Chef Finn Stern didn’t ask me to leave Daytrip Counter, but the thought must have crossed his mind. On the fourth day of service at the restaurant, Stern stopped by our table to ask how the meal was. We were sharing an array of vegetable-forward side dishes, but we’d barely touched the rotisserie chicken. It’s the central concept upon which the rebranded Daytrip has staked its culinary bona fides.
When cut into, the chicken was pink and red down to the bone. When I explained this to the chef, he looked taken aback. He asked if it just wasn’t to my liking. No, I replied, it was undercooked. Stern immediately apologized and said he’d remove the item from our bill ($27 for a whole chicken, $17 for half). When we stood up to leave, someone on staff handed us two black sesame coconut cookies ($3) as consolation prizes.
Stern didn’t know who I was or that I was there for a review. But he did politely and gracefully manage that fraught moment between an unhappy diner and the chef who prepared the meal. When I first started writing about food, one of many unwritten rules was to wait three months before visiting a newly opened restaurant, to allow a chef and the members of their staff to get comfortable in the kitchen and in executing service.
While I did have this rule in the back of my mind, I also made an exception because Stern, with his wife Stella Dennig, had opened Daytrip at the end of 2021. I assumed that reopening as Daytrip Counter was a natural extension of the first concept and that running a restaurant in the same, familiar space would make for an easy transition. But Counter is a different entity with its own separate soul. Daytrip achieved a James Beard nomination with adventurous dishes, including everybody’s favorite, a celery salad with sheep’s cheese, chlorophyll and habanero oil.
After closing Daytrip last December, Stern and Dennig painted over the pink-and-black walls with an all-enveloping mustard color. It’s like eating inside a giant jar of Grey Poupon. The addition of the word “Counter” to the restaurant’s name, and the monochromatic color scheme, suggest an infinitely more casual, institutional, cafeteria-style dining experience. Orders are now placed at the front register to the right of a large menu sign hanging on the wall.
Rotisserie chicken is listed first, at the top of the menu, and described as, “juicy brined bird dressed maximally and topped with fresh herbs and schmaltz.” When Stern explained that they weren’t making the skin crispy, it further clarified that the approach to its preparation had been a deliberate choice, if not one I would seek out, even if the bird had been cooked to my liking.
What wasn’t surprising about the rest of the meal was the chef’s skill with vegetables and vegetarian items. That brilliant celery salad hasn’t made a triumphant return, but we did eat every last leaf and crumb of our salads and sides. The basil caesar salad ($12.50) is snowed in with grana padano, garlic breadcrumbs and pickled peppers. The “secret” or next-level ingredient in the caesar aioli dressing is fish sauce. Including it in a now commonplace dressing revives the whole idea of what a caesar salad can taste like.
A cilantro lime crunch salad ($13) proved to be equally compelling. Again, Stern knows how to pair cheese with veggies. Here he adds a sheep’s milk feta to red cabbage, cilantro and pumpkin seeds before topping the dish with a charred tomatillo vinaigrette. It recalls the celery salad’s crunch and is a worthy successor.
The caesar aioli with fish sauce returns as a dipping side for a tower of “extra crispy” fries ($7), which are also zested over with fresh herbs and parmesan. We emptied the entire plate of them. Per usual, I didn’t order the sesame cauliflower ($7.50) because it is the worst vegetable on the planet—but someone at our table did. It’s roasted with paprika and black sesame seeds, and I didn’t dislike it, which is saying something.
My favorite dish was a big bowl of “brothy” gigante beans ($7). Cooked in chicken stock and topped with a three-herbed pesto and lime wedges, I would have been satisfied with only a bowl of these beans for my entire meal. They were tender and melty, perfectly satisfying.
Daytrip Counter, 4316 Telegraph Ave., Oakland. Open every day 11:30am to 8pm. in**@************er.com. daytripcounter.com
