We don’t know if this one is, but it stopped Deirdre in her tracks when she went looking for Rocket to open our weekend spread on the way he manages chili recipes across spice, color and the main protein in the pot.

You knew starting with something this emotional was going to get us agitated about lunch, even after the two international hot spots and the continuing horror of the ‘Homicidal Mommie’ story were covered. The last few sausage-and-veggie fritters on the platter on the Conference Table were still warm.

I needed to get started on a couple of fix-ahead items I can slide into the new air fryer and use to keep people smiling through the first of the football games. But somebody opened the Washington Post on a tablet and began waving around a burger that looked like the perfect Friday precipice from which to leap into the weekend.

That is how the Production Meeting got bushwhacked.

We were going to open this morning with Rocket’s discussion of chili, which had already begun its predictable spiral into the color of the mixture in the pot, the varieties of peppers and spices and vegetables, and finally the types and cuts of protein that make one chili something quite different from another.

Instead, we got Eebee’s.

It is a corner bar at 1840 6th Street NW in Shaw, opened last year by Washington native Emily Brown after a hospitality career that included years behind bars and around beer programs in New York and Washington. Her idea was wonderfully uncomplicated: build the sort of neighborhood place where somebody knows your name and the food happens to be much better than a neighborhood joint strictly requires.

Which brings us to the burger.

Eebee’s half-pound cheeseburger starts with a custom dry-aged Pat LaFrieda beef blend, gets a serious dose of cracked black pepper, American and cheddar cheese, a thick slice of raw onion and a house-baked bun. The cottage fries alongside are cooked in beef tallow. It has become enough of a sensation that people have been standing in substantial lines to get through the door.

That naturally brought Rocket back into the conversation, because beef has become an increasingly serious line item around here. Ground-beef prices are up nearly 60 percent since 2021. That makes the half-cow in the freezer downstairs look less like one of Rocket’s culinary eccentricities and more like prudent inventory management.

I intend to diversify the stockpile a little. The big freezer in the garage can handle the everyday beef, while the little 3.6-cubic-foot rolling freezer in the Galley can rotate specialty cuts through the two weekly main-course slots I have room for on Mondays and Wednesdays.

Which is about as much strategic planning as we intend to accomplish on a Friday.

It is a nice one, and I may inform the crowd that the evening crew can make brisket sandwiches if anyone gets hungry. There is always the alternative of DoorDash from Shake Shack over on Lee Highway.

Meanwhile, Rocket’s chili can wait.

We have a bright weekend coming, football is beginning to stir, and somewhere across the river there is a half-pound dry-aged cheeseburger that has apparently been waiting for us.

Is it the best darn burger in Washington?

There may be only one responsible way to find out.
Copyright © 2026 Vic Socotra
Eebee’s photograph: Tim Carman/The Washington Post