ANNOUNCER: And now, "Signature Dish," a WETA original series.

SETH: Today on "Signature Dish," we're sinking our teeth into the best burgers in town.

Oh, love the sound of that sizzle.

HUNTER: Oh, man, that's heaven, right?

SETH: We'll flip for an award-winning take on a classic.

HUNTER: It's a hamburger, ain't broke don't fix it.

SETH: Smash together burgers and barbecue.

Oh-ho-ho, lot of smoke coming out of this thing.

JOE: Yeah, get in there.

SETH: Goodness gracious.

And get fired up on the charcoal grill.

ALLY: It's really fun.

It's exciting cooking.

SETH: Hard to improve on that.

Wow.

I'm Seth Tillman, WETA producer and DC native.

And I love good food.

That's why I'm traveling to restaurants across the DMV.

At each stop, looking for the one thing you just got to try... That, "Signature Dish."

I'm getting this burger bonanza started, way up near the top of Montgomery County.

It's here in Gaithersburg on the grounds of Two Story Chimney Ciderworks that I'm meeting Hunter Karametos, a cheeseburger evangelist and the founder of the mobile stand, Steeze Burger.

HUNTER: You go to the cookout when you're a little kid.

There's hot dogs, there's hamburgers, there's the chicken wings.

I was always drawn to the hamburgers.

I would walk right over to the burgers and not just have one, I'd have two.

So 2021 was a weird year for all of us.

I was bouncing in between jobs and really obsessing with hamburgers as I had since a kid.

SETH: Hunter then began a quest, to sample as many different burgers as he could get his hands on.

HUNTER: I wanted to do a burger a day for a month and see where it got me, and it ended up being 100 burgers.

Then 100 burgers turned into 150.

I feel like most of the new-school burgers around our area are big, thick pub-style burgers, over seasoned, over acidic.

I really wanted to bring it back home to the American Classic, which is a double hamburger with some cheese, onions, pickles, on a nice nostalgic bun.

And I would have burger tours in my backyard.

I would invite all the boys over to my house and make 5, 6, 8 different burgers, cut them in half, make everybody try them.

"What do you guys think?

What would you take off?

What would you add?"

Just kind of floating off my homies.

And then they started to ask me, "When's the next burger tour?

When's the next burger tour?

You need to start selling these, man.

I'd come and buy 10, 15 of these."

SETH: In March 2022, Hunter held a Steeze Burger pop-up at Two Story Chimney, a cidery named for, well, an old two-story chimney.

HUNTER: We did a pop-up here.

It brought 300 burgers thinking it was way too much, and we sold out.

SETH: While Hunter now ventures into DC and Virginia, every Sunday he rolls back up to Two Story.

HUNTER: We grew a little community over here.

People come on Sunday just for burgers, so that's been a great feeling.

Steeze is kind of an old board sport term that combines the word style and ease together, steeze.

So if you do a board sport, snowboarding, skateboarding, surfing, you do something effortless and easy.

It's called steeze.

So a Steeze Burger, cheeseburger.

SETH: In 2023, the Washington Post rewarded Hunter's relentless pursuit of burger perfection.

HUNTER: I got asked to come into the Washington Post to take some pictures of my burger.

And I was like, "So you guys must be sick and tired of taking pictures of burgers."

"You're the only person we're taking pictures of."

Like, "You're going to be the front cover of the post.

You've just got the best cheeseburger in the DMV."

We went from selling 300 burgers a week to selling more than 3,000 burgers a week.

Obviously, I started Steeze Burger with such a big passion for cheeseburgers.

They enlighten my whole mood and lighten my day.

Look at me, I'm so passionate about hamburgers.

I love it, man.

I absolutely love it.

The support and everybody loving them as much as I do, it truly does mean the world and I'm humbled.

SETH: Hunter.

HUNTER: What's up, Seth?

How are you, man?

Good to see you.

SETH: I'm doing very well.

I'm excited to make the long-awaited pilgrimage up to see Steeze Burger.

HUNTER: I'm glad you made it out too, man.

I know it's a far journey out here.

So we're going to make you our famous Double Steeze Burger today starts off with some farm-fresh beef.

No seasonings in there, no salt, no pepper.

It's black Angus cows.

We have over seven different cuts in our blend.

And then I finish it with my secret ingredient, which is a bone marrow that adds a bit of a buttery richness you don't get from a regular fat.

SETH: And you're sourcing this beef just from right around where we're standing right now?

HUNTER: Yeah, so we're in the gorgeous Agricultural Reserve in Montgomery County.

Majority of our farms are within a six-mile, seven-mile radius.

SETH: All right, so how do these local beef patties become the famous Steeze Double?

HUNTER: They go over on this griddle over here.

Let me show you what we're working with right over here, man.

SETH: Let's do it.

We got a lot of heat coming off this already.

HUNTER: Oh, yeah, man.

We try and keep it anywhere between 450 and 475 degrees.

We start off with two 3-oz balls.

So we're going to smash these patties down.

It's one of the original ways hamburgers were made over in 1895.

SETH: It's funny you say original because smash burgers, 10 years ago, I feel like I was never hearing about them.

But this is the new hotness right now, right?

HUNTER: There's a newspaper documentation going back to the early 1890s of a huge hunk of beef being in this side of the flat top.

A huge hunk of onions being on this side of the flat top.

And the chef will take a bricklayer's trowel, take a piece off, bring it over here, smash it, take a piece of onions over here, smash it down.

So the original hamburgers really were just meat, onions on a piece of bread.

SETH: But also it's just going to give you that nice caramelized flavor on the outside, right?

HUNTER: Yeah.

So we get a Maillard reaction, which the fat is creating a crust on the bottom.

And then once it's flipped, we top it with onions and cheese.

Onions go in between the cheese so they can soften up a little bit.

We toast the buns in the bone marrow as well.

SETH: Ooh-hoo-hoo.

HUNTER: So once the bubbles start coming up to the top, I want to get my nice scraper here, get underneath it.

So, our buns are Martin's Potato Rolls, one and only white-bread product.

Though, since we do have such a heavy buttery richness in our blend, I decided to go with the white bread.

Brioche was a bit too buttery.

Potato rolls were a bit too rich.

SETH: Oh man, I'm getting memories of just warm summer days right now.

HUNTER: Yeah, man.

Nothing melts like American cheese.

Just going to let those melt.

SETH: And I like too, to have the cheese, just like the burger, getting that nice little lacy pattern.

HUNTER: Nobody likes an unmelted slice of American cheese on their burger.

And then I don't smash them super thin.

So you will get a bit of pink still in the middle.

SETH: So it's got a little bit of a pub burger- smash burger hybrid.

HUNTER: 100%, yeah.

All right, so we have our two double patties right here.

This is our special sauce.

So this is our take on the Big Mac sauce and a French dressing just coming together.

Ketchup is a bit too sweet.

Mustard is a bit too acidic.

So we developed this sauce to really help elevate the beef.

And then we finish this off with a little wrap here.

So your first bite is as good as your last bite and that there is the famous Steeze's Burger Double.

SETH: That is beautiful.

HUNTER: Thank you, man.

I see some hungry faces out here, so why don't you head on inside, grab yourself a drink.

Grab me one if you don't mind.

Let me make some burgers for the squad.

SETH: You know I'm going to be right back.

♪ ♪ Tommy.

TOMMY: Seth, welcome to Two Story Chimney Ciderworks.

SETH: I love cider.

What do you guys got going on here?

TOMMY: We have five different ciders on tap right now.

We use as many apples as you can from the AG Reserve of Montgomery County.

We grow some apples, pears, and other wild berries ourselves.

SETH: This is just a celebration of a local harvest around here.

TOMMY: Love to pour you some.

We have our Crab Tree cider.

It's made at 100% Maryland apples.

We also add some crab apples in it as well.

It's not quite sweet, not quite dry.

It's right in between with a nice little tartness from those crab apples.

SETH: And you're brewing this right up here?

TOMMY: Everything's made on-site.

Yes sir.

SETH: Ooh, all right, well that is nice and crisp and refreshing.

I can't wait to try the Steeze burger, but I'll be definitely stopping by afterwards to try a little more of this cider.

TOMMY: Cheers.

Thank you so much.

SETH: Thanks, Tommy.

All right, Hunter.

And I come bearing some local Montgomery County cider.

Told you I'd be back quickly.

HUNTER: All right, sure were.

You didn't lie, my friend.

SETH: First, cheers.

HUNTER: Cheers.

Thanks for coming out, man.

SETH: All right.

Can't wait to get to this.

HUNTER: This is probably like my 20,000th Steeze burger and it still tastes the same.

SETH: I know I'm supposed to say something.

What can you say?

I mean, that's exactly it.

That's exactly it.

HUNTER: Thank you, man.

SETH: That is so juicy.

Those little caramelized bits and the pickle, a little bit of acid, just perfectly balanced.

HUNTER: Yeah, so another thing that the bone marrow does too, it adds a bit of, like, earthiness.

SETH: And if this is your 20,000th Steeze burger, I mean, are you able to just go to a restaurant or a fast-food joint, enjoy someone else's burger?

HUNTER: Oh yeah, I had a burger yesterday.

Got to continue the research.

It's my favorite food.

And just getting around, trying new ones.

I like to go to different countries and try them because obviously, their cattle's a bit different from ours.

Even cheeses, different milk, a different environment, burgers taste so different anywhere you go.

SETH: The R&D never stops.

HUNTER: Not at all.

SETH: And also to be a great burger, you don't need truffle oil, you don't need gold leaf.

HUNTER: Foie gras.

Yes, sir.

No lettuce, no tomatoes.

SETH: Burgers now, every restaurant's doing a nice burger.

But when I was a kid it was just fast food joints and backyard barbecues.

HUNTER: Oh, yeah.

SETH: This has taking me right back.

HUNTER: I love it.

That's what I'm going for.

Had those backyard barbecues when I was a kid.

I'd eat three, four burgers.

I was always a burger kid from day one.

SETH: Hunter, how many burgers have you had in your lifetime?

HUNTER: I can not tell you.

SETH: I'm starting to get a little bit concerned.

HUNTER: I don't even know.

Too many, too many.

SETH: All right.

Well, this is just a party for me and the whole crew and I got to get a little shot of them.

HUNTER: Oh, that is awesome.

I love it.

I absolutely love it.

SETH: You guys fans of the Steeze burger?

CREW: Yeah, absolutely.

Oh, my God.

SETH: Mike, Ken.

CREW: Awesome.

SETH: All right, well what a way to kick off our burger episode, with someone who's put so much heart and soul, and passion into what he does.

Hey, cheers.

HUNTER: Thank you so much for having me.

Cheers to you guys.

Thank you so much, brother.

SETH: Leaving the green pastures of the AG Reserve in the rearview mirror.

I'm heading into DC in the Hill East neighborhood.

Right on Pennsylvania Avenue, Hill East Burger is serving up a taste of Texas.

CHRIS: I grew up in a town a little bit north of Houston.

And my entry into the food scene here in DC was a little random and unexpected.

I've had an idea to start making kolaches and long story short, word got out.

Texans in town got excited.

SETH: Chris opened Republic Cantina, a spot for kolaches and other Tex-Mex favorites in 2019.

To open Hill East, he teamed up with Joe Neuman, the pitmaster and owner of Sloppy Mama's Barbecue.

JOE: What I love about barbecue, I love eating good barbecue.

That's the best part.

My wife and I catered our own wedding and we did a pig roast and started playing around with other cuts of meat, because we realized that there was a bit of a void in the barbecue scene around here.

That's one of the reasons that we got into the industry.

If you can't find it good, you got to do it yourself, right?

SETH: Chris and Joe joined forces to bring a Texas barbecue tradition to DC.

CHRIS: The smoked burgers in Texas, definitely a perennial fascination among folks involved in barbecue.

Pitmaster will smoke anything and everyone loves a burger.

JOE: Pitmasters are often trying to figure out what to do with their ground beef.

We generate a ton of ground beef trim at Sloppy Mama's Barbecue.

There's only so much sausage you can make.

That was the genesis of a burger place for me.

And a lot of the Texas places make really big smoked burgers, and texturally they're a little off.

And then that's when we started playing around with the idea of, "Oh, how can we do this different?"

And then we were like, "Oh, what if we did a smash burger?"

And then did some research and development around a cold-smoked burger patty and that wound up being the one that set it apart.

CHRIS: Hill East Burger is just a neighborhood burger joint.

It's good simple smash burgers with a little kiss of smoke.

The cocktails are better than you'd expect.

Wide selection of beers.

We have some interesting sipping spirits.

It's a space that transports you a little bit, so hopefully, you feel like you're in New Mexico or Austin or something while you're here.

SETH: Joe.

JOE: Hey Seth.

SETH: Good to meet you.

JOE: Nice to meet you too.

Welcome.

SETH: You're the Pitmaster turned burger master.

JOE: Yes sir.

SETH: What are you making today?

JOE: We're going to go ahead and make our Puebla burger.

We're getting ready to cold-smoke these patties.

SETH: All right, I've never heard of smoking a burger before.

JOE: It's a bit of a Texas thing.

So we take brisket trim from Sloppy Mama's Barbecue and we mix it with some local beef for our patties here.

SETH: Oh, that sounds, that sounds awfully good.

So how does cold smoking work?

JOE: So to cold smoke something we have to keep it under a certain temperature.

So we're going to put a tray of ice in this smoking cabinet just to keep the temperature from rising.

If we were to cook them, we'd have meatballs instead of a patty that we could smash on the flat top.

SETH: I didn't come here from meatballs.

JOE: Nope.

We've got some wood chips going in there.

We used some hickory chips because we're not smoking it for a long time.

Hickory's got a really aggressive flavor.

We're going to go ahead and open the door.

SETH: Oh-ho-ho, a lot of smoke coming out of this thing.

JOE: Why don't you go ahead and grab me that ice bucket?

And we found when we were doing all the research and development on trying to create a great smoked burger, that cold smoking, it was the key to have a burger that's got the right texture.

SETH: So how long are these going to smoke for?

JOE: They're going to go in for about 30 minutes.

And basically, once the ice is melted, it's time to get it out because that means they're going to start cooking.

And it doesn't need a long time because we're only talking about a little patty here.

SETH: Not a whole hog going on here.

JOE: No, not a whole hog.

No.

I'm going to go ahead and put these in and while those are smoking, we're going to go ahead and put together our poblano relish.

SETH: All right.

So poblanos, we're adding a little more of a Southwestern flair to this burger?

JOE: Yeah.

Poblanos very traditional in Texas, New Mexico cooking.

We took our poblanos, as well as the onions, and we tossed them in a little bit of tallow and some of our burger salt.

Unlike the burgers that we cold-smoke, we hot-smoke the peppers and the onions.

After we pull them out of the smoker, we cover them up to steam it.

And then, we went ahead and peeled them and seeded them.

We are going to put a rough chop on these.

We don't need to get too fancy.

It's a burger relish.

So we're not talking about fine dining or anything.

SETH: And all that beef tallow that you coated them in, this is going to be an explosion of good meat flavor.

JOE: Yeah.

Tallow is like a flavor enhancer, right?

It doesn't make it taste like beef.

It's almost like salt in the way where salt brings out flavor.

Tallow has that magic also.

I'm going to go ahead and move these into the bowl and then I'm going to need your help kinda stirring things up as I add ingredients in.

So we're going to go ahead and do a little red wine vinegar and you can just start mixing things in.

We got a little bit of honey.

We're not making a sweet condiment.

The honey just balances it out, right?

And then here, we're adding our burger salt to season the relish.

SETH: Burger salt?

JOE: Yeah, so that's the Sloppy Momma's Barbecue rub called Happy Sprinkles, kosher salt and fresh ground black pepper.

SETH: But I'm guessing with that nice orange color, there's some other seasonings in this mix?

JOE: Yeah, so there's paprika, there's cumin, coriander, crushed red pepper, cayenne and mustard powder, some fresh thyme.

And then we've got our tallow that we roasted all the peppers in and smoked all the peppers in.

Hey, you want to give that a scrape real quick?

SETH: Oh, I sure do.

JOE: And that's our poblano relish.

Now that that's done, we're going to go ahead and pull the patties out of the smoker.

Now we're going to put the patties on the flat top and then smash them down and get a nice crust on one side.

We'll go ahead and flip them.

We'll put our smoked cheddar on it and we'll put the poblano relish on also.

And the Pueblo burger will be ready to eat and it'll be delicious.

SETH: Gentlemen, I am impressed with the size of this burger.

JOE: Yep, get in there.

I'm going to go ahead and get into mine right here.

It's looking pretty good.

SETH: Goodness gracious.

Just hits with so much smoke, so much rich beefy flavor.

JOE: We've got the beefonaise on there.

SETH: Beefonaise?

JOE: Yeah, beefonaise.

We take tallow and we confit garlic in the tallow and then we mix it with the mayonnaise.

SETH: Like all smash burgers, I love that extra little crispiness that you get on the edges.

That's hard to beat.

JOE: Yeah, that's nice.

Adds a little texture for it.

SETH: And so Chris, that was a great bite, but what can I wash that down with?

CHRIS: We have here our Hill East Ranch Water, the Texas classic cocktail.

Created a little cute bottled for them.

Lime juice, sugar, tequila, and topo-chico to top it off.

SETH: All right, well cheers to that.

CHRIS: Cheers.

JOE: Texas burger.

SETH: Texas drink.

Like a nice fizzy margarita.

CHRIS: Exactly.

SETH: And these fries as well, looks like there's something to dip those in.

JOE: Yeah, we got some curly-ish fries.

We do have our beefonaise as a dipping sauce.

We got a little Kansas City barbecue sauce and our trademark sauce as well.

SETH: Love that beefonaise.

Might have to take a little bit of that home with me after the shoot.

JOE: We got plenty.

We can send you with a bunch.

SETH: Walking in here, all this Texas stuff up on the walls.

This is all you're doing?

CHRIS: Yeah, it's music to my ears.

It reminds me of home.

I've been here in DC 18 years and miss where I come from.

I think I've come to appreciate Texas culture more, so it's fun to recreate it a little bit.

SETH: Well, I've enjoyed walking through these doors and experiencing a little flavor of Texas.

Thanks guys.

CHRIS: Ah, you're welcome.

JOE: Thanks for coming.

SETH: For my last stop, I'm driving quite a ways up Route 7 to Sterling, Virginia.

It's here in the Cascades Marketplace that I'm paying a visit to Local Provisions.

Co-owners and chefs, Ally and Michael Stebner's culinary journey has taken them from coast to coast, including many years living and working in Southern California.

ALLY: We love living in California.

We just really wanted to raise our kids on the East Coast and we decided to move back here to Virginia.

We're kinda limited with restaurants out here in the suburbs.

It's mostly big box restaurants, fast food restaurants.

We wanted to bring the West Coast way of cooking into this community using local produce.

MICHAEL: For us, California cuisine is really the basis of our cooking.

It's about the ingredients.

We try to source the best ingredients and it's really that farm-to-table and seasonal type of cooking.

ALLY: So we opened in January 2023 and the community support has been amazing.

I love that we have so many local kids working here.

And we have people thanking us for opening a restaurant here and it's been really rewarding.

MICHAEL: Like everybody during the pandemic, I, after 30 years of cooking, decided to learn how to bake bread.

And she'll tell you, like, I was getting up at 6:00 in the morning like a real baker and, like, making bread every day.

Then it really just dawned on both of us that we should incorporate that into this restaurant.

ALLY: Almost everything we cook is on our wood-fired grill or in our wood-fired oven.

And we also grill our homemade bread on it too.

And it just makes the best bruschetta that you've ever had.

SETH: Even though the menu changes seasonally, the restaurant's Lo-Pro Lamb Burger quickly became a staple menu item.

MICHAEL: We knew we wanted to have something approachable, but we didn't want to just put a regular burger on the menu.

And it's one of those dishes that evolved based on what we already had.

So we had the focaccia and it became the bun.

It's got Mediterranean flavors, it's fresh.

Everything is made here from scratch and it uses the best quality ingredients.

SETH: Michael, good to meet you.

MICHAEL: Hi Seth.

Welcome to Local Provisions.

SETH: Thank you so much.

Came here to try a burger today, but looking at some bread dough.

What do you got in the works here?

MICHAEL: So this is our focaccia bread.

It's going to become the bun for our lamb burger.

SETH: And I can tell from that tangy aroma that maybe we're working with a sourdough here.

MICHAEL: Yes, it is a sourdough.

I got into making bread during the pandemic like a lot of people.

SETH: I got into cocktails.

I know a lot of people got into bread.

Am I going to help you put one of these together?

MICHAEL: Yeah, we're going to just shape this out a little bit.

You can see there's a lots of extra virgin olive oil.

And as long as you don't mind getting a little oily.

SETH: I don't mind getting a little oily.

MICHAEL: We're basically just going to fold the dough gently.

SETH: Gently.

MICHAEL: Into the corners.

SETH: Very fluffy.

MICHAEL: There's a lot of air in this as you can tell.

So next step is we're going to poke some holes.

Gently get those signature focaccia dents into the dough.

This is going to help it bake more evenly.

SETH: And maybe a little more pockets for some of that flavor on top?

MICHAEL: Exactly.

Go all the way to the bottom.

SETH: All the way to the bottom.

Don't be shy.

MICHAEL: There you go.

SETH: Okay.

MICHAEL: Beautiful.

The next step is we're going to season the dough.

So we have some sea salt.

Go up high.

SETH: Just make it rain?

MICHAEL: Make it rain.

And then finally, we have some sesame seeds.

Same thing, up high.

We want to get a lot of those.

Probably a full tablespoon on this dough.

SETH: I know for a lot of people the sourdough hobby came to pass, but it looks like for you it's still going strong.

MICHAEL: It's a cornerstone of our business.

SETH: I have to say, that was actually fun.

So I can understand why you kept this hobby going.

So are these ready to bake now?

MICHAEL: Yes sir.

We're going to put these in the oven.

Why don't you go up front and work with Chef Ally and she's going to show you how to grill the burger.

SETH: Ooh, that sounds great.

Thanks, Chef.

MICHAEL: You got it.

SETH: Ally, good to meet you.

ALLY: Hi Seth, nice to meet you.

SETH: First focaccia lesson in the books.

And wow, some serious heat coming off this grill.

This is where you're going to cook the lamb burgers?

ALLY: Yeah, so we are going to cook these beautiful lamb burgers today on our grill.

We put our Lo-Pro seasoning on them, which is a little bit of garlic powder, onion powder, nutritional yeast, and salt and pepper.

So as you can see, they're starting to flame up and it's great cooking on this charcoal.

It's exciting cooking.

SETH: Yeah, no, anytime you got flames leaping up over your food...

ALLY: Right.

SETH: That's a lot more fun than a boring old stove.

ALLY: Right.

SETH: And is this lamb coming from around here?

ALLY: Yeah, so this is Elysian Fields lamb from Pennsylvania.

It's local and we love their stuff.

SETH: All right.

And I'm guessing that when the fat drips down and again a little extra, a little bit of smoky flavor there?

ALLY: Yes, yes, so they're really getting a lot of good smoke on there.

Really good char.

SETH: Does it take time to master this skill of cooking on the charcoal?

ALLY: Yes.

We have to have coals over here that are warming up and we kind of move the coals over here so it always is staying hot.

Like, so on a Saturday night, it's, it's kinda difficult to work this grill.

SETH: So you're almost left to be like a orchestra conductor to be able to keep everything in line on the grill here?

ALLY: Yes.

It's complicated.

SETH: A lot of moving parts.

ALLY: Yes.

Okay, Seth.

So these look pretty good.

I'm going to take these off the grill.

SETH: Oh, and the char marks on top, just beautiful.

ALLY: Nice medium.

And then we can start building our burger.

SETH: Let's do it.

And wow, we've got some really, really colorful toppings.

ALLY: Yes, so these are all of our beautiful toppings for the burger.

SETH: Ooh.

And look what's arrived.

Thank you, sir.

MICHAEL: I come bearing gifts.

SETH: You certainly do.

Hmm.

And I'm guessing we went with your focaccia?

MICHAEL: Maybe.

SETH: You're the pro.

I won't be offended.

All right, so Ally, how do you begin to put this burger together?

ALLY: So we take our beautiful focaccia and our labneh spread.

SETH: So there's labneh instead of a cheese?

ALLY: Yes.

And our long hots?

SETH: Long hots?

MICHAEL: Long hots are a classic in Philly.

They're a mildly spicy pepper that we fry in olive oil and garlic.

SETH: Ooh-hoo-hoo and some tomatoes as well.

Roasted, I'm assuming.

ALLY: Yep.

We roast roasted these... MICHAEL: In our charcoal oven.

SETH: Everything with charcoal here, I love it.

ALLY: And then some beautiful fresh dill and parsley.

SETH: This is, uh, I'm sure going to be flavorful, but it is certainly colorful as well.

ALLY: And then our beautiful side salad with local greens.

And our house-made lemon oregano dressing.

So this is our signature dish, the Lo-Pro Lamb Burger SETH: That is beautiful.

I can't wait to try it.

ALLY: Me too.

SETH: All right.

I feel like I might make a little bit of a mess, but that's okay.

Just wonderfully unique.

The creaminess of the labneh and also that focaccia, I mean, that's just a next-level hamburger bun right there.

And the lamb, besides just having absolutely no gamey flavor, if you get that sear on the outside, still nice and juicy on the inside too.

ALLY: Yeah, and so that's what you get when you cook over the charcoal grill.

It gets so hot and it really sears in the juices and caramelization.

It's really, really good.

SETH: You guys seem like you have a fun time here.

You get to play with the wood fire grill.

Michael, you get to indulge your bread-baking habit.

MICHAEL: Yeah.

SETH: And people around here just get to enjoy it.

MICHAEL: We're lucky.

ALLY: Yeah.

SETH: And speaking of the grill, it looks like the grill worked overtime on some more fresh-baked bread here?

MICHAEL: Yeah, that's our country bread charred over the coals, bruschetta.

We rub it with a little fresh garlic and right now we're serving it with some pesto and some oven-roasted tomatoes and burrata cheese.

SETH: Oh, well, if I see burrata cheese, I know where I'm going next.

This burger's great, but hard to pass that up.

ALLY: It makes such a difference to cook the bread over the charcoal.

SETH: I was a little skeptical about whether I'd be finding true West Coast flavors here in Loudoun County, but that delivers.

I don't think I've ever had bruschetta that delicious before.

ALLY: Thank you so much.

MICHAEL: Thank you so much.

SETH: So well cooked.

MICHAEL: Sorry, stuff on my...

ALLY: On this.

Yeah, that side right there.

Yeah.

Yeah, you're good.

SETH: Trying to host a food show and having a beard at the same time.

Just an absolute lesson in futility, no matter how hard I try.

ALLY: Yeah, same for Michael.

SETH: I see we're in the same boat.

MICHAEL: Right.

SETH: I feel like maybe Loudoun County needed something like this.

MICHAEL: Yeah, we moved here in 2019.

Literally, the day we moved in, decided we wanted to go get dinner and had a really hard time finding something.

And it just makes sense that we could open a restaurant in our own neighborhood.

There is no greater dream for a chef than to be able to have a community restaurant in his or her own community.

SETH: Serve your friends and neighbors.

MICHAEL: Serving our friends and neighbors and employing our daughter's friends and being a real part of this community.

SETH: Well, it's great what you've built here.

Just knocked it out of the park with this lamb burger.

Incredible bruschetta.

I can't wait to come back.

Thank you guys.

MICHAEL: Thank you.

ALLY: Thank you so much.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ANNOUNCER: To find out more about great food in the Washington metro area, visit weta.org/signaturedish.