The Counter
http://www.thecounterburger.com
2901 Ocean Park Boulevard
Santa Monica, CA 90405-2952
THE CONQUEST
It wouldn’t be a trip to Los Angeles without a burger and it’s even better when I can call it business. Adam and I were out on the West Coast for the kick off of the Mayhem Tour, and decided to have a couple days of meetings before driving out to San Bernardino for the show. We wanted to get together with our lawyer buddy Steve and the song writing combo of Chris Qualls and Lauren Baird, more commonly known as the indie-meets-pop-electro band Electric Valentine.
From the first time I heard their music, I was hooked!! Their music is a fresh and fun new attempt at dance music with an indie rock vibe. The choruses are so big that you can walk through them and the beats keep your backside moving. Take a listen, it’s sure to get under your skin and have you singing along in no time. They’re an independent writing team and band who have done everything on their own to this point and have built up a lot of notoriety and following through great songs, fantastic live shows and an unrelenting passion for growing their craft.
With plans to meet up for lunch, I thought we need a burger as good as the music and people that would be eating it. Sounds like a job for The Counter! We met up at their original location in Santa Monica ready to dive into the 312,120 possible burger combination’s available.
THE BURGER
It’s REALLY easy to overdue it at The Counter, especially when you’re as hungry as we were that day! Not only is the food is that good, but with so many choices, you’ll get lost in the choices. The rule to remember, if it sounds like too much, it is. I try to keep my selection to one from each column or no more than six items. I was in serious danger of over doing it and applauded Adam’s suggestion to get a order of Crispy Onion Strings to nosh on while we decided on our burger combos. Be careful with onion strings! They’re small but they’re really savory and will want to make you shove them into your mouth like you would Big League Chew as you walked up to the plate in the bottom of the 9th inning and the game is tied up.
Easy, take a breath, don’t blow it …. nicely done; 1/3rd LB Beef patty ordered medium rare, horseradish cheddar, fried egg, Applewood smoked bacon, spicy pepperocinis and lettuce on a multigrain bun with a little chipotle aioli on the side for light dipping and taste accents. MMMMMMM it sounded as good as Electric Valentine’s “sweet jams” (as Adam would say.) The 5 of us had a nice chat while waiting for the food and sure enough, as soon as it hit the table, the conversation came to a halt. It was burger time baby!!
The Counter always delivers no matter how you stack up your sandwich. Lauren and Chris both got a veggie burger and loved it. The patty was juicy, cooked properly and without being greasy, has great flavor. Cheese, bacon and egg make for a great 1-2-3 punch on their own but add them atop a ground beef patty, and you have sandwich magic. The Counter doesn’t skimp on the quality of any of their burger additions so you are guaranteed to have a top to bottom tasty sandwich. The spiciness of the pepperocinis, chipotle aioli and horseradish cheddar put a nice little boogie to the over all burger, not unlike Electric Valentine songs!
8 out of 10 ounces
-Rev
