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.
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. 
Sorry, Mr. X, no “militant vegans” here. You’ve proven yourself a victim of the “real American burgers should be cheap” brand of mistaken class-consciousness, but I didn’t realize you were also illiterate. (Do you vote for the “Cut Taxes GOP Party,” too?)
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.
THE BEST BURGERS IN TOWN ARE AT RED MILL. BACON CHEESE TO DIE FOR. PERIOD!
Best burger in Seattle? Probably Zippy’s.
Caprice Kitchen in Ballard serves 100% locally sourced (except coffee, chocolate, and sugar), ethically produced ingredients. It’s an 8 table restaurant. They get their meat from Thundering Hooves.
If they can do it why can’t Lunchbox Labs?
@62 “Caprice Kitchen in Ballard serves 100% locally sourced (except coffee, chocolate, and sugar), ethically produced ingredients. It’s an 8 table restaurant. They get their meat from Thundering Hooves.
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*_
Amazing how every one of Mr. X’s eight dickish and reactionary posts did nothing but prove my point.
“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.
Amazing how every one of Mr. X’s eight dickish and reactionary posts did nothing but prove my point.
“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.
I will never go to Counter. Scott is local and one of my five favorite restaurants in Seattle. Scott’s a genius and I know that there’s nothing that any burger place I’ll ever go to again will ever come up with the flavors that Scott dreams up.