Mark on the Shore

Mark’s Score   8.5

I was having one of those days where absolutely nothing was going right. I had gone to Berlin to buy a few specialty items, and after visiting several stores I came up empty-handed. Sometimes making the effort to shop locally can be exacerbating. Local businesspeople do not always make it easy to support them. After a frustrating unprofitable morning, I stopped at Counter Clox for lunch. 

Patrice Ottey, Meghan Newberger and Fredric Leibowitz opened Counter Clos in May 2025. The concept was to create a contemporary industrial-inspired design with upscale quality comfort food and brick-oven pizza. The restaurant contains two floors. The upper floor houses The Vault, a cocktail bar that features live entertainment. 

By the time lunch had arrived I was feeling frustrated and unhappy. I walked into the restaurant to find I was the only customer, so I sat at the bar. The very sweet bartender immediately picked up on the fact that I was having a bad day, so she made it her job to cheer me up. She handed me a menu, and asked me what I wanted to drink.  I noticed that they have Berlin Beer Company beer on tap, my favorite local brewer. I ordered a beer and things were starting to look up. 

I would describe their menu as typical bar food, a mix of pizza, and burgers with a bit of seafood and Italian thrown into the mix. I would have ordered a pizza (I like brick oven) but their pizzas are too big for a single person. I didn’t want a burger, so I ordered the chicken parmesan melt sandwich. 

While I waited for my food, I struck up a conversation with the bartender. I was confused because both on the street and on the web, the restaurant had two names, Counter Clox and the Vault. I asked the bartender what was with the two names, which lead to a lively conversation about the bar’s design; downstairs for food, upstairs for drinks. She was so enthusiastic about her place of employment, and her upbeat attitude about work, life, and the food had put me in a far better mood by the time the food arrived. 

Though I was the only customer, it took a very long time for my sandwich to arrive. Fortunately, the bartender had kept me busy with conversation. As for the food itself, it was fine, I can’t honestly fault the preparation or flavor. It was perfectly acceptable and typical bar food. I didn’t wow me, but neither was I unhappy, and after the bartender’s enthusiastic endorsement of my choice, how could I possibly complain? 

Honestly, I classify Counter Clox where I classify most restaurants, neither great nor bad.  Though no restaurant these days is cheap, the food and service at Counter Clox was cheerfully in the happy middle, and that is perfectly OK. Though not my favorite restaurant in Berlin, I would happily eat here again, if for nothing else than for the lively conversation.  

What else is there to do in Berlin?

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