Prior to their combination with Weber, Blackstone moved into outdoor kitchens. They released pavilions, griddle islands, and even a modular outdoor kitchen system.

Not too long after they were released, Blackstone stopped selling almost all of their outdoor kitchen products. The only products left are an open pavilion and a premium drop-in griddle. Some of the pages still exist for the Galvanneal cabinets, but they are orphaned, and I don’t know if you can actually order them.

With Blackstone and Weber much more integrated, could Blackstone be getting back into outdoor kitchens, or even indoor kitchen appliances? They liked the outdoor kitchen category enough to try it before, but between the grill market tanking at that time, and their merger, the timing may not have been right. With the K-shaped economy and equity continuing to build in homes, I think we’ll see outdoor kitchens outperform other outdoor cooking categories.

Another indicator, is Blackstone continues to patent kitchen products. Previously, they filed for a trademark to cover appliances, and released patents for appliances. Their latest patents continue this trend with a modular dishwasher tray, a beverage holder design for a fridge, and a refrigerator with an ice cream maker.

I’m very intrigued by what products they’re planning with these patents, or if they aren’t really working on a new product, what the strategy is behind the patents. They remind me more of the kinds of products that SharkNinja releases.

The dishwasher tray has an innovative design where sections of it are removable. This gives you more flexibility are the size of objects you put in you dishwasher.

For the ice cream maker, it’s built into the freezer drawer of a refrigerator. You can see a motor (210) that connects to a driveshaft for mixing the ice cream as it hardens.

These all seem like pretty out of the box patents for a company like Blackstone. At the same time, even if none of these get made, I like the entrepreneurial spirit they have for coming up with these innovative ideas.