Cooking on a bare patio with a grill on wheels? We build a block and stone kitchen sized to your appliances.
Outdoor kitchen masonry in Brownsville is the solid base that holds your grill, burners and countertop. We build it as a gray concrete block structure first, then cover it with brick or stone veneer, which is stone set in mortar over the block, so it looks like finished work and not a pile of block on your patio. One masonry guide calls stone veneer the most popular finish, and it's the one most people ask me about.
The price comes down to size and shape, how many appliance openings it needs, the finish you pick and whether your slab is ready for it or needs work first. A straight run with a grill and a couple of drawers is a different job from an L with a sink, a fridge and a bar top. I look at it in person, and you get a written price for the work we talked about.
The schedule mostly turns on things outside the block. Your appliances have to be picked before the layout is final, the countertop has to be made, and other trades have to fit into the middle of the build. Before any block goes down, we check what the city or county office for your property asks for, and when a permit's needed, we pull it and call for the inspections.
It's a short list, and you deal with the same person from the first visit to the last joint.
You call or send a message, and I'm the one who shows up, not a salesman. I learned this trade on an old-school mason's crews and have run this business in Brownsville since 2023, so I'll look at your slab and where the kitchen would sit and ask what you plan to cook on.
We go over your appliance list and the layout together, and then I write up a price for that work. If your slab or your plan has a problem, I'll tell you straight at that point, not after the block is up.
If you go ahead, we sort out what your city or county office wants first, and then our own crew builds it while I run the job and walk the finished kitchen with you. We're licensed and fully insured.
We start from your appliances, not from a pretty drawing. Pick your grill and appliances before we lay block so the openings fit the first time, because cutting out finished block to make room for a bigger grill means paying for that wall twice. The slab under the kitchen should slope away from your house, and any closed-in section of the base needs drain holes, so water doesn't stand on the slab or sit inside the block. Once the block is up, we stop and line up the other trades so they run their lines before the stone goes on and the job keeps moving instead of sitting half-built. Then we set the stone or brick and tool the joints clean.
Most kitchens tie into something else in the yard. If you need a path from the back door, our walkway construction work lets the walk and the kitchen slab meet clean, and if you want a screen wall or a low wall around the cooking area, brick wall installation can match the kitchen's finish.
The masonry is only part of the job. Here's the order it goes in, and what's on you at each stage.
Have your grill, side burner, fridge or sink chosen and the cutout sizes from the spec sheets in hand. Every opening we build comes off those numbers, so this is the one step that can't wait.
Our crew lays the block on a sound slab with the openings right where you want them. It'll look rough and gray at this stage, and that's normal until it's covered.
With the block up, the trades run power, water or gas to where the appliances will sit, before any stone hides the base. We set those visits up ahead of time so you're not left waiting on a call that never came.
We set the stone or brick, the countertop goes on once it's made, and the appliances slide into openings that were built for them. Then we clean up and go over the work joint by joint.
Tell us the size you have in mind and send your appliance list if you've got one. E&M Brownsville Concrete and Masonry will get back to you within one business day to set a time, and I'll come out, look over your yard and give you a free estimate on site. There's no obligation to go ahead.
(956) 505-5518One masonry guide puts the block and stone work on a standard L-shaped outdoor kitchen at 7 to 12 working days. The countertop adds a 2 to 3 week wait for fabrication, and the trades who run your lines need their own slot, so plan for longer than the masonry days alone. Picking your appliances early keeps the whole thing from stretching.
You apply online through the city's Accela Citizen Access portal, and the city's building permits office reviews plans and issues permits for all remodeling and new construction. If you have a question about your own lot, the office is at 1001 E Elizabeth Street and takes calls at 956-546-4357. On a kitchen we build, that paperwork is ours to handle.
The city does, not the state. The state licensing agency, TDLR, counts wiring run out to an outdoor kitchen as electrical work, and it says cities and counties inspect work in their own areas while it doesn't do the inspections local permits require. In Brownsville, the city's office inspects work under the permits it issues once an inspection is requested.
You don't need to, because clay brick needs no paint or surface treatment. Once exterior masonry is painted, most paint authorities agree it needs repainting every three to five years, so bare brick saves you a job that keeps coming back. If you like a dark brick, know that efflorescence, a white deposit that comes from mortar, concrete or soil touching the brick, shows up more against dark colors.
We're based in Brownsville and work across the Rio Grande Valley cities around it, including San Benito, Harlingen, Los Fresnos and Port Isabel, along with others nearby. The kitchen gets built the same way wherever you are, and we check with whichever office covers your property before we start.
Most of the kitchens I get asked about go on a back patio slab that's already there. Sometimes that slab is fine, and sometimes it was poured flat or tips back toward the house, and I'd rather tell you that at the estimate than build you a good kitchen on a slab that holds water.
Have the model names or cutout sizes ready when you call (956) 505-5518 or use our contact form, and we can start talking layout on the first call instead of the second.
If you've got a patio and a grill in mind, tell us about it and we'll take it from there.
Tell us about your project