The Butterball Dilemma
Ballard's Gourmet-Burger-and-Ethics Battle
Kelly O
LOCAL OWNERS Drew Reed (left) and Scott Simpson.
Tools
The Counter
4609 14th Ave NW, Suite 108
Seattle 98107
(706) 0311
Sun-Thurs 11 am-10 p
Fri-Sat 11 am-11 pm
Lunchbox Laboratory
7302 15th Ave NW
Seattle 98107
(206) 706-3092
Mon
Wed-Sat 11 am-8 pm
Sun 9 am-6 pm
Obviously, a burger from a ramshackle, kitschy little indie burger shack is going to kick the ass of one from a chain. Chains are evil; the little guys are doing things right. Right?In September, the Counter (4609 14th Ave NW, 706-0311), a Southern California–based "modern burger joint," opened in the new Ballard Blocks development. The 6-year-old chain has 25 locations throughout the United States, as well as two in Australia and Ireland. The Counter's concept: review mammoth menu and customize your heart attack from (no joking) over 312,120 possible combinations, or (simpler) choose a signature one. The kitchen then makes your burger to order. It's the same idea as popular, critically acclaimed, independently owned Lunchbox Laboratory (7302 15th Ave NW, 706-3092), one and a half miles away.
The Counter's website is undeniably irritating: Customers are "empowered" by their ability to stuff themselves with a gazillion burger combos; the "matrix" of choices gives the customer the "ultimate freedom of choice." But your knee-jerk initial response might be subject to change.
Stranger Personals
The remarkably human director of marketing for the Counter, Brian Berman, says each franchise is locally owned and operated. "We try to source locally for certain ingredients if they meet our standards. We want franchises to adapt to fit the community." The Counter uses organic produce when possible and does seasonal, too, like Ballard's halibut burgers. The beef and poultry is hormone-, antibiotic-, filler-, and additive-free; the beef comes from Meyer Ranch in Montana. Each batch of USDA prime chuck beef is ground to its specifications, delivered fresh three to four times a week, and origin verified (read: traceable in case of E. coli, etc.). The beef is vegetarian-fed (i.e., mad-cow free). Yes, Meyer Ranch finishes its cattle in a feedlot on corn, which ecologically is a fossil fuel–burning, chemical fertilizer–utilizing nightmare—but the feedlot is certified humane. At a certain point, you have to pick your battles: Meeting demand with consistent product is tough for chains (as well as high-volume independent restaurants), and 100 percent grass-finished beef isn't always regionally available. And regardless of what the Counter isn't doing, it represents a quantum leap in operational, environmental, and agricultural ethics for a midrange, multi-unit burger establishment.
The Ballard franchise is owned and operated by Drew Reed and his wife, Michelle. They live in Seattle. Reed recognized the risks of opening near Lunchbox Laboratory: "It was like, great, a 'big box' place coming in, but we're not that. We're local owners, and our dollars are on the line. I do everything from management to cooking and washing dishes. We're in a LEED-certified building and fortunate to be able to compost and recycle... the reception from the community has been great."
The space is spotless without feeling sterile, with attractive if familiar industrial modern decor. There's sustainable wood, recycled-content Staron tables, Energy Star–rated kitchen equipment. (The company plans to eventually achieve LEED certification for every franchise. Berman says, "We're pushing to leave a smaller footprint in every market we open.") Reed features only local, handcrafted beer on tap, a selection of Washington wines, a full bar, and handmade shakes. Service is friendly and efficient, and while it's easy to go overboard on the toppings, healthy options include turkey and housemade veggie burgers. Carb-phobes can have a Burger in a Bowl. It's $8.25 for a one-third-pound turkey or beef burger with one cheese, four toppings, and a sauce; $13.25 for a one-pound monster. My Counter beef burger with grilled onions, jalapeño jack, and avocado was quite good. It needed a touch more seasoning, but was plump, the toppings fresh.
You don't have to eat at the Counter, but it's hard to argue with the company's overall philosophy. For a chain, it's goddamned enlightened.
Detractors attack indie champ Lunchbox Laboratory for its high prices. However, considering costs, 12 bucks for a third-pound, organic, grass-finished, house-ground, prime-rib/sirloin/rib-eye blend, pan-seared cheese- burger is pretty awesome. But is everything there worth it? Owner Scott Simpson wouldn't reveal his proprietary beef sources—"The Counter had their people coming in here every day, being so obvious about [wanting to know] where we sourced our meat," he says—but he guarantees it's all from Washington. Out-of-state suppliers include heritage pork from Snake River Farms and antibiotic-free duck from Maple Leaf Farms. His lamb is conventional, from "a source in Colorado." The chicken is "standard chicken." And the turkey is Butterball.
Simpson doesn't bill Lunchbox Lab as a temple for local, sustainable gastronomy, but charging premium prices for shitty industrial poultry is a tad at odds with the emphasis on ecologically sound, hormone- and-antibiotic-free beef—not to mention in complete defiance of customers' assumptions. Recollect: The Counter's turkey burger costs $8.25. (The comparable Lunchbox Lab turkey burger is $12.) It is free of antibiotics and additives. It is not Butterball.
When Simpson heard that the Counter was opening, "I was scared outta my skin, but now I know there's room for us both. A few of my friends like it better because it's bigger, so it's comfortable taking their kids there. Besides, people should try out different options—you never know what one place may have that you like better." Like, maybe, the turkey burger.
Simpson can apparently afford to be magnanimous. He says his investors are "at this moment" in negotiations for a move to a new Ballard location, which "will be a futuristic soda fountain with more items—it'll still be full of really weird Americana, but it will be bigger and more kid-friendly." And he says he intends to open as many as five more units in Seattle and the West Coast in the next few years. Ironically, if Lunchbox Laboratory became a chain, his sourcing problems would be solved. "If I go big," he says, "I'll be able to fulfill the ordering requirements of Thundering Hooves," an organic Washington family ranch with grass-finished beef and lamb, and pasture-raised pork, chicken, and turkey.
Personally, I prefer the messy beef burger at Lunchbox Laboratory.
But the ethics of big versus little, Counter versus Lab, are all over
the place, too. 
Write your own damned review.
Share via
Plus, they serve red High Fructose Corn Syrup disguised as ketchup (exclusive deal with Hinez - we asked) and they use corn-fed beef (corn makes cow stomachs bloat with gas). The marketing does not match up with the execution.
I predict The Counter won't survive. The prices are way too high for what amounts to rather standard fare.
It does sound pricey, I probably wouldn't eat their (regularly) either but a)learn how to math and b)restaurants tend to cost more (often significantly) than grocery shopping.
I'm sick of expensive burgers with an attitude of doofus hipster.
11
And a $12 burger doesn't seem so expensive when it easily stuffs 2 people.
You finally get around to admitting that you prefer they're beef burgers, but it sounds like a bad review. What gives?
@10 - Ballard Brothers is great! I definitely recommend them when you want a great variety of burgers and friendly staff to boot.
High fructose corn syrup?!? BOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!
21
25
26
When I'm allowing myself meat, I love Red Mill, myself... but I unfortunately do agree that it consists of killing animals for no good reason.
29
These people wouldn't know good meat if it ambled up and dropped a grass-powered patty on their $100 Chuck Taylors.
30
Lunchbox Laborotory is ridiculously overpriced, the food is salt-heavy, the location sticky, filthy and cramped, and the staff are downright hostile assholes.
Not even a close contest in my book.
I shop at Trader Joes a lot, so I'll probably stick with The Counter just for convenience. Oh wait! That is a chain, so I can't go there either!
When I approached them on it, I would have been fine with 'We don't divulge that sort of information.'
However, they had to gussy that up with a big helpin' of attitude and paranoia that even I was looking over my shoulder.
It's a pity. I used to love them.
But when someone I trust says they've seen the LL crew shopping for ground beef at Cash'n'Carry, and then I get attitude? I'll pass.
Now if only they were closer than Centralia...
I'm confused by the apparent controversy over Lunchbox Lab's meat quality...
1. As someone implied, Americans accustomed to eating corn-stuffed, factory-style, ultra-high-in-saturated-fat meat all their lives might have trouble adjusting their tastebuds to grass-fed, despite the objectively higher quality and consistency and healthier nature of the latter.
On the other hand, is L.Lab actually GUARANTEEING their meat is organic and grass-fed? The only explicit guarantee in the article is that it's "from Washington," which the Cash'n'Carry rumors wouldn't necessarily negate.
2. Thanks to whoever brought up GreenGo for comparison. They made a much simpler product: really fantastic beef, grilled right in front of you, with some super-fresh and seasonal griddled veggies, on a bun. No fancy sauces or toppings, but priced at $7 or $8, a bargain compared to these other guys. EVERY SINGLE INGREDIENT was organic, sustainable, and local, and they had no qualms about revealing their source-list. GreenGo's closing played a pretty large role in my abandoning "attempted ethical meat-eating" and becoming a vegetarian.
3. Many high-concept burger joints will give lip-service to non-beefeaters, but many will either make a homemade veggie patty with no worthwhile toppings or a store-bought GardenBurger with some interesting toppings. Either way, the result is never worth the price. I really appreciate that The Counter makes a pretty tasty, ample, and hearty veggie-burger in-house AND gives you a chance to play with the 3 zillion mostly vegetarian-friendly topping/sauce combination, earning its $8-$10 price tag.
Honest question: we know that Lunchbox Lab screws over its poultry eaters. Does it do a veggieburger at all?
Meat production and distribution is hugely time-, energy-, and labor-intensive, and there is no way to accomplish it that cheaply except for the horrendous American factory way, with its subsidized amber waves of crap-corn funneled into cows in high-density feedlots who are pumped full of antibiotics to keep them from developing lesions on their way to the slaugher-conveyer-belt.
No other country -- industrialized or otherwise -- makes meat this bad. And no other country's working class has been indoctrinated to consider meat this cheap a class-conscious badge of honor.
Earl Butz, Nixon's Secretary of Agriculture and the architect of commodity-corn subsidies and, by extension, countless other factory-food production methods, went to his grave professing pride at having given Americans the lowest food expenditure of any Western people. He never grasped the connection between his actions and the quadrupling of our health-care expenses.
The only thing worth than Dick's being able to serve trash for $2 are mid-range burger joints or bars serving the same trash for $5-$6. If The Counter and Lunchbox Lab (presuming L.Lab don't lie about the quality of their meat) help to eradicate the "real men eat $2 burgers" fantasy, then they're both doing something worthwhile.
(Side-note: Outside of Seattle, a similar fallacy remains, even among liberal champions of the working class, that "real coffee only costs $1." How ironic, and sad, that this misplaced rejection of "bourgeois coffee" requires the daily screwing of all the working people who grow, wash, ship halfway around the globe, roast, brew, and serve the sizeable mound of beans they demand in their cups each morning. That, just like a $1 burger, isn't "keeping it real," it's fucking entitlement!)
You're also exaggerating the dangers of dipping fries in Heinz ketchup. If you really are that concerned about your health, you shouldn't be eating deep fried vegetables! "Oh no, I can't dump my battered, deep fried onion ring in Heinz! It will kill me!"
Your predictions about The Counter are LAUGHABLE. They are not a chain of local franchises through some sort of accident.
Please regale us with the burger establishment you prefer. Where is it? What do they serve? How much does it cost? You can't, because this magical grass-fed, super-cheap burger establishment does not exist.
Oh yeah, and they all cost less than five bucks, too.
PS - Burgerville USA is OK, but I think their burgers are mealy. Kind of like a lesser Kidd Valley, as I recall.
1) Counter is cheaper.
2) Counter is cleaner.
3) Counter is nicer. Every time I've been to Counter, I felt like I could leave being good friends with the hostess, waiter, and bartender. Each time I've been to Lunchbox Laboratory, I received bitchy, fucking bitchy attitude with a side of bitchy. Once my burger was so raw/red, it was literally dripping red juice. I asked if I could have it cooked a little longer, and I got the response of, "We know how to cook it, like it or leave it." Leave it. Fuck you, never going back to Lunchbox Laboratory. I have many friends who don't live around Ballard who ask about it, and I steer them away.
$4 extra now? Or pay whatever portion the insurance company won't on your coronary bypass later? (Or a global antibiotic-resistant pandemic after that?)
A menu boasting 312,120 possible burger combinations has about 312,110 too many. The difference only serves to capture the attention of those who consider North Ballard culturally distinct. Business is probably brisk.
Another warning sign: meat that's lavished with adjectives beyond "ground" and "beef". Hyphenation as in "grass-finished" is grounds for an ass-beating. Face it: they could be grilling up Kroger discount downer and you would never know the difference. I know you think you can. You can't.
The real knee slapper is the moral gymnastics that can somehow make a hamburger ecologically sustainable. A cow is a four-legged methane factory. It takes an obscene amount of real estate and fresh water to raise one to maturity. Beef is wrong. Beef melts glaciers. A tear trickles down Al Gore's face with every beefy bite you take. Beef is yummy and awesome. It's what's for dinner, but that dinner will NEVER be green, no matter if it was raised on corn, grass, or Prilosec.
Hamburgers should make you happy. If you want one, get one. It's okay! Don't obsess over the pedigree of the beef, what it ate, or if it was Waldorff educated. Don't deliberate on how many Prius miles it will take to carbon neutralize it. Go get a normal, everday hamburger. Don't pay more than 5 bucks for it. Grill it yourself if you want. I won't tell. Eat it, then smile yourself a big Sam Elliott smile.
When the price of a hamburger accurately reflects the real (unsubsidized) environmental and (unexploited) labor costs of its production, it WILL cost more!
Then, per basic principles of supply and demand, people will begin to eat somewhat less of it. The production quantity will decrease, but the quality of production methods should increase to keep the overall value of the industry stable.
With fewer meat-bound cows overall, the environmental impact will shrink. The public, eating meat of better quality, and less of it, will see its health improve. The humaneness of meat production will improve as well.
But this will ONLY happen if there is an educated public to demand higher-quality meat, to make it more lucrative and attractive than for producers than the current factory methods. As long as you insist on not paying more than 5 bucks, you ARE the problem.
When the price of a hamburger accurately reflects the real (unsubsidized) environmental and (unexploited) labor costs of its production, it WILL cost more!
Then, per basic principles of supply and demand, people will begin to eat somewhat less of it. The production quantity will decrease, but the quality of production methods should increase to keep the overall value of the industry stable.
With fewer meat-bound cows overall, the environmental impact will shrink. The public, eating meat of better quality, and less of it, will see its health improve. The humaneness of meat production will improve as well.
But this will ONLY happen if there is an educated public to demand higher-quality meat, to make it more lucrative and attractive than for producers than the current factory methods. As long as you insist on not paying more than 5 bucks, you ARE the problem.
When the price of a hamburger accurately reflects the real (unsubsidized) environmental and (unexploited) labor costs of its production, it WILL cost more!
Then, per basic principles of supply and demand, people will begin to eat somewhat less of it. The production quantity will decrease, but the quality of production methods should increase to keep the overall value of the industry stable.
With fewer meat-bound cows overall, the environmental impact will shrink. The public, eating meat of better quality, and less of it, will see its health improve. The humaneness of meat production will improve as well.
But this will ONLY happen if there is an educated public to demand higher-quality meat, to make it more lucrative and attractive than for producers than the current factory methods. As long as you insist on not paying more than 5 bucks, you ARE the problem.
Dick's uses a local meat supplier, as does the fabulous California chain In N' Out Burgers (which also does a wonderful burger for well under $5).
As a general rule, I don't take marital advice from Catholic priests, or tips on eating meat from militant vegans. Sorry.
And by the way, European hamburgers cost about the same amount as American ones (and they aren't as good).
They used to. Now all they told me was 'We use the good stuff.'
And when you're trying to go CAFO free, that isn't good enough.
....
Speaking of the Counter, the beauty is _you don't have to make a mess of it_.
You don't have to pick as many topping as you want, you could pick *as few* as you want.
Hell, despite the fact that you get 4 free regular topping, I usually only get 2. The joy of the Counter is the ability to perfectly customize the burger with what you want.
Heck, here's my suggestion: Get the burger in a bowl. Too many toppings *does* ruin the burger on a bun, but when you get it in the bowl, you can customize each bite. Try with one topping, try with two. And so on, and so on.
I find it appalling that Lunchbox uses "conventional" chicken and Butterball, and charges premium prices for it. Even worse: They won't reveal their beef source. I won't be going there for the latter reason alone, but I will definitely check out the Counter.
As my display name clearly stated, I'm a recent meat-eater and someone who likes meat, who finally threw up his hands and went vegetarian because ethical meat-eating is so fucking difficult in the States, thanks to the near-universal reliance on some very destructive meat-production practices.
In Canada, in most European country, and in any number of pre- and post-industrialization Asian countries, meat produced by less destructive methods is the norm, not the exception.
Those countries do spend far more of their GDPs on food (your ultra-cheap European burger is a fiction) but they get what they pay for. I'm willing to call the curious American tendency to reject anything of quality as "bourgeois" (or to label me "pretentious" just for bringing it up) what it is: pure self-defeating stupidity.
As for In-N'-Out Burger: they recently took a vocal public stand against the most inhumane of cattle-raising practices, and this was a step in the right direction. But their burgers are still emerging from a cheaply fed, antibiotic-pumping, ultra-mechanized mode of production that hardly puts them in the "quality meat" category.
..and Mr. Longhandle is still a self-righteous prig.
If they can do it why can't Lunchbox Labs?
If they can do it why can't Lunchbox Labs?"
Believe me, I'm not going to defend Lunchbox, but, it could just be the valley in the economy of scale. Caprice is small enough to be able to just buy as a 'person', while a business with larger throughput such as Ray's can get in on a cheaper, business plan, while Lunchbox is in some middle ground where they can't afford the amount they need, but the amount they need isn't enough to get a discount.
_*maybe*_
"I got a big pile of crappily-produced meat THAT CLAIMS TO BE OF QUALITY for $3.75," he gloats again and again.
I explain why that's a bad thing, so he accuses me of snobbery (and, by extension, proves his mettle as a "real non-fancy red-meat American).
But my favorite thing is when proudly uses the word "angus" to assert that his food is of quality. Angus cattle is just a breed -- an inbred breed with genetic disorders, by the way -- and calling something "angus" says nothing of the quality of the meet or how it was raised. Moron.
"I got a big pile of crappily-produced meat THAT CLAIMS TO BE OF QUALITY for $3.75," he gloats again and again.
I explain why that's a bad thing, so he accuses me of snobbery (and, by extension, proves his mettle as a "real non-fancy red-meat American").
But my favorite thing is when proudly uses the word "angus" to assert that his food is of quality. Angus cattle is just a breed -- an inbred breed with genetic disorders, by the way -- and calling something "angus" says nothing of how it was raised or the quality of its meat. Moron.
Also by Laurel Miller
The New Chicken
Jennie Grant, the City of Seattle, and the Greatness of Goats
8 comments »
Some Like It Hot Chocolate
Taking the Mood Elevator with Everyone's Favorite Wintertime Beverage
9 comments »
The Perfect Burger
Make It Your Own Damn Self (with Help from Maria Hines)
16 comments »
RSS
Facebook
Twitter
Comments (67) RSS