It's hard to top the burger at The Counter

A A A Comments (4) By Jason Sheehan Thursday, Nov 27 2008

For more photos of The Counter, go to westword.com/slideshow.

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The Counter

8401 Park Meadows Center
Littleton, CO 80124

Category: Restaurant > American

Region: Southeast Denver Suburbs

Details

The Counter
2/3 lb. burger $10.75
1/3 lb. burger $8.50
Shake $4.95
Fries $4.95
Five Guys
Double burger, bacon $5.59
Regular fries $2.49

8439 Park Meadows Drive, Lone Tree

303-790-9630

www.thecounterburger.com

11 a.m.-9 p.m. Monday-Thursday, 11 a.m.-11 p.m. Friday-Saturday, 11:30 a.m.-9 p.m. Sunday

2300 South Parker Road, Aurora

303-751-7449

www.fiveguys.com

11 a.m-10 p.m. daily

More About

So, what're you gonna get?"

"I dunno. What're you gonna get?"

"That depends on what you're gonna get. Like, I was thinking about the ham, but then I was thinking green chiles..."

"Yeah, I was thinking green chiles. Bacon."

"Of course you're going to get bacon."

"Maybe a sauce..."

"What sauce?"

"I...I just don't know."

Option paralysis. It's a big danger at The Counter. Laura and I had been eating cheeseburgers on and off for a couple of weeks, and the Counter, which opened in August in the vast Vistas at Park Meadows, was our last stop. And now we were stymied, freaked out by all the topping possibilities. I eventually went with the roasted green chiles (which, oddly, tasted like cactus), Southwestern Caesar dressing, bacon, Gruyère, sharp cheddar and horseradish mayo, a disparate and jarring and very international muddled mess. But the burger was love at first bite. True, I had to unhinge my jaw like a python just to take that bite, but it was love nonetheless.

At last.

Before I finally encountered the Counter, I'd tried Five Guys Burgers and Fries, a five-month-old local outlet of a 1,000-strong franchise focused mostly on the East Coast. Since 1986, this family operation — started by Janie and Jerry Murrell and their four sons — has focused on keeping things simple, serving burgers wrapped in foil and bagged to go in greasy brown-paper sacks, even if you're eating in; Idaho potato fries, hand-cut and fried in peanut oil; cold Cokes; some hot dogs. It's a classic American operation, its roots stretching back half a century to the original roadside burger stands of the hamburger's Golden Age. There's just one twist: Five Guys offers all of its toppings for free. And there are fifteen of them, ranging from simple ketchup and mayo to hot sauce, relish and fried onions.

The company has a cultish following, especially around Washington, D.C. Fans post their mash notes on corkboards in the dining room (which is tiled in red and white, sterile as a hospital men's room save the red-and-white fifty-pound bags of potatoes stacked by the doors and the red-and-white boxes of peanuts for customers to snack on). Five Guys has been handed awards both minor ("Best Burger in Raleigh") and major (love from the Zagat guide eight years running), and quotes these raves on red-and-white signs all over the restaurant. But Tim and Nina, or their Zagat minions, must've been either very hungry or very high or both when they rolled up to Five Guys, because if the South Parker Road location is indicative — and it should be, as the chain prides itself publicly on its consistency and uniformity coast-to-coast — then I weep for the future of this country's burger pushers.

The first time I sat down in the dining room, opened my paper bag and unwrapped the foil, I found a thin burger that was dry as hell and burned like it'd said something nasty about the cook's mother. The second time, my burger was just as bad. According to Five Guys company policy, in order to ensure consistency and "exceed health code standards," all burgers are cooked "juicy and well-done." But that's simply not possible. Cooking fresh-ground beef on a flattop, it's rough to keep a thin burger "juicy" even at a mid-rare, much less well-done. The only consistency Five Guys has assured its customers is that you can count on getting a burned, dried-out hockey puck for dinner.

The fries were another problem. They're served proudly greasy, which is fine when they're hot and fresh out of the oil, but they go downhill fast. I'd watched the fry cook work, observing his double rotation of baskets, aiming for that perfect blanch-and-crisp frite-style double dunk — but he'd failed, because you need a high-carb, high-sugar potato like a Yukon Gold to get a truly great, crisp fry, and these spuds just didn't cut it. There was something inherently soft and waxy about them that even the peanut oil in the fryers couldn't fix.

The free toppings didn't help. I'd asked for cheese and bacon on my first burger, and even the bacon was burned. For my second, I went with the full lube job: ketchup and mayo and barbecue sauce — and what I got was ketchup and mayo and barbecue sauce on a burnt fucking burger. If I wanted to sit around and eat a tub of mayonnaise, I could do that at home. In fact, I was seriously thinking about tamping down my burger jones by grilling up a couple of fat-bastard burgers myself, the patties covered with Gouda and sharp cheddar and bacon and cooked a serial-killer's bloody rare.

Then we went to the Counter.

The Counter is another concept restaurant, this one born in Santa Monica in 2003, the raucous child of a 32-year-old bar-and-club guy named Jeffrey Weinstein, and it's a pure product of the 21st century, of the fast-casual boom and West Coast culture. The interior is spare and spartan, with lots of white and burnished metal; the staff's in blue jeans and tattoo-art-inspired shirts. The art on the walls is black and white, mostly rock-and-roll themed. More important, the Counter has a bar. It does wine (for a nice, high-rent/lowbrow juxtaposition, kind of like that last scene in Sideways, though there's nothing on the list that approaches that '61 Cheval Blanc), it does beer, it does killer shakes and malts, served high and thick and in interesting flavors to brace up the standard vanilla-chocolate-strawberry classics.

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Michael 03/16/2009 4:49:00 AM

I love Five Guys as much as anybody. I discovered it on a business trip to DC and went there whenever I was on the east coast, sometimes going 200 miles out of my way. I was thrilled when the one in Aurora opened and can't wait for the one in Highlands Ranch to open. But if you made it to Park Meadows to go to "The Counter" for a custom burger, you should have gone 1/2 mile further south to Cheeburger Cheeburger. There you can customize your burger just as much, it is much, much better and just over half the price.
s 01/25/2009 1:30:00 AM

ex-marylanders.....you can't beat Five Guys fries even the sweet potato fries at The Counter don't make it. As far as price its got to be Five Guys. As far as service--the host staff at The Counter is for the birds!
Mary 01/02/2009 8:59:00 PM

Allow me to illustrate my experience. Three people greeted us and finally took us to a table. We asked to start with an order of the fried pickles only to have the water person tell us no. It took our waiter 15 minutes to take our order. Our food was late. We waited another 15 minutes for our check. The food was terrible. Everything was overpriced. The best part of this experience was the decor. If you are into cool ambiance and are willing to sacrifice food, service and pay too much - we totally recommend The Counter.
Peter 12/06/2008 8:22:00 PM

Mmm...where to begin...to borrow a phrase from the last election cycle..you can put lipstick on a pig but..it's still a pig. That's kind of how I felt about the Counter burger. I first started to worry when I noticed that all of the staff appeared to be all about 16 years old...which to me is kind of a danger sign when it comes to dining out (I was 16 years old once and worked in the food industry too....which is why I try to avoid such places...you don't want to know!) I still wanted to try so I ordered up and after placing the order decided to use the restroom to wash-up. Which led to the next danger sign...I should of figured that a tiny place like this would have a restroom like that but was turned off when I walked in and saw that on the sink was a filthy half filled bottle of soft soap still in the store bought bottle, just sitting next the sink. I guess it would have too much to ask anyone to actually fill the wall mounted soap dispenser (gave me flashbacks again to my days in the industry...). On top of that the overall cleanliness of the restroom (something I use as a barometer of the quality of my meal) was disappointing. While the floor was clean the sink and surrounding walls looked like something out of a dive bar that would see in my old days of NYC); still I washed up and tried not touch anything on my way out. Upon my return to the table I found what was to be the highlight of the evening...my peanut butter malt. Which actually was GREAT (they should rename the places Malts). As is my experience with young servers the rest of the meal arrived only to frustrate me more. Seeing fried pickle chips on the menu under "Starter" made me curious so I ordered. Now to me a starter would be just that, a nice dish that would arrive prior to the "main event" as a little something to keep you from gnawing on the edge of the table. To make sure I even asked that the pickles arrive first and even ordered fries which I asked to accompany the burger (the fries where also listed as a starter...but who ever heard of having a burger a fries separately?). Anyway about a half hour later after no sign of the server to my surprise everything I ordered arrived at once! Now that concerned me as the tables there are sooo small that they barely fit the condiment tray (huge by the way and stocked with an empty ketchup bottle) and shakes (did I mention there were two of us?) The server apologized that everything was prepared at once against her request...so I guess what the cook says over rules any customer request (again flash back to day when I was a 16 year old short order cook). After squeezing everything on the table and almost losing the shakes and condiment trays to another server walking between tables (which sit inches apart) I was prepared to have all my previous issues swept away with a fantastic burger. Now to make my "lipstick comment" relevant..all of fancy toppings could not hide the fact that the burger just wasn't what I had hoped it was going to be. First of all I would think that even the smallest burger they offered would cover the whole bun (or English muffin). I cut my supposed "juicy" burger in half and to my surprise one half contained all topping and no beef! SO I moved to the half that actually had the burger and after my first bite I had to double check to make sure there was actually a burger on it...it wasn't pretty. I added bacon after reading Jason's description of it and was sorely disappointed as it tasted like some thing was cooked hours ago, needless to say tough, dry and void of any smokey goodness. Also on the burger by the way I added grilled onions, sauteed mushrooms, "Sharp?" provolone and a lettuce blend. Basically it tasted like a mess...I would have had an equal experience ordering a lettuce burger...I think there might have been a mushroom cap and maybe an piece of onion..maybe....the cheese was pretty much missing in action as well. My request medium well burger was actually medium rare which I was able to overlook...however it was pretty cold...more room temp than something that had been cooked to order (flashback to back in the day when servers would be in the back "fooling around" rather than catching a hot fresh order up). I salted the whole mess up to actually give it some flavor. In between increasing disappointing bites of the burger...which by the way did not roll "juice" down my arm as Jason insisted. I sampled these aforementioned starters, which were "ok". The pickle chips which were sooo salty I was glad I had the shake handy had a sort of "fishy" flavor..which made me wonder when the last time the deep fryer was cleaned (huge flashback as I hated cleaning that damn thing). I also ordered a fifty/fifty mix of sweet fries and regular fries..which weren't too bad. The sweets were my favorite while the regular (not too bad with tons of salt...but what fried potato isn't) weren't as hot or crispy as I would make them. What is it with this town and the under cooked fries? Does the altitude affect the crispiness of fries like the bread? The kicker for all of this was the bill...now don't get me wrong had I paid 20 bucks for this debacle I wouldn't be here crying in my milk...but at over 40 bucks I kind of expected more. For a much much much more bang for the buck I have to recommend the Swiss Mushroom burger at "Smashburger". Even (and I shudder to say) the burger I had a month ago at the local Perkins made this experience all the more regrettable. Sooo next time you have wayy too much money too spare (and I am sure with this economy we all do right?) drop by the Counter...only stick to the shakes and sweet fries...oh and sneak in a Smashburger if you want the sweet wonderful beef fat to ooze down your arms.