First Burger - The Pour House

Where: The Penn Avenue Pour House, 319 Pennsylvania Ave, SE, www.pourhouse-dc.com
When: Sunday, January 25
Der Burger: 'The Pub Burger' comes with lettuce and tomato with a side of fries for $8. Additional toppings for $.50 includes: American, Swiss and Blue cheeses, mushrooms, green peppers, grilled onions, bacon or/and BBQ sauce.

I ordered my burger cooked medium with American cheese. It came pretty rare in the middle (hard to tell how pink because of the lighting but I was a little worried), but on a nicely toasted bun, with crunchy french fries. The tomato and lettuce were nice and fresh and the burger had a nice charbroil to it, but I was a little off put by the pinkness. I usually order my steaks rare so it wasn't a major thing but I still rate the burger a 7. Not much taste to it, though that could be my cold still talking. If it didn't have the toasty bun I probably would've rated it a 5 or 6. It might be the best burger in the world if you are drunk. The Pour House itself is less douchey on a Sunday night but there are soo many tvs on its hard to count them all. We sat in the large corner booth amongst Pennsylvania sport teams paraphernalia and a huge screen tv that was pretty loud.

I'll put Moxie's review here too, she can always add to it if she wants. I think she enjoyed the Philly teams being represented, but hated the loud tvs. She ordered her burger cooked medium with only lettuce and ketchup. Strangely enough her burger was over cooked and had too much pepper/seasoning. She loved the fries and the toasty bun though. She rates it a 7.5. She's nicer than me.

extra comments: We chose the Pour House because it was close and the other two we wanted to try were closed on Sundays (Good Stuff Eatery and Bullfeathers - damn you Capitol Hill!!!) And though its pretty close by and I spent years going to quizzo, I don't think I've ever had their burger before. I highly recommend their pierogies though. You can't find too many places around here that have 'em and these were pretty tasty and grilled with onions with a slightly vinegary zing to them. Damn, I really want pierogies now...Only other thing I have to add is that I wish they would bring back the Tiki drinks.

The Scale

So, to begin with finding the best burger in DC (DC proper, mind you, non of this Virginia/Maryland is part of DC crap), we must figure out a scale against which all burgers must be judged. This past Sunday, while we were eating our first hamburger test subject, we threw together a quick and easy 1-10 scale.

1 = inedible
2 - 3 = yucky
3 - 4 = couldn't finish
4 - 5 = bad, but able to be choked down
5 - 6 = it'll do if you are drunk
6 - 7 = it'll do pig
7 - 8 = it's fine, but nothing to write home about
8 - 9 = pretty good, would recommend
9 - 10 = you'll come back just for the burger
10 = slap yo' mother - that's heaven on earth!