I think having to choose between grill and griddle is a wonderful sort of problem to have! Seems like someone here has posted that they clean their grill by turning it on high and putting a disposable [which they re-use] foil baking pan on it, upside-down, to hold the heat in. Supposed to work great. I like to grill, don't eat much griddle sort of food. My only agonizing springs from the cleaning, and since the bluestar comes with a cover the choice seems obvious. Obvious today, that is: by tomorrow, I may have changed my mind. Either way: no stress, it'll be fine, really. I wouldn't do either on a 36 inch range unless I was certain I'd use them at least a couple times a week. But I sigh heavily when a salesman says something to me to the effect of 'most people who get the grill hates it'-- oh, really? Have you taken a poll? Are ya psychic? It's just personal opinion masquerading as science, sort of like the New York writer who couldn't believe Reagan could win the Presidency since none of her friends were voting for him...

I saw that episode & thought it looked really good.

Oh man! I am almost drooling. LOL Mine is boring (but still pretty good), and kind of low fat. Well, lower fat. I have one of those pump and spray bottles that you put olive oil in, pump it then spray it in the pan (like Pam). So, first off I spray the skillet / pan with Olive oil. THen when it's nice and hot I lay the first piece of bread (usually whole wheat) down in the pan. Then I put grated cheese on the bread (light / low fat cheese usually a mozerlla + cheddar blend. THen put the top of the bread on the cheese. Lightly spray the top bread with olive oil. Then flip it over to let the other side brown. Really good, and evenly browned. You wouldn't know that it was low fat cheese and low in sat fat. And the olive oil makes it brown very nicely, and you probably use less than a teaspoon of olive oil for the whole sandwich. Probably a lot less than if you buttered the bread. Grilled swiss cheese is amazing! The one and only time I use ketchup is with grilled cheese.

Julievarg "Open burners/closed burners/btu's/all have my head spinning. " I think it is worth the investment of time to understand what these features represent. That way you can get exactly what matches your style of cooking, saving yourself a lot of aggravation and not wasting your money. You can see through any marketing hype that comes your way. If you can, try to cook on the ones you are seriously considering with your pans if possible. You are already way ahead of the game in not choosing a range based in a preference for certain burners or oven and then having to take what comes with it. Cooking is a multidimensional process. You have a heat source, the pan which is the interface between the heat source and the food you are cooking. Each has to be considered and everybody has different ways they cook so no one "best". Looking at the heat source . "Open" vs "sealed" is ambiguous terminology at best. People use it to refer to the burner cap, the burner tray, in this thread the control and even the "power", the BTUs. These are all separate things. BTUs- high is great if you need a lot of heat quickly-like boiling a lot of water quickly or larger quantities of stir fry. If you want to sear a steak, you can use a big cast iron pan on lower BTUs and it will come to a very high temperature but it might take a little longer. You mentioned wanting a low simmer. You have to know the BTUs to compare on the low side as well, apples to apples. The temperature number given by most manufacturers means nothing. Nobody is marketing their high BTUs by saying it is rated at 500F. Capped vs uncapped burner - the cap was developed not that long ago to keep gunk out of the burner ports. It was in conjunction with the sealed burner tray so this why some have this confused. On high heat this can cause more flare of the burner but the amount depends on how the burner is engineered so you have to see it in action. The uncapped burner allows a more upward flame as is oft quoted "to the center of the pan". Some market this as "even heat" but if it is all to the center of the pan and a small pan, that might be true but if all the heat is to the center of the pan and you have a 14" skillet, then it would be a hot spot in the middle. You can't have it both ways. Luckily though the right choice of cookware helps this tremendously. Some range tops have different sizes of burners to accommodate different size pans while others have all the same with one small pot burner. The pro style ranges have bigger size burners than most non pro style. Shape of the burner- This might be a single ring, triple ring or star. The star burners have the widest dispersal of heat. There are dual stacked burners like Wolf or Miele so that you have a simmer burner stacked with a regular burner. At this point look at your cookware. What type of cookware do you use? The star burners with different sizes become more important if you use something like cast iron, steel or stainless steel because they don't conduct heat well and tend to hot spot so that would be good. If you use heavy copper or aluminum, the pan evens the heat out. Control of the flame comes from the knob which you turn to allow the amount of fuel so that you have the right flame for the job. How easily and smoothly can you move through the range of BTUs? Some knobs go from low to high with little movement of the knob. Others take more movement of the knob to move through the range giving finer control. There are dual stacked burners that have a full range for the lower burner and full range of movement for the top burner. Something to notice if you get to try them out. Sealed vs semi sealed vs open burner trays I don't have any preference on way or the other but many have very strong opinions either way about what is easier to clean. Some of the materials used to make the rangetop could have just as much effect on ease of cleaning. Look at what is involved in cleaning to make up your mind. I would try to keep your research as independent as possible. If you talk to any dealer, they are going to cast their products in the most favorable light. I have recommended Eurostoves a couple if times on this forum in the last week or so, if you are going to buy BS or a Capital product, but I have never heard Trevor Lawson recommend anything but products from those two lines. The fan boys will disagree but, there are some who will be better served by considering other product lines as well. Since the griddle is important, you might want to look into the specifics there-thickness, what type of metal, type of burner under there( infrared might be a little more even than a regular burner), range of BTUs.