Our People: Sam Hart

BY L’MONIQUE KING QNOTES STAFF WRITER

As Valentine’s Day approaches many people, friends and lovers are searching for a cool romantic place to eat. Restaurant owner and chef, Sam Hart, not only has the answer, but also what just well may be one of the city’s most unique places for dining out on that special day.

Raised as an only child by his mom, these days Hart’s family has grown somewhat – he has a partner, and the twosome recently moved to the city’s historic Wesley Heights neighborhood.

Hart is known around town as a culinary dynamo. A fifth generation Charlottean, at just 30 he’s the owner and chef at an exclusive local restaurant known as “counter-”.

He’s taking a break from prepping dishes for the next day’s guests. While relaxing in the restaurant’s dining area wearing a pair of pink suede vans (a favorite wardrobe staple) he’s sharing parts of his personal story with qnotes about who he is and how he does what he does with a touch of irreverent refinement.

Considering Hart’s reputation is now steeped in the culinary industry, it seemed apropos to find out what kind of food makes his heart skip a beat.

“The greatest dish I’ve ever had was the cheese course at a restaurant called Oriole. It’s a cheese soufflé with gruyere cheese sauce on top. It’s the greatest fucking thing I’ve ever tasted,” he says. “The only thing that comes close to it is the Cajun filet biscuit combo, it’s the number one at Bojangles. I used to get it with Cheerwine, but unfortunately, [they] stopped serving [the soft drink].”

While Hart has always enjoyed food; he hasn’t always been a chef. He started cooking about seven years ago when he left his advertising job of five years. It was in September 2020, in the midst of the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic that Hart decided to open the eclectic fine dining restaurant.

“We signed the lease, built the restaurant and opened. [It was] the best decision ever. It was the greatest happenstance, and we knew doing this [during a pandemic] would be the ultimate test.”

Apparently, it’s been one test Hart is pleased to have passed.

The dash at the end of the name of the restaurant (counter-) is intentional and intended to draw attention to how his establishment has priorities that differ from those of many others. Hart describes his business as a non-pretentious fine dining spot that embraces counterculture, promotes diversity and revels in unveiling narratives that may have been previously hidden. According to Hart, that means offering an experience that goes beyond food and low lighting. Counter- submerges guests with visuals, sounds, feelings and tastes while showcasing produce and proteins from local growers and distributors.

He says his restaurant is the first he knows of to pair music with a tasting menu. “Some people initially think it’s a gimmick,” he explains. “Then they taste our food and realize [the combination is] pretty

phenomenal.”

Hart’s eatery promises to accommodate all dietary needs and restrictions for a 10-course tasting menu that is by reservation only. It’s not often a restaurant has a waiting list, but that’s the case with counter-. However, there are season passes to those attempting to avoid the often-soldout guest list. The limited seating, like most things counter- related, is also intentional. “We only have 18 seats,” Hart offers. “The main reason has to do with wastes. If you know exactly how many people are going to eat that week, there’s no waste. It’s a more sustainable way to operate, [and] we cut down on our waste by about 80%.”

As for what his favorite course might be, Hart replies with a chuckle.

“The golf course! I’m obsessed with playing golf. It’s an odd sight – I’m sure – a flamboyant bald, bearded and tattooed guy [playing golf].

Additionally, when he does have time for leisure, he enjoys spending time with his partner traveling, drinking lots of wine, exploring and experiencing life. However, he may have to wait until after Valentine’s week before he’s able to explore his favorite golf course and the rest of the world.

Valentine’s Day is typically a big day for restaurants. As the day approaches Hart and his team are ready to greet and serve lovebirds and anyone else looking for a unique dining experience.

“People who work in the restaurant industry hate Valentine’s Day,” he says matter-of-factly. “They’re overbooked and super busy. But there’s something to be said for the romance of the day, fine wine, great dinner and enjoying your significant other – I love Valentine’s Day.” He offers an explanation about food service angst regarding the holiday: The quality of service and food can often suffer on high volume days like Valentine’s Day. “With us, it’s very different. We only serve 18 people, so the same focus we give customers on any night is the same for Valentine’s Day. It’s the highest level of focus and execution every night. That’s what I require from my staff and myself.

When asked where he hopes to see himself in 10 years he says, “Failing more than I currently am. I have a policy and understanding with myself that I cannot succeed without failing a lot. I believe I’m successful today because I’ve failed more than most people. So, my goal is to fall on my face quite a bit. That means I’m trying [to] be more successful than I am now.”: :

from on page 18 in New York and almost impossible to find. David Rockwell is designing it and I’m hoping it’ll be open in two years. I tell a story in the book about how [years ago] we were rehearsing up at the YMCA, and the director just disappeared and left us with the bill for the rehearsal room. If I can leave a rehearsal room behind… LinManuel [Miranda] developed “Hamilton” in the basement of the Drama Book Shop. For my shows, I used the basement of La Mama which was this small space, but big enough for us to rehearse and develop what we needed to do. I even did a couple of shows down there.

GS: Chapters 19 through 22 give readers insight into the inspiration for and the writing of “Torch Song Trilogy” and then much later you write about the recent revival with Michael Urie. What was it like to revisit the creation and the revision of “Torch Song Trilogy”?

HF: They’re your children, so they never really leave you. You may not think about them in the same way all the time, but they don’t leave you. You ask a mother about her son when he was six, and she can tell you a story about that time. It doesn’t mean you live with those stories every day. But they’re always there. Unfortunately, as you get older and people

Thoughts on Food, Failure and Valentine’s Day

Chef Hart: ‘…there’s something to be said for the romance of the day, fine wine, great dinner and enjoying your significant other – I love Valentine’s Day.’

die on you, you remember them, or you go back to those stories time and again to remember how you all met and all that. With something like “Torch Song,” which is so much a part of my life, there was no real shock to going back and looking at that stuff again. Seeing Michael do it was not a shock either, because I cast all of my understudies. The show ran on Broadway for five years, but I didn’t play it all five years. There were other Arnolds and I saw all of them. There were matinee Arnolds, and then we had a bus and truck tour, and a regular tour. I saw all of those guys play it. I saw it in London with Tony Sher, who died a few weeks ago. He won the Olivier for “Torch Song.” Writing a memoir is not a time to blame other people [laughs]. When you’re writing plays, it is.

GS: I’m so glad you said that because one of the things that I think will strike readers about “I Was Better Last Night” is the brutal honesty with which you write about alcoholism and sobriety, as well as your suicide attempt. What do you hope readers will take away from that?

HF: There’s a certain point when you’re writing something like that…I don’t really care [laughs]. I needed to tell the truth and you hope that the truth will do good. When you’re writing fiction, you care more about how it’s read and what somebody gets out of the fiction. When you’re writing non-fiction, it’s like, “This is what happened, like it or not, Cookie.” The only hope is that I hope you know I’m telling it the best I can and being truthful. Because the truth does affect people, that I know. When you’re writing drama, you are manipulating an audience, and a story, and emotions. When I was writing the book, of course, there’s still an art to it, but I’m not turning away from something because it’s not comfortable. I’m going to say it. If somebody thinks I’m an asshole, let them think I’m an asshole. You read the book, and thank you very much for doing so.

GS: That’s my job!

HF: You see in the book that I don’t have an answer for my own gender. Had I been born in 1980, instead of 1952, would I be a woman now? I don’t know. I don’t have those answers. I don’t have the luxury of being born in a different society. The first [trans] person I knew was Christine Jorgensen, who died owing me money, that bitch [laughs]. When I was writing the book, I was going through photographs. There’s a picture in the book of me and Marsha P. Johnson and Jon Jon marching in a Gay Pride march. I put that picture up and somebody wrote to me telling me about Marsha, like you should know who this person was. I was like, “What are you talking about? This was a friend of mine!”

GS: Thank you for mentioning pictures. I live four blocks south of Wilton

Manors in Fort Lauderdale. In the book you include a photo of the WiltonArt. com street sign that features a quote by you. What does it mean to you to be immortalized in this way?

HF: While it’s very flattering, another place I looked had it that Walt Whitman said it! With one hand, you’re flattered, and with the other, you’re slapped across the face. GS: At least they got the attribution right in Wilton Manors. HF: That’s lovely, it really is lovely. It’s a lovely thing to see something like that.

I was watching some interview with Billy

Porter, and as if by accident they walked down the block where there was a mural on the side of a building of his portrait.

As if, “Oh, I didn’t know that was there!”

You sort of laugh, like, yeah, right! You brought a film crew because you didn’t know your picture was there on the wall [laughs]. That sort of stuff of celebrity is always funny. Especially when you have friends who are famous and you try to just be human beings together, but then you go out in public, and you realize that they mean a whole other thing to the Feb. 4 - Feb. 17, 2022 Qnotes 19