I have always loved the way a simple fire can bring people together. But while living and playing professional basketball in the South of France, I experienced that connection in a different way.

Through my fiancée and her family, I became part of evenings that were not rushed. Fire sat at the center. Food cooked slowly. People talked, participated, and stayed long after the meal was finished.

One evening, I watched her cousin cook on a brasero—a circular live-fire grill with an open flame at the center and a cooking surface surrounding it. I was drawn to its design, but what stayed with me was what it caused people to do.

Everyone naturally gathered around it.

The person cooking never had to turn away from the group. Food, fire, and conversation remained in the same circle. Cooking was not separate from the gathering; it became part of it.

When I returned to California, I could not stop thinking about that experience. I wanted to create something that brought the same warmth, presence, and shared participation into our backyards here.

That became Sudfire.

Founded in Clovis, California—the Central Valley that raised me—Sudfire is inspired by the fire culture I experienced in the South of France and shaped for the way we gather at home.

Every Sudfire Hearth is built to perform as a serious live-fire grill. But its greater purpose is to become the center of the evening—a place where meals are made, stories are shared, and people stay connected long after the food is done.

Sudfire is not only about what you cook.

It is about what happens while you are gathered around the fire.

Fire. Food. Fellowship.

— Darrin Person Jr.
Founder, Sudfire