Last week we spent a long weekend in Denver visiting friends. To say it was a spectacular visit is an understatement.

Denver is simply amazing. We had the hustle of the city on one side and the majesty of the mountains on the other. Our time flew by. Our hosts were impeccable.

We spent Saturday hiking.

For lunch, we stopped at the picturesque Bistro Colorado.

Featuring a farm fresh menu, I feasted on an elk burger.

Fabulous and hardly gamey.

We also sampled a number of their wines.

While everything about the day was perfect, it was a dinner party that night which reigned supreme.

The running joke was we were going to Scott & Christina’s for dinner, but I was the one doing the grilling. The guest, me, will cook. As funny as this may seem, I would not have had it any other way. Besides, Marsha was there to help keep me on track and the opportunity to grill at Scott & Christina’s beautiful home was a gift.

This point was further accentuated since I was grilling on an original Performer and this:

The Vieluxe.

The Vieluxe is, believe it or not, a Weber grill. Manufactured between 2001-2005, it was a luxury grill, literally. It also had a luxury price tag topping out at around $8000.

While the Vieluxe name has faded off the front of the grill, everything is original. Outside of one of the ignitors, which just needs new batteries, everything works perfectly. Not bad for a 13-year-old grill.

The Vieluxe is a beast. It’s heavy, it’s solid, and it could survive a natural disaster.

I immediately, of course, tweeted a picture of the Vieluxe. Chris Allingham, from the indispensable Virtual Weber Bullet and Virtual Weber Gas Grill, immediately filled me in on some details. Just a few days ago, Chris added a post about the Vieluxe to the VWGG on the heels of our tweets. For all of the background information on the Vieluxe, including some publicity stills and pamphlets, I encourage you to check it out.

Scott raised the lid and fired it up. While the burner’s were rated for 75,000 BTUs, they certainly seemed hotter. Maybe it was the mountain air, but I was fairly certain I lost hair on my arms reaching for some asparagus.

The side table slid out of the way to reveal two side burners. I love how there is no sacrifice for space. You can use the burners and the side table at the same time.

I found it interesting that the rotisserie IR burner had a cover. It was also huge, probably twice the size of the IR burner on my Summit. Scott has used the rotisserie a lot through the years.

While the Vieluxe handled asparagus, peppers, veggie burgers, and romaine, the Performer, also in near flawless condition, handled the main event: a herb encrusted beef tenderloin.

Sorry there are no plated pictures of dinner. I was talking so much, I almost missed my mark on the meat. Only Zoë and Marsha pulled me back into action and truthfully, the meat was a little more medium than it should have been.

As the sun settled over the horizon, we feasted on dinner, drank wine, and laughed. A lot. With darkness upon us, I also enjoyed a bottle of Great Divide’s Oatmeal Yeti Imperial Stout, which Shum had brought me. When in Denver, drink Denver.

It was a weekend full of adventure, friends, grilling, and history. What more can you ask for?