By Nadine Kam

Nadine Kam photos
The owners, from left, Ed Robles, Daniel Dae Kam, Pablo Buckingham and DK Kodama.

The Counter celebrated its grand opening with a party Saturday night that included the red-carpet (that was actually blue) arrivals of “Lost” castmates of Daniel Dae Kim, a co-owner in the endeavor with DK Kodama, Ed Robles and Pablo Buckingham, all there to make sure guests had their fill of mini Counter burgers plus sushi and more grinds from DK’s other restaurant, Sansei Seafood Restaurant and Sushi Bar.

Currently the most buzzed-about restaurant in town, The Counter has been open a month and is already the top-performing franchise in the country. Popularity still has its drawbacks as I keep hearing about hourlong waits, but, like I said in my review, the solution is to go at off-peak hours, like 3 p.m., making it one of those rare places where people are willing to make accomodations rather than be accommodated. When does that ever happen?

From left, Beth Shady, Jorge Garcia, Hannah Cornett and pro surfer turned actress Keala Kennelly.

The space is rather small for a party of the magnitude of Saturday’s event, so people flowed in and out for air. It was probably just as much fun outside with the paparazzi as inside, because the celebs were in a good mood and willing to do just about anything for the cameras, whether stuff their faces or ham it up with mock interviews.

Oh, and the burgers were truly yummy!

I left before Josh Holloway got there, but you can see photos of him at photographer Jeannemarie Viggiano’s Web site blog. She’s in many of the photos, and yours truly is in one of them.

More photos:

Nancy Bulalacao and Ken Leung.

Daniel Dae Kim with his wife Mia and Michael Emerson.

Inside the restaurant, Hannah Cornett with Kimi and Ash Matar. Hannah’s dress is from bebe and she was also wearing some fantastic, spiky strappy sandals from Louis Vuitton.

Working the red carpet is duck soup for Tia Carrere.

Peter Savasta, left, and Chris Lee.

From left, one of the party organizers, Erika Kauffman, with Nicole Fox and Malika Dudley.

DJ Maleko and Gwen McDonnell.

Ed Robles’ wife Tsugumi Robles, left, with Emi Paine.

Monica Salmaso, left, and Valeria Zaccaria.

This entry was posted on Sunday, March 29th, 2009 at 9:54 pm and is filed under Video, People, Entertainment, Food, Scene spy, Parties. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.