Can a burger joint expand without losing its cool?
When The Counter’s hamburgers were mentioned on Oprah , franchising was not far behind When restaurateur Jeff Weinstein launched The Counter, a hip build-your-own hamburger eatery with industrial decor in trendy Santa Monica, Calif., three years ago, word of the new hotspot spread widely and a hungry and loyal following quickly developed. In just three months, The Counter turned a profit. Despite the fact that the casual gourmet burger joint known for its over 300,000 different possible combinations—beef, ahi tuna, chicken, turkey, or veggie burgers, topped with everything from dried cranberries to Danish blue cheese to roasted corn and black bean salsa—doesn’t advertise (preferring instead to rely on word of mouth), interest continued to swell. Last summer, The Counter earned national recognition when it was ranked No. 15 in GQ magazine’s seminal list of “20 Hamburgers You Must Eat Before You Die.” However, Weinstein, 31, got a real boost in February, when his burgers were mentioned o