Who Builds Outdoor Kitchens Near Me in Chicagoland?

September 28, 2026

Tommy Pollina Landscape Company builds outdoor kitchens across Chicago, the North Shore, and the northwest suburbs. We handle the full build, from excavation and base work to the finished island with grills, fireplaces, fire pits, and lighting, and we've completed custom kitchen island construction as part of hardscape projects, including one in Evanston.

Key Takeaways

• We've been solving landscape problems in Chicagoland for 45 years, including a custom outdoor kitchen island project in Evanston.
• Our outdoor kitchen builds include grills, fireplaces, fire pits, lighting, and heating upgrades tied into surrounding hardscape.
• Every kitchen we build sits on an excavated, compacted base with drainage worked in to handle freeze-thaw movement.
• We hold NDS Professional Drainage Contractor certification, which covers the drainage work underneath outdoor kitchen hardscape.
• Our landscape lighting uses Kichler fixtures, with convertible bulbs you can swap for holidays or the season.

What Our Outdoor Kitchen Builds Include

An outdoor kitchen is only as good as what's built into it and what it sits on. We design and construct kitchen islands with built-in grills, fireplaces, and fire pits, then tie in lighting and heating upgrades so the space works after dark and into the cooler months. Our Evanston project paired a custom outdoor kitchen island with the rest of a hardscape build, which is how most of our kitchen work happens. It's rarely a standalone feature. It usually goes in alongside a patio, a retaining wall, or a paver walkway, all built at the same time so the grading and drainage tie together correctly.

If you want to see finished work before you commit to anything, our gallery of landscaping and hardscaping projects has photos organized by service category, including outdoor kitchens.

What Does the Outdoor Kitchen Design and Build Process Look Like?

Our outdoor construction management process runs through five steps: an on-site meeting and consultation, design and proposal development, contract signing, installation and execution, and a final walkthrough. Each step is documented before the next one starts, so you know what's being built and why before crews break ground.

Here's how that breaks down in practice:

• On-site consultation: we walk the property, look at existing hardscape and drainage, and talk through what you want the kitchen to do.
• Design and proposal: we put together a plan, often with 3D renderings, that maps the kitchen against grading, drainage, and any hardscape it connects to.
• Contract signing: scope and pricing get locked in before installation starts.
• Installation and execution: excavation, base work, structural build, and finish work happen in sequence.
• Final walkthrough: we go through the finished kitchen with you before calling the job done.

If a full outdoor build with construction management sounds like what your project needs, our outdoor design and build service covers the whole process from that first meeting through the walkthrough.

Why the Base Underneath an Outdoor Kitchen Matters

An outdoor kitchen is a masonry structure sitting outside, exposed to Chicago winters, which means the ground underneath it does most of the work over time. We build every kitchen on an excavated, compacted base with proper grading, because poor compaction and water sitting beneath the surface are the main reasons brick and stone structures crack, heave, or settle. Freeze-thaw expansion moves anything built on an unstable base, and a kitchen island is heavier and less forgiving than a patio when that happens.

This is also why drainage work often gets built in even when nobody asked for it up front. We hold NDS Professional Drainage Contractor certification, and that training covers exactly this kind of work, moving water away from a structure's foundation before it ever becomes a problem. If your yard already has standing water or a wet spot near where you want the kitchen, our drainage systems service handles that as part of the same project rather than as an afterthought.

What Affects the Cost of an Outdoor Kitchen Build?

Outdoor kitchen cost depends mostly on size, materials, and how many built-in features you add. A small island with a grill costs less than a full kitchen with a fireplace, heating, and lighting tied into an existing patio. Site conditions, like whether drainage or grading work is needed first, factor in too.

Material choice makes a real difference. We build with brick and stone, natural bluestone, and Unilock pavers with EnduraColor finish technology, and each comes with its own price point and look. Adding a fire pit or fireplace, integrated heating, or Kichler landscape lighting adds to the scope, but it also adds to how much the space gets used across the year. Because we handle design, excavation, hardscape, and finish work as one project, we can price the kitchen against the site conditions we find during the consultation rather than guessing from a floor plan alone.

Materials and Features We Build With

Our outdoor kitchens are built from the same materials we use across our brick and stone hardscape work: clay pavers, natural bluestone, and Unilock pavers finished with EnduraColor technology for color that holds up to salt and seasonal wear. Bluestone in particular is built to handle snow, salt, ground movement, and vehicle weight where it's used on adjoining driveways or patios, which matters when a kitchen sits at the edge of a drive or transition area.

On top of the structure itself, we build in the features that make the space usable:

• Built-in grills, fireplaces, and fire pits
• Heating upgrades for shoulder-season use
• Kichler landscape lighting, with convertible fixtures you can change out for parties or holidays
• Integrated hardscape connecting the kitchen to a patio, walkway, or retaining wall

For a closer look at how brick and stone construction fits together on a project like this, our hardscaping services page covers installation and repair across walkways, patios, and kitchens.

Where in Chicagoland Do We Build Outdoor Kitchens?

We build outdoor kitchens across Chicago and the surrounding North Shore and northwest suburbs, working from our Mt. Prospect location. Our service area covers towns including Arlington Heights, Barrington, Buffalo Grove, Deer Park, Deerfield, Des Plaines, Edison Park, Elmhurst, Evanston, Glencoe, Glenview, Highland Park, Inverness, and Kenilworth.

If you're outside that specific list, it's worth a call. We've built projects across a wide stretch of Chicagoland, and our contact page has our direct line if you want to check before filling out anything in more detail. You can also read more about how we approach outdoor projects on our landscape design page, which covers how we map grading, drainage, hardscape, and planting together before anything gets installed.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do you offer outdoor kitchen design plans without a full installation?

Yes. We offer landscape design as a standalone service, including 3D renderings and walkthroughs, so you can have a kitchen plan priced and engineered before deciding whether to install right away or phase the work. Most clients move from design straight into installation, but the plan stands on its own if you need it that way.

Can an outdoor kitchen be added onto an existing patio?

Yes, this is common. We tie new kitchen islands into existing patios, walkways, and hardscape by matching grading and drainage to what's already there. It usually requires excavation around the connection point to make sure the new structure sits on a properly compacted base rather than just butting up against the old one.

Can you add a fire pit or fireplace alongside an outdoor kitchen?

Yes. Fire pits and fireplaces are among the documented features we build into outdoor kitchen projects, alongside grills, heating upgrades, and lighting. They're typically built as part of the same hardscape footprint as the kitchen island so the whole space reads as one connected outdoor living area.

What lighting works best around an outdoor kitchen?

We install Kichler landscape lighting for outdoor kitchens, chosen for safety, curb appeal, and extended use into the evening. The fixtures are convertible, meaning you can swap bulbs for holidays, parties, or the season without replacing the whole fixture, which is useful around a space you'll be using well past sunset.

If you've got a spot in your yard you've been picturing a kitchen in, or you're not sure what the site can handle yet, send over the details in the form below and we'll take it from there.