http://burgerdays.com

During our day-to-day adventures, we plow through so many burgers and we fail to share a lot of them here at Burger Days. We think that’s just wrong. So in an effort to spread more beefy goodness, we bring you Beef Briefs, short, brief looks at more of the burgers we take to the face. Where’s the beef? It’s right f**king here.  After each and every new burger we eat, there's just one question that determines if the beef-and-bun mashup earns a Burger Days seal of approval: would we order it again? A vast majority of the burgers we deposit into the cavernous chasms we call our mouths are just fine. They're not bad. They're not offensive. They're just OK. But if we find ourselves in the joint again, chances are we're ordering something else. And that's the measure by which we judge burgers – are they repeat worthy? Our search for more "repeat-worthy" burgers took us to the Southwest Waterfront this past weekend and, we're happy to say, we've found another one we'd hit rewind on. We don't exactly know what "chic" is (Lord knows the word has never been used to describe us before), but that's the thing that comes to mind when we think of our latest conquest, Station 4. We can only assume a place with a wall-to-wall fireplace thing-y, chandeliers, a pair of giant puckered red lips above the bar and a dining room filled with dinosaur skin-textured pillars would be labeled as such. When we stopped in to the swanky joint Sunday, the dining room was slammed with a delightfully eclectic and diverse crowd. To the left of our table, a four-top of twenty-somethings engaged in lively conversation over seemingly-endless cocktails while on the right, a mother and her two boys ogled our plates and explained to the waiter that Dad was parking but he'd definitely want a burger and fries like ours when he got in. In a nearby booth, two women in a pair of exceedingly trendy hats perused the menu while the restaurant's big beautiful lips overlooked a bustling bar scene below. (About those lips – they're kinda creepy and we definitely got a gentleman's club vibe from the Station 4 website which is littered with the rosy red suckers.) Anyway, lips aside, there are three burgers at Station 4, but we had our sights set on the "Smoked Kobe-Style" version. Available solely for dinner, the burger is a half-pound, 80-20 mix of Wagyu that gets tossed in the smoker just prior to hitting the table. "It's in there for only about 15 seconds," chef Orlando Amaro tell us and, honestly, that's all it needs. The resulting patty is a rich hunk of beef with just a hint of smokiness that gets amplified by a layer of melted Stilton blue cheese. Our burger was cooked perfectly to our medium-rare order, producing an abundantly juicy mound of expertly-seasoned beef sandwiched between a fat stack of grilled onions on top and a tomato-and-lettuce tandem on bottom. Along with a generous dollop of mayo and a toasted-and-buttered brioche, the Station 4 dinner burger screams decadence as it dances across the lips (our lips, not the lips above the bar). But don't expect to indulge in the beef without getting a bit greasy – this sucker is a Pig Pen of burgers, so tell the server to keep the napkins coming. It's always great when a quality burger gets paired with an equally quality side and Station 4's duck fat fries are just that. A large tin of the light-and-crispy spuds come with the burger and are a welcomed contrast to the heavier main course. So, would we order the Station 4 burger again? Yes, we would. At $20, it's a bit on the pricey side but, hey, that's what you get when you eat chic. This Thursday, however, in celebration of the holiday of all holidays – National Hamburger Day, natch' – Station 4 is hooking up the burger and fries for 25% off at dinner. Chic on the cheap. Get on it. Station 4 | 1101 4th Street SW | DC | station4dc.com