Gurl! Ditch that Red Stripe and get yerself a Cosmopolitan! There’s a slick new gay-owned entertainment and dining experience coming to Vauxhall. We speak to owner Philip Reicherstorfer to get the full menu on what Counter will be serving up…
WHO?
Counter is being set up by myself as the sole founder and owner. My parents used to run night clubs, restaurants and hotels in Germany when I was a child. I later organised school and college balls. I moved over to the UK for university and then started working in the City for J.P. Morgan Chase. I worked there for 15 years and ended up running the high yield bond and leveraged loan financing team for telecom, media and technology companies. I was also one of the most senior openly out employees at JPM in London. I decided last Christmas that it was time to move on and follow my passion back into hospitality. I have always been happiest and most fulfilled when creating spaces for other people to have a wonderful time. My partner Mark Hill (BBC Antiques Roadshow and BBC 2 Collectaholics) has lived in Kennington for four years, and so creating a gay and straight friendly all-day venue felt like a natural gap in the market to be filled.
WHAT?
Counter has been inspired by places like MORE Berlin, Cafeteria in New York and Cafe George in Amsterdam: brasserie and bar venues that are open all day and evolve over the day from breakfast and take-away coffee, through working lunches and after work drinks to dinner and late night cocktails and snacks. Our food and drinks menu is inspired by a New York style French brasserie. Totally off the record, we want to end up between your more high profile Soho gay restaurant and The Wolseley. We are calling ourselves The Snappy All Day Bar and Brasserie for an Evolving Neighbourhood. Snappy means chic design, fast American style service and smart dishes.
WHY?
For all the people living, commuting through, working and partying in Vauxhall we will provide a much-needed restaurant and bar that will be several steps above the other local restaurants and coffee shops. For the gay village in Vauxhall we will provide an all day restaurant and bar as a new focus point that will be always open, charge no entrance and you do not need to check what special fetish event is happening. One of our major innovations will be Saturday and Sunday all day brunch with live entertainment. We will also offer take-away coffee from Allpress.
WHERE?
Counter is in an arch right under Vauxhall mainline station. Our main entrance for COUNTER Brasserie is opposite Lightbox on South Lambeth Place. Our other entrance for BackCOUNTER is next to The Hoist on South Lambeth Road, less than two minutes walk from the RVT and Eagle London. Above the Stag Theatre is five minutes away, perfect for pre or post show dinner and drinks. BackCOUNTER is the gayer half of COUNTER and will focus on brunch, cocktails and food for the gay residents and nightlife hedonists in the area.
WHEN?
We will soft open on February 6th and fully open on February 13th. Opening times are from 6:30am on weekdays and 8am on weekends, and we have last orders at midnight Sunday to Thursday and 1am Friday and Saturday. You can book tables through our web page, but we will always keep BackCOUNTER open for walk-ins.
THE MENU
We have a full and varied dinner menu. As a special teaser beyond that, we have stuffed French toasts and other American specialities for brunch. We will serve Sam Adams as draft beer, plus various others. Our wine list is all French and American, and we have a sophisticated cocktail list, including house specials.
SPECIALS
We will have live entertainment brunches. On our opening and Valentine’s weekends we will have Carl Joseph playing between 12-3, and on February 21st-22nd we will be visited by Lady Diamond. We will also add Friday and Saturday nightlife entertainment later on.
• Counter (Arch 50, 7-11 South Lambeth Place, Vauxhall, SW8 1SP) opens with a soft launch on Friday 6th February with reservations only via the web page, before a full opening on Friday 13th February.
