If you are not familiar with Counter Culture, this restaurant is known for healthy dishes featuring many gluten-free, keto, and Vegan options on their menu. History has shown that a restaurant that serves only these specialty items won’t survive, because there are not enough people in this area to support them. After having opened and operated over 17 different restaurants in 30 years, owners Chef Anthony & Chef Lisa Damiano know this all too well. While they both follow a Vegan diet, the one main thing they learned in culinary school was that you don’t cook for yourself, you cook for your guests. This type of diversity is what has helped keep them in business and thriving too! Summertime is a slow time for many restaurants in the area, but Chef Anthony told me that they are up over 60% from last year from the same time period. They must be doing something right!
Counter Culture is located inside the Boulevard Tennis Club a little bit north in Vero off of Indian River Boulevard. The good thing is you don’t need to be a member to dine here, it’s open to the public! As you enter the tennis club, a parking lot will be on your right-hand side. You can either walk around the perimeter of the main building, or if the door is open, you can walk through the tennis club to get there. They have a large inside dining room with a mix of tables, booths, and high tops. Grab a menu, take a seat, and when you’re ready, head up to the “Counter” to place your order. They will bring your food out to you. If you prefer to dine outside, there are plenty of tables to choose from and all have a great view of the tennis courts, so you can watch the members play as you dine.
During the summer months, we host several cooking classes with both Chef Anthony & Chef Lisa as our instructors! Our next class will be on Fri, Sept 30th, 2022, starting at 6pm! If you would like to learn more about Chef Anthony, scroll to the bottom of this article to check out our video, Chefs of Indian River County video featuring him!
Now let’s dive right in and see what this place has to offer and what I had to eat!
Main Building / Front Entrance – Enter through the main door and proceed straight back. Alternatively, you can follow the path to the left of the main entrance to get there too.
Dining Room – The door at the middle of the photo is where you enter if you walk through the tennis club. The two doors on either side take you out to the outside tables and the tennis courts.
G-Bombs Caesar – Romaine, cannelloni beans, red onion, mushrooms, dried cranberries, pumpkin seeds, all dressed with Lisa’s creamy amazing vegan Caesar dressing. I love salads like this, and this one did not disappoint! Everything was so fresh, and the Vegan dressing tasted just like a regular Caesar dressing too!
Boulevard Junior Club – Thick sliced white bread, natural turkey, ham, bacon, Swiss cheese, organic greens, tomatoes, mayo, and sweet potato fries. This is my wife’s go to sandwich when we dine here with the family. The bread is lightly toasted and is quite a satisfying bite with all those layers. Their sweet potato fries are also very good, one of the best I’ve tasted in the area! Ask for a side of the maple mayonnaise to dip them in, you can thank me later! 😉
Wild Mushroom Pizza – Wild mushrooms, red onion, mozzarella & fresh mozzarella topped with wild arugula, truffle oil, on a 12″ Rustico Italian crust. The crust is very thin, just like I like it and the pizza had such an earthy flavor from those fresh mushrooms and the truffle oil drizzle. Chef makes his own truffle oil in house and uses real truffles. He slices them and adds them to the oil and lets it “marinate” for at least 3 months to get that wonderful flavor! They also offer a gluten-free cauliflower pizza crust if you prefer.
Create Your Own Dish – Choose one protein, a Ribeye steak, and choose two sides, brussels sprouts & bacon and cauliflower mash. With 5 different proteins and 8 different side dishes, you have a lot of options to choose from! I enjoy a great steak, and this one was exceptional! Chef cooks it without seasoning, but you can always season to your personal taste. The Brussels & bacon were quite delicious, as was the cauliflower mash. It was one of the smoothest and creamiest I’ve ever tasted!
Desserts (left to right) – Chocolate Orange Donut – WFPB, Key Lime Raspberry Mousse Tart, Pecan Butter Truffle, Raspberry & Blueberry Crumble Tart. Chef Lisa is the pastry chef and always creates a wonderful selection of desserts to choose from. While I’m not usually a fan of Vegan desserts, chef Lisa makes them in a way that are more palatable for everyone to enjoy! This plate was only used for presentation for the photograph, all desserts are sold individually and change DAILY!
Check out the video above where we ask Chef Anthony our Top “ATE” questions to learn more about him!
My name is Thomas Miller, aka “The Treasure Coast Foodie” and “The Foodie Guy” and now the host and producer of the brand new show called Holy Grail Eats! I’ve been a professional food blogger for the past 9 years and I’m very passionate about finding “Holy Grail” dishes and supporting local mom-and-pop and one of a kind restaurants! I’ve reviewed over 300 local restaurants in the last 9 years and my food photos are devoured by 10’s of thousands each month on my website treasurecoastfoodie.com. As a Google Maps Level 8 Local Guide, I have submitted over 4,000 photos that have been viewed over 90 million times. My foodie following is over 125,000 strong on the Treasure Coast and my Foodie dining experience events are some of the Top Culinary experiences on the Treasure Coast!
Keep up the great work!!!
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