Upstarts: Custom Made

Customers can be as adventurous or as cautious as they want to be at The Counter. The gourmet burger joint lets guests create their own burgers from a variety of sauces and toppings that make the traditional burger with mayo, lettuce, tomato and onion look staid by comparison.

By Maya Norris, Managing Editor -- Chain Leader, 10/1/2006

Customers can be as adventurous or as cautious as they want to be at The Counter. The gourmet burger joint lets guests create their own burgers from a variety of sauces and toppings that make the traditional burger with mayo, lettuce, tomato and onion look staid by comparison.

Freedom of Choice

Jeff Weinstein developed the concept while he was a partner at Firefly, an exclusive bar and nightclub in Studio City, Calif. Tired of the late hours, Weinstein was interested in creating a modern version of the classic American burger joint. “I ate burgers four to five times a week. I got tired of going to restaurants and having chefs or kitchen managers tell me what I had to have on my food,” says Weinstein, a 1998 graduate of Johnson & Wales University. “So it made sense to give people exactly what they wanted on their food and give them plenty of options to do it.”

Weinstein sold his interest in Firefly and launched The Counter in December 2003 in Santa Monica. Set against an industrial-loft decor with concrete floors, brushed aluminum chairs and exposed ducts, the full-service concept offers appetizers, signature burgers and sandwiches.

However, about 60 to 70 percent of sales are derived from the Build Your Own Burger section of the menu. Customers order off a clipboard, checking off the ingredients they want. They choose from beef, turkey, veggie or grilled chicken burgers, costing $6.95 for a one-third-pound burger, $8.50 for two-thirds, $12.50 for 1 pound and $7.95 for chicken. Then they select from 10 cheeses including herbed goat cheese spread, 27 toppings such as roasted corn and black bean salsa and honey-cured bacon, and 17 sauces like caramelized onion marmalade. Finally customers pick one of three buns: English muffin, hamburger bun or honey-wheat bun.

“What we do that nobody else does is we really give the power, the control and the ownership back to the customer in letting them design and giving them the freedom of choice,” Weinstein says.

Industry Buzz

According to Weinstein, The Counter has cultivated a loyal following in Santa Monica, helping the store generate $1.2 million in sales in 2004 and $2.5 million in 2005.

The Counter has also received some national acclaim. It was ranked No. 15 in GQ magazine’s list of “The 20 Hamburgers You Must Eat Before You Die” in July 2005. And it got a huge boost when it was featured on “The Oprah Winfrey Show” in February: Monthly sales jumped to $245,000, from $200,000.

Now that monthly sales have stabilized between $210,000 and $230,000, The Counter is concentrating on expansion. It has signed development deals for 95 stores to open over the next three years in California, Arizona, Nevada, New York and Florida. A franchised store in Palo Alto, Calif., opened in August and three more franchised units are scheduled to open in Southern California by year-end. The company expects to have 400 to 600 restaurants nationwide in 10 years.

“You know [California Pizza Kitchen] defined that gourmet-pizza category, and we really believe we’re defining this premium-burger category,” Weinstein says. “The premium-burger concept has yet to be defined, and we’re sort of first to market on it and hopefully continue to be best in market at it.”