A Quick Tour of Richard Griot’s Personal Garage

By Weston Henderson

Weston Henderson

Last weekend Ryan and I headed down to a Fife-based garage outfitting and car care company called Griot’s Garage, to take a tour of their warehouse and the owner’s personal man-cave. Griot’s Garage has been around since 1990 and has been working on bringing forward the most innovative and time-saving tools and devices for your personal garage or shop. Richard Griot, the owner,  described the company as “the culmination of 20 years of my love for cars.”  And he simply wants to help others share in that love.

Touring the Fife warehouse was more interesting then I had originally anticipated. It houses retail, customer service, product demo room and a full distribution facility. Being mostly catalog orders, the retail area is the smallest of all with a few of the most popular items on display and available for purchase. However, if you find yourself thumbing through the catalog and decide you can’t live without it, one of the helpful associates will run and grab it from the warehouse for you. The demo room was my favorite area , complete with just about every product that Griot’s Garage has to offer: workbenches, cabinets, polishes, polishers, tools, rolling cases, the list goes on and on.

We happened to be there on Italian day and Ryan and I started to get a little too excited when we saw this brand new Alfa Romeo 8C parked out front.

There was a slew of other Italian cars in attendance, but the real story starts to unfold when we were shuttled off to Mr. Griot’s personal garage for a tour of what his products look like in a private home.

How would you like a garage like this?

Don’t let the doors fool you into thinking that this garage is of your standard 3-car caliber. More like 3 buses, a crane, the family truckster and plenty of room for a keg and a broken-down Camaro. This thing was huge! At 2,500 sq. ft. this thing is larger then most house and also boasts 12’9″ ceilings!

Where would I even begin to explain all of the goodies in this garage… engine-pulling crane complete with a mounted beam for easy movement? Check. In-floor, under-car lighting? Check. Lighting custom-tailored to your age, integrated into work surfaces and floors? Check. Ceramic tiling, wood counter tops, hydraulic garage doors, brake lathe, compressed air and even compressed water? Check times six! Take a look at the garage section of the catalog because pretty much every item they offer was on display and usable in this dream garage.

Peeling your eyes off of all the awesome toys in this thing will only make you notice the view out of the four giant bay windows. I can just see it: “Guys, I’m beat! We’ve been trying to pull this motor all day, what do ya say we go take a spin around the lake real quick?” Must be nice.

Richard Griot ended his garage tour by listing his key points to keep in mind when developing your dream garage. Some of the highlights:

1. Think about compressed air before laying your slab.
2. Think about in-ground lighting.
3. Will you need hot water for washing cars?
4. Counter tops should be at hip level.
5. Lighting should be measured so that you have sufficient lighting near your feet and especially on counter tops.
6. Flooring should be durable.  Griot recommended ceramic tile but any of the surfaces such as painted concrete or snap-together tile should be durable enough.

We haven’t yet received any products from Griot’s to test, but if and when we do, we’ll be sure to give you a full write-up on how they work! For now, if you want more information, you can check out their full catalog here.

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