Mark, the July/August 2003 Cooks' Illustrated review is excellent, but I am a subscriber to the magazine, not to the website (inexplicably, they are separate subscriptions). So I cannot link the review directly. I'll make a copy and send it to you.
They tested alongside Consumer Reports for this purpose, and "Highly Recommended" the Weber Genesis Silver A, Weber Genesis Silver B (Peter's grill, I think) and the Jenn-Air JA460P. My grill is the same as Peter's except it has a SS hood and an additional side table (which I rarely use).
Notably, they rated a Char-Broil Professional Series, Model 463-2335 ($900!) as "Recommended, with reservations". I cannot be sure, but the picture does resemble the Front Avenue grill at Costco. It did not get as hot as the Weber (580F v. 710F).
The comments on the Char-Broil were: "Neither steaks nor eggplant cooked as evenly as they should have, yet both chicken and salmon were impressive. The grill maintained a low temperature for salmon with minimal adjustment. Burner knobs offered little travel between high and low settings, so fine tuning the heat could be a challenge. Also, watch your hand when shutting off the gas valve after cooking; the clearance between the valve and the piping hot drip pan is minimal, so it is easy to burn the top of your hand."
Now, please note that I cannot verify that this is exactly the same grill, and there may have been meaningful improvements to the Char-Broil line since that time. So the comparison may be meaningless. However, it left me with just enough doubt to go with the Weber.
The Front Avenue manual is
here.
I could not get the manual for the exact model number of the reviewed grill to load on the Char-Broil site, but I'm pretty sure that
this is the NG equivalent.
The Front Avenue grill looks like an excellent value to me, especially since it includes the rotisserie. But I'm really happy with my Weber, and do not wonder "what if?".
