Kitchen Stations in Burger Shift: Team Rush
Who owns the flat top, wrap, drinks, cooler, dumpster, and Early Access fryer or ice cream.
A Burger Shift: Team Rush kitchen is a set of stations that hate sharing the same pair of hands. The Early Access build that entered on 11 September 2026 gives you a grill / flat top, an assembly / wrap counter, a soda fountain, a coffee machine, a walk-in cooler, front of house, and dumpsters. The full Early Access feature set adds a fryer, ice cream / soft-serve, Drive-Thru, takeaway, and hireable NPC employees. If you are still on the Prologue or demo, you will not see every station on this page, and hiring stays locked.
The point of a station map is role routing, not interior decorating. One person on a station is a plan. Three people on the same flat top is a traffic jam with spatulas. Read this page with the role tier list open if you want a ranking, and with the Co-op Guide open if you need lobby size, voice, and kick rules. Cooking percentages live on How to Cook Burgers.
Grill / flat top
This is the heat. Patties go on the steel, the spatula flips around 85–90% doneness, both sides cook toward 100%. The grill owner does not leave to pour soda. They do not wander to the dining room to chat. They call for meat when the stack is low and they plate cooked patties toward assembly. If the grill is empty, the whole shop is empty, no matter how pretty the wrap station looks.
Batch size is a station rule. Watch what you drop. A crowded flat top with no flip plan is how you serve mixed doneness to two tables at once. In a two-player lobby, grill is job one. In a larger lobby, grill is still job one; you just finally have permission to staff the rest.
Assembly / wrap
Assembly faces the fillings: lettuce, tomato, onion, pickles, sauces, buns, and wrapping paper. Burger Flow taught multi-carry for small fillings, unwrap / re-wrap, receipt hover, and the inspection panel for Prep Pan contents. The wrap person lives on those verbs. They hover the receipt, build what the paper says, wrap, inspect, and only then pass the ticket forward.
Do not assemble on the grill. Do not store a private pile of tomatoes on the steel. Keep wrapping stocked; the market computer orders it, and the truck arrives at the back. If paper runs out, grill has nowhere to send meat. That is an assembly failure, not a cook failure.
Drinks: soda fountain and coffee machine
Drinks are a station even when your friends pretend they are a side quest. The soda fountain and coffee machine sit with front of house more than with the flat top. One player can own both drink machines in a small lobby. In an eight-player rush, drinks can be a full body. Achievement names Fountain Service and Morning Brew exist in the 20-item Steam list; this page does not invent unlocks, but the names tell you Nova Telum Studio expects cups to be part of the job.
Call drinks early. A perfect burger that waits on a coffee is a late ticket. Patience alerts name the customer, table, and time left — use them to decide whether to finish a second soda or run the cup you already have.
Fryer and ice cream in Early Access
The full Early Access kitchen adds a fryer and ice cream / soft-serve. They were not the Prologue’s core loop. Staff them like drinks: someone owns the extra heat and the extra cold, or those tickets stall behind burgers. Brain Freeze exists as an achievement name; do not invent a condition, just remember that frozen service is a real station once your build includes it.
If your lobby is five or fewer, do not volunteer two people to ice cream while the grill is lonely. Extra stations are how Manager’s 35% customer bump eats unassigned crews. Extra stations are not a reason to ignore wrap.
Front of house, walk-in cooler, dumpster
Front of house is the queue, the menu boards, the pass, and the dining room. Someone has to read tickets, watch patience alerts, and carry finished food. In solo play, that someone is you between flips. In co-op, a runner or a dedicated pass player stops cooks from walking plates.
The walk-in cooler is restock. Patties, produce, and anything that dies at room temperature live here. A runner loops cooler to grill and cooler to assembly. NPC employees in the Early Access build can stock ingredients and clean tables, which is why the Employees Guide matters once hiring unlocks. Until then, a human runner is the cooler.
Dumpsters are a station as of Dumpster Duty (3 December 2025). Bins fill and must be emptied. Speed still pays tip bonuses, so trash runs during a lull, not after a walkout. Place-single from a stack keeps you from throwing away a whole tomato pile when you meant to bin a burnt patty.
Role routing by lobby size
Solo, Trainee: you rotate grill → wrap → drinks → bins in tiny batches. Do not open Manager and expect the building to forgive you.
Two players: grill + wrap/drinks. The wrap player also empties bins.
Three players: grill, wrap, drinks/runner.
Four to five: add a dedicated runner for cooler, dumpster, and front of house. If Drive-Thru is open in your build, this is the first size that can spare a window without starving the dining room.
Six to eight: lock grill, wrap, drinks, runner, and then fill fryer, ice cream, or Drive-Thru. Name tags and voice chat exist so you can say the station, not the vibe. The host still kicks from the pause menu if an extra body only stands in the doorway.
Community comparisons to Fast Food Simulator are about this same routing problem: heat, assembly, drinks, front. They are not a claim that the rooms match. Walk your own cooler. After roles are written down, cook to the 85–90% flip rule and let hired staff — when you have them — protect the humans who actually touch the steel.
Frequently Asked Questions
Quick answers to the most common kitchen questions.
What stations exist in the Prologue versus Early Access?
Grill, assembly, soda fountain, and coffee machine are the core loop. The full Early Access build adds fryer, ice cream / soft-serve, Drive-Thru, takeaway, and hireable NPC employees. Hiring was locked in the Prologue and demo.
Who should own the grill?
One human. They flip around 85–90% and cook both sides. Everyone else brings meat or takes cooked patties to wrap. Timing detail is on How to Cook Burgers.
Is drinks really its own job?
Yes, as soon as tickets include cups. Soda fountain and coffee machine stall perfect burgers. In small lobbies, wrap can cover drinks. In large lobbies, give drinks a body. Rankings live on the role tier list.
How do NPC employees change the station map?
They clean tables and restock ingredients. They do not replace grill or wrap. Read the Employees Guide before you leave a station empty because you hired someone.
Where does the dumpster fit?
Bins fill and must be emptied. Treat trash as a runner chore or a lull task, not scenery. Tip bonuses still reward speed, so a clogged bin is paid in walkouts.
How should an eight-player lobby split?
Lock grill, wrap, drinks, and runner first, then fill fryer, ice cream, or Drive-Thru. Use the Co-op Guide for lobby, voice, and kick tools, and name the station in chat before the first ticket prints.