Spring is upon us and that means the grass is growing. A Monkees song by Carole King and Gerry Goffin, “Pleasant Valley Sunday,” was written when they lived in a rented house on Pleasant Valley Way in West Orange, N.J. It expounds, “The weekend squire has come out to mow his lawn,” but it’s the next verse, “charcoal burning everywhere,” is what I like to think about when it’s spring.

For the longest time I was a traditionalist and thought there was nothing better than charcoal for grilling, but I was swayed…