The Charlotte restaurant where the food tells a story is now open in a new space
Fine dining aficionados and experimental foodies in Charlotte have been waiting for this news: Counter- and its sister restaurant, Biblio, opened in December 2022.
Season passes are sold out, but you can make a reservation online.
“After the longest five months of delays in my life, and last minute ADA and electrical issues, Biblio and Counter- finally open,” Executive chef and owner Sam Hart posted on Facebook on Tuesday, Dec. 20.
Hart said the Counter- concept you have already come to know — an experience focused on engaging all your senses — is not fundamentally changing in any way in the restaurant’s new space.
“Our team is outrageously stacked,” Hart told CharlotteFive in an exclusive interview earlier. “We’re incredibly fortunate to have each one of the members of our team. In our previous state, they weren’t able to really showcase their skill level … in turn, we weren’t able to tell stores in the same way we knew it was possible to do.”
Now, you will see things turned up a notch in how the staff uses food to tell a story, complete with sights, sounds, tastes and aromas.
What’s dining at Counter- like?
Reservation options available: When you make reservations, you choose from a 10-course tasting menu or a 14-course tasting menu, featuring additional artists and more unique ingredients. The 14-course option is always the 8:15 p.m. service Thursday, Friday and Saturday night.
Cost: The tickets for a 10-course meal are $175, and the 14-course meal tickets are $235.
Starting your experience: When you have a reservation at Counter-, you’ll enter at Biblio. Then the maître d will guide you into Counter-, which is hidden away in the back of the restaurant in its own separate space.
[RELATED: At this new restaurant in Wesley Heights, the wine list *is* the menu.]
The first menu: The re-opening menu is “Modern” — a story told through food In honor of 20th century pop artists such as Jackson Pollock, Andy Warhol and Frida Kahlo, among others. It’s also in honor of the modernist food movement, with techniques such as molecular gastronomy.
“Storytelling is the most important part of what we cook and who we are as a restaurant,” Hart said.
But what’s on the menu?: Well, you’ll have to wait and see.
Hart explains it this way: “If you knew the punchline to every joke or the ending to every movie, it would be a whole lot less entertaining. The food is part of that storytelling process.
“Even the physical plates themselves, it’s all a part of the story. It’s why we don’t post photos on Instagram — so people can wade a little bit deeper into the waters of the story.”
The wine: Curated by wine director Bill Cox — who is also leading the way at wine-focused Biblio — the wine list features a diverse offering that includes winemakers who are women, LGBTQ+ and winemakers of color, alongside a non-alcoholic pairing option.
What’s the space like at Counter-?
Limited seating: Counter- is designed to give each diner an individual, intimate experience — and each seating is limited to 16 guests. But Hart said the team is “unpretentious” in how they go about executing the high-end fine dining atmosphere. Even the sound system has been upgraded and refined.
Fun, not stuffy: The dining room offers a more refined space than the previous location, but Hart assured that diners are still going to enjoy themselves. “We’ll still play some explicit-lyric music, have a fun time, joke around” and most of all, create an environment that’s healthy for the employees, as well.
You’ll see the action: The new space offers equipment that chefs dream about, and the physical setup is fully immersive, Hart said. An open bar faces the kitchen, so diners can see everything getting prepared, plated and pushed out to them.
It’s a place for change: “It’s so exciting to see a city that I love so much that has gone through so much beautiful cultural changes the past few years,” said Hart, a seventh generation North Carolinian. He hopes that Counter- can be an incubator that creates more unique concepts in the Queen City.
“It’s not a Chapter 2 for Counter- but the middle of our story. ... We’re a part of something that’s really going to do something beautiful, like football players in the huddle before they run out onto the field. It’s a really amazing feeling and energy to be a part of,” Hart said.
Biblio
Location: 2001 W. Morehead St., Charlotte, NC 28208
Cuisine: wine, fine dining American
Instagram: @bibliocharlotte
Counter-
Location: 2001 W Morehead St, Suite D, Charlotte, NC 28208
Cuisine: fine dining American
Instagram: @counterclt
This story was originally published November 28, 2022 at 6:00 AM.
