Last updated: April 1, 2025

In the Weeds

by Kristen Wile

The first time I dined at Counter-, the concept wasn’t Counter-. It wasn’t even its own restaurant yet. It was a pop-up in a beautiful Charlotte home hosted by a young chef who had big plans.

To better know the food scene here, I often attend events or dinners without expectations, seeking out for chefs to watch or to learn whether something is worthy of recommending to our readers. Anomaly, as it was called then, was the first step in an ambitious project from a chef that was relatively unknown. There were courses I still remember nearly five years later, some fantastic and others overambitious. I was curious to see whether that chef could pull off the restaurant they had so vividly dreamed out loud, but left the dinner with respect for chef Sam Hart’s determination and contagious level of excitement and passion for a vision of what a dining experience could be.

I get that same feeling when leaving Counter-, every time.

Counter- is nothing if not full of passion, its staff a collection of people who nerd out over everything from wine and art to ingredients, food history, trends, and table settings. The restaurant serves a themed tasting menu that changes every few months, with inspiration ranging from aspects of the arts to nostalgic memories. Since moving into its current location on West Morehead Street in December 2022, the restaurant has served a dozen-or-so coursed tasting menus that include themes like Drive Thru, Time, Street Food, and Modern. Kicking off this month, the menu is a take on the final dinner served aboard the Titanic.

Counter- isn’t a typical sit-down experience. The restaurant is partly named for the fact that a majority of your meal is spent at counter-style seating overlooking chefs at work. Each course comes with a story and narration from the chefs, and the courses are timed to be placed in front of you during specific songs or moments in the meal. You won’t want to come here on a date where you’re hoping to get to know someone better; this is eater-tainment for folks who truly love food and respect the art of cooking.

The menu shifts are so substantial from theme to theme that it’s difficult to review the restaurant as we typically do. However, while the menus vary vastly, there’s consistency in the experience. With a few exceptions — for unpredictability is one of the things you can depend upon here — the dishes are true fine dining, using modern touches and techniques even in dishes grounded in the distant culinary past or casual, mass-produced present. Some are indeed works of art on the plate, such as the root vegetable tart served as part of the Here & Now menu. The tart had an ombre look thanks to carefully selected root vegetables thinly sliced and rolled around the center, and was equally as enjoyable to eat as it was to look at. On the Drive Thru menu, the filet-o-fish was a fitting fine dining interpretation of the McDonald’s sandwich, but also something I could’ve eaten over and over, with fish cooked to textbook crispness. Each menu features several dishes that could be labeled among the best in the city. However, you’ll also find a few dishes that are trying too hard or are doing too much — often when dishes seem to be conceptualized with a visual effect in mind. On the other hand, outwardly simple dishes, such as a tasting of melons using modern techniques to showcase the fruit, have stuck with me as core dining experiences.

There’s a need to adapt quickly in today’s restaurant industry, but jumping into the new too quickly can be dangerous — and Counter- must make a leap with each new menu release. It’s as if the restaurant were reopening its doors with each menu, and the menus understandably improve throughout their run. At Counter-’s price point, though, dishes should be near perfection on the first day of service, as flawless as they are on the last day. Yet even during its comparatively rockier starts, Counter-‘s menus offer an experience that’s unlike anything you’ll find elsewhere.

It’s hard to miss the implication that food is art while dining at Counter-. You’re surrounded by various forms of it — music paired purposefully with the menu, art on the walls inspired by that meal’s theme, custom plates in front of you. Even the service reflects performance art, with the staff turning as one to deliver each course. Menus have been designed as pages of a coloring book (Drive-Thru) and even a shifting poem (Time) written by Hart. As with art, Counter- asks you to trust the artists’ processes and enjoy the chefs’ creations.

Counter-’s ambition is something to be enjoyed and celebrated, yet does hold the concept back in some places. Following the recent closure of Biblio, for example, Counter-’s space expanded to have a small area with cocktail tables where guests stand and enjoy their first bite when they arrive before being seated. A video wall brings a new type of multimedia into the experience, yet smaller parties are often put at tables together, turning what you were likely expecting to be quality time with your date into friendly, if not awkward, small talk with strangers. It’s an unexpected way to start a meal you’ve likely saved up for with your date and scheduled far in advance. At the end of the meal, you pass through the kitchen into another room to be seated for dessert, again sometimes with other guests. Another video wall gives you almost sensory overload, and takes away from your ability to focus on pastry chef Faith Morley’s desserts — desserts certainly worthy of attention. The expansion to include courses out of the titular counter dining room makes better use of the space, perhaps, but there’s something about the transition from room to room that makes you feel as if you’re being sent home in the middle of the final act.

Counter-’s prioritization of service is clear from the moment you step in, with constant interactions between staff and guests. Wine lovers in particular will find joy in how the restaurant’s wine pairings enhance the meals and the stories that come with each one. It’s good to know before you go, however, that you can also order a single glass or bottle of wine with help from the sommeliers — something that’s not really advertised, and can lead to guests spending more money than anticipated when they’re presented with pricing for only the pairings. For those who can splurge for the wine pairings, it adds another layer to your experience — they are so precisely selected, they will enhance your meal in a way that a single glass or bottle cannot from course to course. Though Counter- does not serve liquor, the spirit-free pairings are equally as thoughtful.

With ambition comes risks, and Counter- continues to take them. Those risks have helped Charlotte’s culinary scene edge on to the national one. Diners who see food as an experience instead of simply a necessity will enjoy being part of Counter-‘s grand experiment.