When a health inspector walked into The Counter at Santana Row on the afternoon of March 13, they weren’t just counting cockroaches — they were documenting them. According to an official inspection report from the Santa Clara County Department of Environmental Health, five cockroaches were found across the build-your-own burger restaurant at 3055 Olin Avenue: one adult crawling near a broken coving tile by the women’s restroom handwash sink, two juveniles under the sink in the ice machine area, one juvenile that fell from a utensil rack near the ice machine, and two dead cockroaches — one tucked under equipment in a back corner of the bar, one under the dish machine. The restaurant was ordered to cease operations immediately. Now, the restaurant’s Google business listing has a red banner that says, “Permanently closed.”
What Inspectors Found
The cockroach sightings were cited as a major violation under California Health and Safety Code sections 114259.1, 114259.4, and 114259.5, which require food facilities to be maintained free of vermin. Alongside the infestation, inspectors flagged a gap under the back door — large enough to allow ongoing pest entry — as well as accumulation of grime, grease, and food debris on floors and floor sinks. Broken coving, gaps in walls throughout the facility, and open ceiling panels rounded out the secondary violations, each representing potential harborage or access points for pests. The person in charge during the inspection, identified as Komal, was informed of the immediate closure order. Supervisor Suzanne Lew was also notified, per the inspection report.
Before reopening, The Counter must submit a signed reopening checklist and a pest control report from a licensed provider. The inspection report noted the operator was seeking an after-hours follow-up as early as March 14 — though a follow-up inspection cannot occur until at least 24 hours after the initial closure, to allow pest control treatments time to work. As of publication, no reopen date has been posted to the county’s SCCDineOut portal.
A Rocky Stretch for a Bay Area Institution
The Santana Row location has a long history in Silicon Valley. The Counter chain was founded in Santa Monica in 2003 by Jeff Weinstein — it earned a shoutout on The Oprah Winfrey Show in 2006 and landed on GQ’s list of hamburgers you must eat before you die, per Wikipedia. The Bay Area franchise was built out by Peter Katz, who opened the Palo Alto location — the chain’s second ever — in 2006 and eventually ran seven Northern California locations. As Palo Alto Online reported, Katz transferred ownership of the Santana Row location on April 1, 2024, to Ricky Singh — a franchise operator who also owns the Pinkberry at Stanford Shopping Center — ending a nearly 20-year run for Katz with the brand.
Singh told Palo Alto Online at the time that the ownership change wouldn’t significantly impact the customer experience, aside from some minor interior and exterior upgrades. Nearly two years later, however, the Yelp picture tells a more complicated story.
The Yelp Reviews Tell a Story
Scroll through recent reviews on Yelp and you’ll find genuine fans sitting alongside some pointed critics — with a few reviewers flagging exactly the kind of cleanliness issues that would concern a health inspector. A San Jose Elite reviewer who visited in late January 2026 was satisfied, praising a garlic mayo burger and shoestring fries and saying she’d return. A Walnut Creek Elite reviewer in early February raved about the southern fried chicken sandwich and called the shoestring fries “probably the best ones I’ve ever had.”…