How Eebee’s Became DC’s Hottest Bar
To read the article in The Washingtonian, click HERE.
The dive-y Shaw bar is drawing lines down the block.
On a recent Friday night, around 150 people lined up around the block to get into DC’s newest hotspot. They weren’t seeking out some trendy cuisine or buzzy chef. They were waiting for Eebee’s, which is, basically, just a neighborhood bar. Vintage beer signs and family photos give the Shaw corner joint a dive-y unpretentiousness. You can get a Miller High Life for $6 or a martini for $13. And the cheeseburger is better than you might expect.
On one hand, casual, full-service, independent establishments like Eebee’s have been suffering. A record number of restaurants closed last year, according to the Restaurant Association Metropolitan Washington, and mid-priced spots have been hardest hit by rising costs. Eebee’s has proven to be the exception. And in many ways, no place better encapsulates the moment.
Maximalism, Instagram-ready cocktails, and all things “vibe” have defined the dining scene over the last few years. Eebee’s feels like the antidote to all that gimmickry. And as economic uncertainty has overtaken the region, Eebee’s is a relatively affordable oasis amid all the high prices. The menu is full of nostalgic classics—mozzarella sticks, a turkey club, a banana split—done right. But the biggest draw has been the burger: a dry-aged Pat La Frieda beef patty with plenty of freshly cracked pepper, a slice of raw onion, plus cheddar and American cheese on a house-baked bun.
But if you ask the regulars, what has really made Eebee’s such a phenomenon is the bar’s namesake: owner Emily Brown. As billionaire-backed ghost kitchens, private equity-funded cafes, and massive out-of-town restaurant groups take over the city, it’s increasingly rare to know an owner’s first name or see her taking your drink order.
“She’s the epitome of hospitality,” says Pete Kalamoutsos, the nightlife veteran behind Echostage and Club Glow. He’d never met Brown previously, but now he stops by Eebee’s two to three times per week. “I’m old school, and I believe every place has to have a face to it, and she’s definitely the face. She’s there all the time, and she gets it.”
Brown’s dad was a bartender at the Bottom Line for many years, and her own hospitality career has taken her from hot dog cart to New York craft beer bars. Her cousin happens to be Andy Brown of Andy’s Pizza, and he convinced her to leave New York to help him open his first pizza shop in the Tysons Galleria mall. As the company grew, Brown became beverage director for Andy’s.
Brown built Eebee’s to be a modern-day Cheers, channeling some of her favorite New York institutions like JG Mellon and Corner Bistro. She envisioned the kind of place where the regulars down the block bring a small Christmas present to the staff who take care of them, and strangers get to know each other. “What if people met at the bar and then they got married? Wouldn’t that be so cute?,” she says.
Brown emptied her savings to open Eebee’s. A bank statement with a negative $227 balance is now framed on the wall. Her initial expectations for the place were modest: “I was going to bartend two nights a week and serve one night a week, because I would have to live off the tips,” she says.
Brown’s theory on the Eebee’s mania? “There’s a touch of the American dream that is becoming ever-more fleeting. This was very, very hard for me to accomplish. I’ve got a lot of experience, and it was so hard for me to get the money. And it was so hard even after I had the money for a landlord to take me seriously as a no-name,” she says. “I love authentic places and people, and I think that it can be felt.”
Regular Alex Paris, a server at La’ Shukran, felt it her first time at Eebee’s, which has become particularly popular with the hospitality industry crowd thanks to its late-night hours. By the end of the night, Brown was showing off her beloved magazine rack and explaining where she got all the light fixtures. “To become an overnight institution, it’s not that it is magic. It’s a lot of dedication and a lot of hard work. And you can see it. It has a heart and a soul. It’s authentic. Every single piece in there is intentional,” Paris says. “It’s not about a viral burger.”
The wait for a table on weekends can sometimes stretch four hours. CNN’s Kaitlin Collins, celebrity chef Nancy Silverton, and former Washington Post food critic Tom Sietsema have all been spotted there. And the spillover has been a boon for neighboring businesses too. Shaw’s Tavern owner Eric Heidenberger says sales have been up almost every day since Eebee’s took off in early December. “There are some days when we’re up 40 to 50 percent in sales,” he says. “People express like, ‘Oh yeah, we have a three-hour wait over at Eebee’s. We’re going to come grab a drink at the bar and maybe have an appetizer.’”
Although the bar is only a few months old, Brown is already getting offers to expand Eebee’s. She’s not sure it can be replicated, but she’s got other ideas too. Meanwhile, it’s hard to maintain the neighborhood bar where everyone knows your name when you’re the hottest bar in town. Brown knows when the lines get super long, somebody will inevitably leave her a one-star review online.
“It’s a bar, and I think I did a good job. It’s a burger that I worked hard on,” Brown says. “It’s still a bar and a burger.”
