The grill cook at a diner in Phoenix taught me one trick with burgers and it fixed my whole service
I was staging at a little diner off Van Buren in Phoenix last month, just watching the grill guy work a 90 burger lunch rush. He kept a squeeze bottle of ice water next to the flat top and gave each patty a quick spritz right after he flipped it. Said it steams the middle and keeps the edges from drying out before the cheese goes on. I tried it back at my spot the next week and my ticket times dropped by about 40 seconds per order. The weird part is the burgers looked better too, juicier and less gray in the middle. Has anyone else messed with a water spritz on their flat top, or is this just a Phoenix diner thing?
Been cooking on flat tops for years and water on the grill always made me nervous for food safety and getting the surface temp back up. Spritzing right after the flip makes more sense though, since the top side is still raw and the water pulls heat down into it instead of just sitting there. My worry is the flat top cooling off mid rush and messing with your sear on the next batch. Did you notice any drop in crust or did the 40 seconds come back to you somewhere else in the ticket?