I have a 48" with grill and griddle and I wish I'd just got the grill. The griddle is a nightmare, I can't get it properly seasoned no matter what I do, it's so finicky. I've given up on using it so it just sits there with the stainless cover on top of it as a useless waste of space. Monogram, not Blue Star though; not sure if that makes a difference.

LOVE the grill and use it for small jobs (steak for two, quick shrimp, etc.) even in summer. Much easier than lighting up the barbie and running back and forth outdoors. And much much MUCH easier than coordinating dinner timing with DH who thinks that bbq'ing is "man's work", lol.

I was open to either a grill or griddle and left the decision to whichever I found at the best price in an open burner rangetop. Ended up with a Wolf with a griddle.

No regrets...I grew up cooking on an Okeefe & Merrit that had a central griddle and doing short order cooking in my parents' restaurants so griddle cooking was familiar turf.

No problems with getting the griddle seasoned. Left that job to DSII who went on a grilled cheese binge Day One after the Wolf was installed. (Esp during the seasoning process, do not wash the griddle. Just scape off the odd bits, wipe down with a paper towel &, as needed, wipe on a bit of cooking oil. Later on, after the seasoning builds up, you can lightly wash it. Don't worry about bacteria...preheat on the next cooking cycle is going to fry the baddies.)

Other than being a cooking surface, the griddle makes for a wonderful 'thaw plate', provides extra landing space (esp. handy during canning season) and will do as a 'warming drawer' in a pinch.

Which isn't to say that I wouldn't have enjoyed having the grill, esp. since I live up in Wisconsin. But the grill would have req'd beefier ventilation and I didn't like the idea of having so much heated air sucked out of the house just to do a spot of BBQ. And, I must say that I've never let cold weather & snow stop me from firing up the outdoors grill anyway. This spring I upgraded the outdoors grill to a Weber so I'm kinda' anxious to see how much better it will perform in the winter than the old piece of junk it replaced.

Thanks for both your replies! taggie, while yours was not the answer I wanted to hear, your input is exactly the reason I asked the question.
ci lantro, the uses you describe are more along the lines of what I was thinking. I still haven't placed the final order on the range yet though, and would love to hear more pros and cons. Also, having had a downdraft and wall oven for 26 years, and switching to a range with oven below and hood above is another big change I'm going to endure... any Pros cons on that decision would be welcome as well

Just think about the additional ventilation that either will need. A true gas grill on a range (as opposed to the electric "grills" that come with most downdrafts) produce a prodigious amount of smoke. That needs a ventilation system with a LOT of oomph, which is costly. It's something that you have to think about in conjunction with the range, not as a separate item. They go together and must be planned to work together. (And BUDGETED together!) Along with makeup air. You can't suck 1200 CFM out of a house without a plan to replace that air. More and more jurisdictions are getting really persnickety about enforcing those requirements. Some aren't aware of the new requirements so much, and are more lax. Just because the requirement might not be enforced doesn't make the problem it's designed to address go away and can still pose a problem with your ventilation.

I went with a griddle since, like you, we grill just outside the back door. Also, for me, the smoke/smell possibility was something I just did not want to deal with.

I read on GW all the time that a stove top griddle makes pancakes just as good as a built-in griddle, but I haven't found that to be the case.

Green Designs, Thank you, the hood and ventilation required for the range was my very first consideration when deciding to abandon the Thermador downdraft that was so the rage in 1986 when I put it in. It has served a b good long service life, but I'm ready for a change. I even went so far as to build a plywood mock up hood to scale, and hang it over my cooktop, to see how it would look in the kitchen, and it looked surprisingly good! I will be using a 1000 cfm remote blower on the roof, rather than an internal blower to help with the noise reduction.

At first glance I thought this post said...wait for it,
Grind or Griddle.

I guess that is an option open to us this fine saturday morning, hum?

Sorry for the intrusion, carry on.

We debated getting a griddle or not, and we ultimately ended up getting a separate griddle, based on the recommendation of someone here. We got the Chef King one, and it's very thick and heavy and cooks very evenly. We love it. I'm glad that we ultimately did not get the griddle because there have been several times since installing our range that we've used five or six burners. We like having the flexibility of having a griddle when we want it and not having one when we don't.

Here is a link that might be useful: Chef King griddle on Amazon

I had the Wolf rangetop with a griddle- loved the rangetop, HATED the griddle. Very difficult to season, we ended up almost never using it, it was taking so long to clean and it always looked dirty. We just liked the stainless steel cover that hosted my pretty red pot on top of it- LOL. Will never go to griddle again, at least not the one attached to the range. The separate one is different, much easier to clean ( you can do that in the sink, as opposed to the fixed one) and the fixed griddle was MESSY! Nope, not for me anymore. Next kitchen remodel will have the Wolf gas range with the grill and four burners ( I still like the stainless steel cover, I might even use the grill, who knows?)