A Labor Day Picnic, Courtesy of Garces Trading Company

Let’s face it. Labor Day weekend is kind of lame. Sure, you get Monday off and you get to act like you’re not a slave to corporate America. But deep down you know they still have you by the short hairs. They give you enough slack to enjoy your block parties and your late-season Phillies and your BBQs and your beer. But don’t be fooled: Day off or not, The Man still owns you.

To hammer home that point, Jose Garces (who, let’s face it, succumbs more to the Establishment with every TV appearance), is here to help your suburban ass keep up with the Joneses. In a brilliant twist of salesmanship, Garces is selling what he calls “Burgers and Hot Dogs To-Go Grilling Kits” out of his Garces Trading Company. Each kit provides enough mortadella hot dogs or Village Whiskey-style ground beef (plus buns, house-made chips and either pickles or signature mustard) to feed a party of four and give you enough grilling superiority to take down your asshole neighbors until at least next Memorial Day.

Admittedly, despite our mockery, we love this idea and think it may be the only thing like it going. Sure, you can pick up picnic baskets at Reading Terminal or pre-marinated steaks at Wegmans. But we don’t know anywhere else to score a bundle of fresh, raw ingredients that will make your end-of-summer picnic quite so awesome. So, in an overabundance of curiosity, we reached out and asked the Garces operation how it came up with the idea.

And as proof that corporate machinations do not rest in advance of the Labor day holiday, we received this pr-friendly answer from chef de cuisine Gregg Ciprioni: “The market at Garces Trading Company has always made available our restaurant’s quality products for home entertaining.  With one of the biggest barbeque days of the year approaching, we wanted to make ours and Village Whiskey’s artisanal grill-worthy meats available for our customers’ Labor Day celebrations.”

It’s up to you to decide whether to tell your guests that your meat was prepared by someone other than yourself. And it’s up to you to decide whether to cut the Garces operation some slack for their pr-spun ways. After all, it’s Labor Day weekend, and don’t you think that all workers deserve a break today?

Garces Trading Company [Official website]