children). And the protein was just beef. So I did 4 TT's on my PK Classic (with the little more shelf) and it worked fine. Grilled the TT, pushed the coals to one end and finished indirect (with the little more shelf) to the desired internal temp.

As mentioned TT and chicken breasts would be great. TT on the PK and chicken on the Lodge (or park grill).

Just my 2 cents and FWIW.....

[Carolyn]

That is the first thing I thought. "I wonder what shape these public grills are in." 😬

[Carolyn]

I wouldn't put myself out too much considering he probably didn't tell anybody else that you would be grilling. I'd keep it as simple as possible. Who knows what else people are bringing and how many people are vegetarians or something like that.

[Donw]

I’m worried about the park grill too. Based on my experiences normal picnic or camping site grills, purchased by a governmental agency, give you about 280-300 sq inches. If it is a pavilion or group camping site it maybe up to 600 sq inches. Not a lot of room for cooking for 15 people if it is not a pavilion or group site and everyone wants to eat at the same time. Keep it simple and small. Personally for an acquaintance I’d show up with a bucket or two of fried chicken and enjoy the picnic like everyone else.

[Murdy]

How about steak sandwiches? Get some quality bread/buns. Maybe some good aged cheese. Whatever condiments you deem appropriate. And, some thin-cut ribeyes from the end where that big vein of fat has tapered down to nothing.

[Mister C]

Here late, and praying everything went according to plan. Would love to hear the recap.

[radshop]

Thanks for asking - recap below!

[sawzal]

I would like to hear the outcome myself. I'm facing a similar situation with relatives and a public park grill. Would love some tips.

[radshop]

Thanks for asking - recap below!

[radshop]

Yeah - sorry I forgot to close the loop. Well, it went great.
I didn't explain before, but part of the reason I went perhaps beyond the call of duty, aside from ordinary pride of workmanship, is that the groom's parents and others in the family were very good to me at a time in my life that it meant a lot. So I feel a sense of obligation and love for the family, and wanted to do right by them.
Anyway, I went ahead with my overkill plan of doing both chicken and beef. I bought pre-seasoned boneless chicken thighs (about 5 lbs) and a tri-tip (about 2.5 lb). I got up early and did the SV chicken and then beef as planned. I didn't try to take the SV gizmo with me, but I left the meat in the warm water for the drive to the beach. I'm really glad I did the pre-SV instead of taking raw meat. There was a lot going on and the grill wasn't in a great location for easy work, so the fact that I was searing and reheating, and didn't have to worry about serving undercooked meat made it a lot, lot easier for me. Also, things went from picture-taking and looking at the tide pools to "let's eat" pretty quick, and if I'd spent hours cooking everybody would have filled up on other stuff.
The only thing that didn't work was that the grate I took for the grill was too short to sit on top of the grill. These units have an adjustable charcoal grate, and then you put your own cooking grate on top. Well, I adapted and put the charcoal on the bottom of the grill and my cooking grate on the charcoal grate, so I still had a clean cooking surface.
I'm really glad I took my folding camp table - I set it up right by the grill, otherwise I'd have had no good work surface. I sliced the meat right there and put it in a hotel pan, then carried it to the main food table. I had 3 varieties of sauce. The beef went fast and seemed to be most appreciated, but a couple folks said the chicken is the best they ever had. (Implausible, but they seemed to mean it.)
It all went so well, I've been invited to do it again soon - another beach party for the new bride's birthday. They want the same menu - and offered to pay for the meat, but of course I declined to accept their money.

[fzxdoc]

Sounds like it all went well. Good call on the SV first, keeping it hot along the way to the beach. You did a good thing, and seem to be fixin' to do another good thing too. Kudos to you.

Kathryn