A few quick thoughts...

- You might find griddle/flat-top real estate more useable than burners: https://bamasotan.us/griddle-faq/

- We use our warming drawers pretty much daily. There's always something ready before it's needed, meat needing to rest in a warm environment before cutting, or to warm up plates before plating and serving.

- Good ice makers produce much better looking and tasting ice than any freezer. They can be somewhat noisy (our Scotsman has been nicknamed the cyborg). We normally only run ours (outlet controlled by HA system) from 8a to noon to eliminate noise and reduce water & electric usage. We've never not had fresh ice even before 8a the next morning. If we're entertaining then it runs until later in the evening.

- Our secondary frig and freezer are in our garage but our scullery is smaller than your pantry.

More: https://bamasotan.us/the-kitchen/

@bmorepanic Thanks for your idea! Do you have a higher resolution version of your revised drawing? It is showing up as very tiny for me and I can't make out all of the details.

Are you saying you'd do induction on the island and also keep the gas rangetop? I had toyed with a similar idea earlier in the process but wasn't sure how to handle ventilation -- the ceiling will be very high, and downdrafts seem ineffective.

The refrigerator in the pantry in the original concept is intended as backup only -- overflow capacity for extraordinary situations or in case of failure of the primary refrigerator/freezer. I can't tell exactly what you did for cooling appliances because of the picture.

Did you have a specific reason for moving the theater entrance? Was that just to make it closer to the bar, or for some other reason?

@opaone Thanks for the comments!

I have already reviewed your great content, but I will revisit it now for a refresher. Are you suggesting that if I do a 48" rangetop to do 4 burners and 24" griddle? Or were you hinting that I should look at doing a 60" with 24" griddle?

For warming drawers, I considered those use cases, but it seems I could do those things in the oven or steam oven, assuming they weren't in use for some other purpose. Does the warming drawer provide some specific benefit?

Controlling the ice maker through a HA system is a very interesting idea....not sure why I didn't think of that, especially since I had already been looking at units that have an "8 hour pause" feature, for the same reasons you mention. I am not sure that abruptly terminating and restoring power to the device is good for it, though...I've always heard that's a no-no. That could be bad information, though.

I considered putting the secondary refrigerator/freezer in the garage, and my garage is even in a place where that would work well. However, I'm a bit tight on garage space and I'm not sure how well the unit would fare in the TX heat. This is still something I have some flexibility with, though.

Let me try this again.

I like to cook facing people or looking outside.

@bmorepanic Yes, that is much better, thank you. I generally prefer to face people when cooking, too. I need to think about this design, but it is definitely intriguing. I do miss the service area outside of the guest suite, though.

Different people have different needs. As I outlined in my posts a 48" all gas w/ 4 burners and 24" griddle/flattop serves us well 98% of the time and then the countertop induction hobs add some additional versatility/capability.

I talked w/ Scotsman and they said cutting the power is fine. It's not ideal but given Scotsman's lack of a timer it is what it is. Ideally every icemaker should have the ability to set a programmed on and off time along with an overide for entertaining. If a $20 coffee maker can do that an icemaker certainly can. An 8 hr pause is better than nothing but still very limiting - we do a 20 hr pause most days.

I would NOT put any range in the island - unless you live on an island (and so have lots of windows open at all times) or are OK with a really big hood. https://bamasotan.us/range-exhaust-hood-faq/

If you want a griddle/flattop (and I do recommend them) then stick with gas. Consumer level induction and electric perform quite poorly. And if you like to cook or want to expand your abilities then you'll want gas burners. Induction works well for a lot of people and perhaps most people but there's a reason restaurants still use gas.

Consider doing a pass-thru between your pantry/scullery/prep and kitchen (good idea on using that as back prep or scullery). Counter level so things can be slid thru. Pocket door (about 12x12 or 12x18). You could also include a fixed window or two between the two.

@opaone Yes, I do remember you being quite happy with your 4 burner, 24" griddle setup. I'm a bit hesitant to pull the trigger on a 24" griddle given that I don't even know if I like having a griddle yet. I know it can be used for pots (for some stuff) but it's still a lot of real estate to dedicate to something I may not use. I will definitely be using gas as my primary fuel source, but earlier I had toyed with having a small induction cooktop so when @bmorepanic mentioned it, it rekindled that thought. With my setup doing any cooking on the island would be tricky because a big hood (which I have over an island now, btw) would kill the aesthetics.

It's great that you actually talked to the folks at Scotsman about your timer idea. I'm really liking that. I don't understand why no one offers greater timer flexibility -- it seems there would be a market for it. But very few companies offer any timer at all, so perhaps I'm mistaken on the market size.

That's an interesting idea on the pass through. I am still considering the scullery concept, and if I go that route will look for a way to include a pass through.

I think most people don't have a clue how much electricity and water is wasted w/ their ice makers. In order to provide fresh ice they have a cooler to keep the ice cold, a heater in the bottom that melts ice, a pump to pump the resulting water up to a drain, a motor for driving ice out of the molds and then some electronics.

I think the basic layout is fine--clean-up is near the DR and primary prep is near the fridge and pantry. I'd consolidate the fridge/freezer columns, with a MW in an upper to the left of the fridge. Fridge isn't convenient to the DR, but given the choice between the two zones, I'd rather have clean-up and dish storage near the DR. Have you considered seating on the short side of the island? Might make conversation easier.

I agree with opaone--no cooktop or range on the island.

@mama goose_gw zn6OH Thanks for your comments!

I had separated the refrigerator and freezer so there is convenient landing space. Otherwise, the closest space would be either on the island (which is "far" for a landing space IMHO) or you'd need to walk around the door to access the counter. As you have it drawn, for one of the units, you'd need to not only walk around the door, but also walk across the other unit. It seems this would be cumbersome, but perhaps I'm wrong. In my current kitchen, there is a counter immediately behind you when you're in the refrigerator/freezer, so you can easily set things down just by pivoting (it's actually a bit tighter than it ideally would be).

As for the seating at the island, I have a waterfall edge planned for where you added the 2 stools, and I'd like to keep that design if possible. I have the one chair on the working side of the island so the TV can be seen and to facilitate convenient discussion with one or two other people.

I'm leaning more toward building in the microwave somewhere in the kitchen, and the pictures you provided were very helpful for ideas -- thanks.

@opaone I agree that many don't realize the water and electricity usage. What's an example of a machine that works as you describe? All of the units I've seen work very differently...they don't have coolers to keep the ice cold, nor heaters to melt ice, nor motors to remove the ice from the molds.