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The Counter in Cupertino will permanently close March 31 after nine years in business, leaving only three locations of the customizable burger spot in the Bay Area.
“I think people would be insane to open a restaurant in California these days,” said Peter Katz, managing partner of Counter Intelligence, owner of the Northern California franchise of The Counter.
Katz sold the Mountain View location to a new owner Dec. 1 and plans to transfer ownership of the Santana Row location effective April 1. The decision to close the Cupertino location boiled down to two main factors, Katz said. First, The Counter Cupertino’s proximity to Apple’s campus used to make it a hotspot for lunch, but working from the office isn’t nearly as popular post-pandemic. Secondly, Katz said running a business in California is becoming progressively more difficult.
“The business climate in California for smaller, independent owners like us, between the cost of rent, food, supplies, and then government requirements, labor and litigation, it goes on and on,” he said. “The combination of lack of demand because of the post-pandemic changes and then all these other variables made that location non-viable.”
Katz opened the second location of The Counter in Palo Alto in 2006 – the first established in Santa Monica by Jeffrey Weinstein and Craig Albert in 2023 – and closed it in 2021. Prior to the pandemic, Katz owned seven locations of The Counter in the Bay Area. Once Katz transfers ownership of The Counter Santana Row, he will officially be “done with The Counter,” a business he’s been running for close to 20 years after working in tech.
Ricky Singh – who owns many franchises, including the Pinkberry at Stanford Shopping Center – took over The Counter Mountain View in December and will take over the Santana Row location next month. Singh said the ownership change won’t make a huge impact on customer experience, besides some “minor upgrades to the interiors and exteriors … just some paintwork and some light remodeling.”
“We just want to welcome everyone,” Singh said. “We’re trying to upgrade the building, do some adjustments, make a better menu, better product, adding new things.”
The Counter, 2580 W El Camino Real, Mountain View, 650-948-2333; 3055 Olin Ave Suite 1035, San Jose, 408-610-1362; 39350 Paseo Padre Parkway, Fremont, 510-796-8800; Instagram: @thecounterburger.
We started going to The Counter in Palo Alto soon after it originally opened and we went a lot, to the point that we knew the servers by name and they knew our orders by heart. When that location closed, we continued going to the Mountain View location almost as regularly (a lot of the PA staff had moved over to MV.) It was great, high quality food with fantastic service. We have a big family and are big tippers.
Since it was sold in December, we’ve been to the MV location 3 times and it has fallen in quality precipitously. It is quite clear that they are saving costs on cheaper ingredients while keeping prices the same. The service doesn’t seem to know what its doing (except the few people they kept on from the old ownership); we ordered a whiskey drink and a gin and tonic and the server insisted that the clear drink was my whiskey (the bartender got it right). There is no reason for me to spend money on food and service I can get cheaper and of equal quality at Chili’s or 5 Guys. Sad loss.