The appetite for fire runs hot in nearly every season at Southern Hearth and Patio, with blazing demand for fireplaces as temperatures drop in the fall, and a sizzling market for outdoor kitchens every spring and summer.
“We play hard and work harder,” says Wendy Timmerman, the manager of the Lee Highway business, which opened in 2000, and sold in 2017 to Mississippi-based Blossman Gas.
The store on Lee Highway has a staff of 13, including six full-time installation technicians, and nearly two decades of expertise in providing high-end products from fireplaces and grills to tankless water heaters and backyard fire pits.
“Our customers are not looking for a clearance grill,” Timmerman says. “They’re in here looking for the best grill they can get.”
Nearly everything they sell is made in the U.S., and some of it is tough to get anywhere else in the region, Timmerman says.