In August 2025, BroBible ran a story about me with a headline I've thought about ever since: "Southeast Texas Man Invents Viral Slot Grill. Or Did He?"
It's a fair question. So here's my honest answer, straight from the guy who builds them.
The Short Answer
No, I didn't invent the folding grill. People have been cooking over fold-up and slot-together fireboxes for a long time. The article points out a folding grill patent from 1962, and cheap stamped-metal picnic grills have been sold for years.
What I did build is the Slot Grill: a heavy-duty, tab-and-slot charcoal grill made in Southeast Texas from thick carbon steel, refined through years of real cooking, and built into a brand people now recognize by name.
That's a different claim, and I'll stand behind it.
How the Slot Grill Came to Be
Before the Slot Grill, tab-and-slot grills were something a fab shop might cut every now and then as a one-off. Nobody was building them as a real product, and nobody had proven people would buy them in any quantity.
I started building and selling them locally around Southeast Texas. I experimented with designs, fixed what didn't work, and kept what did. In August 2024, I decided it deserved more than being "a grill." It's a tab-and-slot design, so the practical name was obvious: the Slot Grill. I put up a website and started posting setup and cooking videos.
In the summer of 2025, one of those videos hit about 27 million views. That proved the market was there. It also meant we had to make the Slot Grill something you could build in real volume without giving up quality, and we did.
Once that video took off, a couple of larger companies noticed and came out with their own versions of this style of grill. It's an honor to be mimicked. Every company should build the product it believes in, and that's what competition is supposed to look like. I still believe ours is the better grill, and here's why.
You can read the longer version in my story behind Slot Grill.
Built From the Customer Backward
One rule shaped every Slot Grill: start with how the customer actually uses the product, then work backward.
You have to picture where it's going to be used and how. Think about the tailgate, the boat deck, the kid reaching for a hot dog, the tired guy packing up in the dark. Then you solve every problem you find there before you ever think about cutting steel or marketing it. Only then do you work back through the design, the manufacturing and the marketing.
Over the years, the Slot Grill has been revised again and again based on what customers told me, what friends told me, and what I saw while cooking on it at the beach, on the sandbar, at hunting camp and off the tailgate.
The easy way is the opposite: build whatever is simplest for the manufacturer, push it out, and let the customer deal with the problems. That shortcut shows up in two places.
- Heat under the grill. If the firebox sits too close to whatever it's standing on, heat transfers straight down and can scorch or damage a table, tailgate, deck or cooler lid. The Slot Grill's firebox is elevated with a real air gap underneath for exactly this reason.
- Pinched hands when it's packed flat. On some slot-style grills, the grates float loose in the flat stack. When you pick it up or carry it, heavy steel can shift and smash your fingers. The Slot Grill's formed bottom and ash catcher lock the flat pack together for travel, so it carries as one solid bundle.
Neither of those shows up in a product photo. You find them the first time you actually use the grill, and that's the whole point of designing from the customer backward.
So What Makes a Slot Grill Different?
If folding grills already existed, why pay more for this one? Because most of what's out there is built to be cheap, and the Slot Grill is built to last.
| Typical folding or picnic grill | Slot Grill | |
|---|---|---|
| Steel | Thin stamped sheet metal | 10-gauge (Full Size) or 12-gauge (Compact) carbon steel |
| Under heat and weight | Often warps, flexes or sags | Holds its shape, supports cast iron |
| Setup | Hinges, clips or loose pins | Panels slot together by hand in 30–60 seconds, no tools |
| Airflow | Firebox often sits low | Elevated firebox with an air gap underneath |
| Cooking options | Grill grate only | Grill grates plus optional 1 or 2 griddle plates |
| Made in | Usually overseas | Southeast Texas, USA |
Here's what those differences mean when you're actually cooking:
- Thick steel is the whole point. A thin grill bends the first time you get a hot fire going or set a loaded cast-iron skillet on it. Ours doesn't. You can feel the difference the moment you pick one up.
- The slots do the work. The panels interlock into a tight V and hold each other in place. There's nothing to lose, strip or rust shut.
- It packs flat for real. The grill, grates and griddles stack into one flat bundle that fits behind a truck seat, in a UTV bed or in a boat locker.
- It's a system. The two-piece top lets you run a griddle on one side and a grate on the other. You get steaks and eggs from one fire.
Full measurements and weights are on the Slot Grill Specs, Setup & Care page.
"The Original Slot Grill" and Our Trademark
When I call it the original, I mean the original Slot Grill: the name, the design, and the grill you've seen in those videos, built by us. Slot Grill® is our registered trademark for this tab-and-slot grill, registered with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office on March 17, 2026 (U.S. Reg. No. 8,180,923). First use of the Slot Grill name in commerce: August 14, 2024.
Slot Grills are made by me, right here in Southeast Texas. During times of very high demand, our business partners help with manufacturing so we can keep up, and every one of them is right here in the USA too. So you can feel good knowing your money supports American families and businesses that pay into the same tax base you do.
Being mimicked is a compliment. Having our product photos and our name stolen is not. Since the videos went viral, sellers, mostly overseas, have copied our photos and the Slot Grill name to pass off their own products as ours. We enforce our trademark and get those listings taken down as we find them. It's an ongoing fight, and we keep at it.
At the time of this writing, we do not sell on Amazon, Walmart, Temu or Alibaba. If you see a Slot Grill listed on one of those sites, it isn't ours. The same goes for a nearly 30-pound steel grill listed for $30 with free shipping.
Our About Slot Grill page lists every place to buy a genuine Slot Grill and every official Slot Grill social media account. Every one of them uses the username @SlotGrill. If it isn't @SlotGrill, it isn't us. For the real thing, buy direct at SlotGrill.com.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who invented the Slot Grill?
Keith Rodgers of Buna, Texas designed, named and built the Slot Grill. Folding and slot-together grills existed before it. The Slot Grill is a heavy-duty version refined through years of real-world cooking.
Is the Slot Grill the first folding grill?
No. Folding grills go back decades. The Slot Grill set itself apart with thick carbon steel, a tool-free interlocking design, a modular griddle system, and American manufacturing.
Is "Slot Grill" a trademark?
Yes. Slot Grill® is a registered trademark of Precision Cut Metals LLC, U.S. Reg. No. 8,180,923, for folding portable grills. Listings that use the Slot Grill name or our photos without being our product are counterfeits, and we work to get them removed.
Where is the Slot Grill made?
In Southeast Texas. Slot Grills are made by Keith Rodgers at Precision Cut Metals LLC in Buna, Texas. During very high demand, U.S.-based business partners help with manufacturing. Every Slot Grill is made in the USA.
How do I know I'm buying a real Slot Grill?
Buy direct from SlotGrill.com, or check our About Slot Grill page for every official store and account. Genuine Slot Grills are made from heavy-gauge steel and weigh 14 lb (Compact) to 27.6 lb (Full Size). An ultra-cheap listing using our name or photos is not a genuine Slot Grill.
The Bottom Line
I didn't invent fire, steel or the folding grill. I built a better one, put my name behind it, and I still cook on it every chance I get. If you want a grill that's built to last, that's what the Slot Grill is for.
Shop the Full Size Slot Grill · Shop the Compact Slot Grill
— Keith