Counter Service: The Brilliant Next Chapter for a Peloton Co-Founder

Counter Service is the latest venture from one of Peloton’s original five co-founders, and yes, it involves sandwiches. Tom Cortese, who co-founded Peloton in 2012 alongside John Foley, Hisao Kushi, Yony Feng, and Graham Stanton before leading the company as Chief Product Officer for more than 12 years, is now CEO of this upscale fast-casual sandwich concept. He co-founded it with none other than Chipotle founder Steve Ells.

The concept has already grown to four New York City locations in its first year, with four more planned for the New York area in 2026, pending the right locations.

From Kernel Foods to Counter Service

Counter Service did not start with that name. The concept began as Kernel Foods, and Cortese joined roughly a year before the pivot. In its earlier form, Kernel was experimenting with automation-forward restaurant technology, including a robotic arm designed to assist kitchen workers.

When that model proved difficult to scale, the team went back to the drawing board. The robots were retired, the name changed, and the focus shifted to something far more grounded: a tight menu of hot sandwiches built on scratch proteins, a central kitchen handling prep, and real human workers at the center of each location.

The pivot drew directly on lessons Cortese learned during his years at Peloton, including the hub-and-spoke model that allowed Peloton to produce studio content in New York and distribute it to millions of homes around the world.

A Menu Built to Stand Out

Counter Service is built around real food and a deliberately short menu developed by former Eleven Madison Park chef Andrew Black. All proteins are made from scratch in a central kitchen, including slow-roasted beef, roast pork, and even the pate for the banh mi. None of the sandwiches use cold cuts.

That distinction matters. Cortese has pointed to cold cuts as the defining weakness of the $48 billion U.S. sandwich category, dominated by brands like Subway. Counter Service is positioning itself as something genuinely different.

The menu includes options like The Baron, a thin-sliced roast beef with aged white cheddar and watercress, and The Green Goddess Club, a pulled roast chicken with avocado-green goddess spread and bacon. And then there is The Cortese, roast pork loin with broccoli rabe, provolone, and salsa verde. Yes, there is a sandwich named after the CEO himself. All sandwiches are served hot, run through a convection oven.

The breads come from a local bakery using just four ingredients and are not built for a long shelf life. Cortese has described the entire concept as building something authentic, with real staying power.

Chipotle Meets Peloton Behind the Counter

The partnership behind Counter Service brings two distinct track records together. Steve Ells founded Chipotle and built it into one of the defining fast-casual chains in the country before eventually departing. Cortese brings a lens on scaling that most restaurant founders simply do not have.

He built a company that turned studio workout content into a global consumer product, and he is applying that same logic here. A central production kitchen efficiently supplies smaller storefronts, much like Peloton’s New York studio once supplied content to riders everywhere.

Counter Service also runs on a proprietary restaurant management platform designed to drive efficiencies in both labor and supply chain. The co-founders believe this can accelerate growth faster than traditional restaurant build-outs allow. Cortese has even compared a restaurant make line to the factory assembly line Peloton used in its bike facilities.

What This Means for the Peloton Community

Cortese stepped away from Peloton in late 2023 as the company worked through its post-pandemic correction and a string of leadership changes. He has been candid that in his later years there, a shift away from product passion changed the culture and the way customers experienced the brand.

The Counter Service story is, in many ways, the story of what happens when a builder gets to build again. For Peloton members who have followed the company’s origin story from the beginning, Cortese is one of the people who shaped what Peloton became.

Watching him take those same instincts and apply them to a completely different industry is genuinely worth paying attention to. Counter Service locations are currently open in New York City. And if the growth trajectory holds, this may not stay a New York story for long. Would you try a sandwich named The Cortese?

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