New restaurant Counter- opens with immersive dining in Charlotte’s Wesley Heights
A fine dining restaurant opening Sept. 9 in the Wesley Heights area will ask you to bring all of your senses to the table, not just taste.
Counter- will be run by Chef Sam Hart. “The goal is to shock the system of our guest,” Hart said in a statement. “From sound, to touch, taste, sight, and even smell, we want to fully immerse every sense.”
The restaurant’s website describes itself as “a dining experience that merges your senses into an immersive mix of sound, taste, art, and hands-on involvement.”
You can expect your experience to be counter (yeah, we get it) to any of your prior expectations of a multi-course dinner out.
“It’s around the concept of us being Counter- to how every restaurant runs and opens. We are Counter-intuitive etc. We are also wanting to be completely against preconceived notions so nothing about the food or menus until the guest shows up,” Hart told CharlotteFive.
Music will be paired with each course. “I looked at my Spotify and I’ve listened to over 400 hours of music just for this soundtrack so far. We want to make a splash immediately. We are pulling out all the stops,” Hart said.
The first quarterly dinner theme is Terroir. The 10-course meal is described as follows:
“Noun: the complete natural environment in which a particular wine is produced, including factors such as the soil, topography, and climate. Dig through the history and roots of Carolinian Cuisine. From ancient Cherokee recipes to modernist creations, experience the past, present, and future of our home state.”
Reservations are now open beginning Sept. 1. You can reserve up to 20 seats for $110 a person. Dig into the couch cushions before you go, because if you can throw in an extra $45 per person, you’ll get a truffle enhancement (fresh, seasonal truffles added to one of your courses). And for an extra $50, you can add standard wine pairings or for $100, you can add reserved wine pairings. Or save some dough and BYOB.
The restaurant will have two seatings a night (6 p.m. and 8:15 p.m.). Due to COVID-19, each guest will also be seated at a distance. Special air filtration systems have been added to deter any potential virus threats.
Counter-
Instagram: @counterclt
This story was originally published May 27, 2020 at 6:03 PM.
