No Prep – Manning the Grill at Sno-Cap

Being a cook in a restaurant must be one of the most stressful jobs on the planet. Not only do you have to cook food that is delicious, but you also must do it in a timely manner. Also, it’s not just one and done. You may have three, or four, possibly more, orders that all come in at the same time. You’re on the clock, people are hungry, and they’re waiting on you. It’s a specific stress I was about to experience firsthand. 

I was going to be on the grill at the historic Sno-Cap Drive-In in North Augusta. Now, I do have a little grill experience. I’ve cooked burgers on my grill at home. It turns out making burgers that way and making them in a restaurant are two completely different things. For instance, I can’t drink a beer while I work the grill at Sno-Cap.  

That would be frowned upon. 

As soon as I got to Sno-Cap, I got right to work. First up, the kitchen staff showed me how to butter and toast the hamburger buns. By the way, they have a butter roller at Sno-Cap. You just roll the bun over this thing and it evenly butters your buns. I wondered where I could get one of these. I’d like perfectly buttered buns. 

Enough talk about buns being buttered.  

While the buns were toasting, I was shown where the hamburger patties were. I put on my black rubber gloves, grabbed some meat, and went to work. One of the main differences between grilling at home and working the grill at Sno-Cap is, at home I can walk away for a few minutes. At the Sno-Cap, I was constantly watching the burger, flipping, checking, flipping, pressing down on the patty, flipping again. No relief and it gets really hot working behind that flat top grill. I do not envy the professionals who do that on a hot summer day. 

I did have the Sno-Cap staff watching over my shoulder making sure I wasn’t about to serve a half-done hamburger. It is, as it turns out, important. I was pretty sure that the burger was done, but I wanted confirmation. 

When I was told that the burger looked good, I went for the cheese. I pulled from my backyard grill experience here and estimate the melt time at about 15 seconds. 

I grabbed the spatula and slid the burger patty onto the freshly buttered bun. Sidenote - I always get nervous when it comes to pulling a burger off the grill with a spatula. I feel like I’m going to drop it every time. It has actually only happened once… or twice.  

The burger was on the bun, the cheese was sufficiently melted, and now it was time to see how I did.  

I took the first bite, and kind of surprised myself as to how good it was. Of course, the meat that Sno-Cap uses had a lot to do with it, but it was actually cooked pretty close to perfect. I’m not just saying that because I made it.  

I’ve always had respect for the staff that cooks my food at a restaurant, and now I have even more. Thanks to Brad and Havird Usry, Steven Mentrup, and the entire staff at Sno-Cap for their help with this task, because as always, I had No Prep.