What to Get at Shaw’s Best Bar
Eebee’s Corner Bar opened in Shaw with more fanfare than you’d expect for a neighborhood watering hole. The burger was quickly named among the city’s best, and an early Washington Post review only accelerated the buzz. Where crowds follow, a game plan helps. Here’s how to navigate Eebee’s once you snag a seat.
What to order
- With a nice char, juicy heft, and a toasty, seed-flecked bun, the burger is, indeed, terrific. Add the bacon. The accompanying cottage fries could have used another minute or two in the fryer. Include the Caesar salad, showered with cheese and tossed in a robust dressing, to get some green on the table.
- As someone who regularly wears a sweatshirt proclaiming her love for mozzarella sticks, I feel qualified to endorse Eebee’s oversized, cheese-pull-worthy version (though homemade stix don’t always scratch the same itch as the super-processed dive bar variety).
- A plump, tender shrimp cocktail is worth $21 in an age where the dish often creeps up over $30.
What to drink
- There are several Manhattan riffs (and the bar makes a mean Black one off-menu). Go for the dry, maraschino-enhanced Brooklyn.
- Everyone’s obsessed with the martinis. I loved the classic 50/50 version, but found the dirty and “filthy” versions more citrusy than briney, with a background sweetness that threw off the balance.
Skip
The turkey club: The mince-like texture of the meat and abundance of mayo call to mind a turkey salad-style approach to the sandwich, which wasn’t for me.
Getting in
It’s an unfortunate testament to D.C.’s hype machine that you have to jump through hoops to visit a solid bar with good food and drinks. I got there right at 5 p.m. on a snowy Monday in the hopes of snagging a table for five, and four other parties had the same idea. They now require the majority of your party to be present; the place was full by 5:20 p.m. Colleagues had similar experiences even after 1 a.m. I hear mid-afternoon on the weekend is the move (until I just wrote that sentence, that is).
