- 4 minutes ago
Emily Brown, owner of Eebee’s Corner Bar in Washington, DC, built one of the city’s most talked about neighborhood bars around old-school hospitality and community. Before opening Eebee’s, Brown spent years bartending, running beverage programs, and hustling through side jobs while developing her vision for a corner bar.
Watch now to learn about the leap of faith behind Eebee’s Corner Bar, the seven-hour wait times that followed, and how Emily Brown turned a corner bar into one of DC’s hottest spots.
Sponsored by:
• TOAST - All-In-1 Restaurant POS: https://bit.ly/3vpeVsc
Watch now to learn about the leap of faith behind Eebee’s Corner Bar, the seven-hour wait times that followed, and how Emily Brown turned a corner bar into one of DC’s hottest spots.
Sponsored by:
• TOAST - All-In-1 Restaurant POS: https://bit.ly/3vpeVsc
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NewsTranscript
00:00At some point, you just got to say yes, even though you don't know what the outcome is going to
00:03be.
00:11Welcome to Restaurant Influencers presented by Entrepreneur. I'm your host, Sean Walchup. This
00:15is a Cali BBQ Media production. In life, in the restaurant business, and in the new creator economy,
00:21we learn through lessons and stories. We traveled all the way to Washington, D.C. to bring you an
00:26amazing story. I have Emily Brown. She is the proprietor here at Eby's Corner Bar. The fact
00:33that I got in is part of the story. She has lines out the door. This bar just opened. But
00:39before we
00:40get to that story, I'm going to ask her where in the world is your favorite stadium, stage, or venue?
00:49Camden Yards, Baltimore, Maryland. Camden Yards. Beautiful. We're going to go to Camden Yards.
00:54We're going to talk to Entrepreneur. We'll talk to Toast, who sponsors this show, and we're going to ask
00:59them to put on an event for hospitality professions. Best storytellers on earth. I'm going to bring you
01:05to the pictures, man. I'm going to give you a mic, and I want to know the story of the
01:11photo at your
01:12bar of your overdraft check downs. Oh, yeah. I was building out here. I was sitting at this table
01:20right next to me, and the build-out's probably 90% done. My loan that took three years to obtain
01:27is completely gone. My 401k that was pathetically underfunded is gone, and I am looking towards not
01:38paying potentially my own rent. And I got that email. I'm sitting here looking at everything.
01:44It looks really good. And I get this email that my account is overdrafted. I just thought, man,
01:49this is really real. And I started laughing. I was sitting back here. I started laughing. And I just
01:55found it to be, while devastating, inspiring. And I put it up as a joke, but also to remind myself
02:03that
02:03I'm here to get some money and to fund myself back and to remember what I sacrificed to be here
02:10and to remember how real it is and how hard it was. Bring me back to getting that balance.
02:16What did you do besides laugh? Because you laughed, and then you fell down, but you've got to get back
02:23up. Yeah. I cried some, too. I had to take out a little extra money. I had to borrow three
02:31grand
02:31from a friend to get liquor on the shelves. I had to, I'm trying to think, like, you find some
02:38old
02:38Acorns account, you know, and you take that out and put it into the business. I opened, you know,
02:45maybe a week before anyone was ready, training-wise, things like that, just to get money in the door.
02:51What was the vision when you started? Why'd you jump off the cliff? This is a show for entrepreneurs.
02:56We have business owners that want to be inspired. We know how hard it is to run and operate bars,
03:01restaurants, anything in the hospitality space, but we do it because we have the DNA for it.
03:07Yeah, I don't think I ever thought I had the DNA for it. I never learned how to do anything
03:13else.
03:13That's for sure. I can hardly use a computer, and I always wanted to do it. I remember my first
03:21cool bartending job was at this place called the Rabbit Club in New York City, kind of a punk rock
03:26craft beer bar across from the original Moneta Tavern, and it was the owner had just created
03:31such a cool space, and I just thought, God, it would be so great to own my own place, and
03:36I started
03:36thinking about the things I would do or how I would do it. I never believed it would come to
03:40fruition.
03:41Like, how do you get the money, right? Things like that. I was doing all sorts of stuff to try
03:46and
03:46change my life. I was running private tours in New York City on top of bartending.
03:50I was running Airbnbs for people, and I never told anyone because I was embarrassed, but I was
03:56the cleaner. Like, I would keep the cleaning fee. I mean, New York is a hustle. Yeah. And then I
04:03moved
04:04back here to help my cousin open his first pizzeria, and, you know, it's his first place. I'm making no
04:10money. I'm bartending on the side. I get to watch him go from zero to 60. He won best pizza
04:16in the
04:17world. So I'm watching, like, you know, one little shop in the mall, an explosion. I am killing myself
04:23along with him, and I remember I heard a podcast happenstance about deathbed regrets, and I just had
04:32this light bulb moment where I was like, oh my God, you've got to change the way you think about
04:36yourself, and you may never get to do anything different, but if you won't even try, how can you
04:42live with that? And so I started listening to audible books and podcasts and just sketching
04:47things out, and I was so busy being beverage director of all these pizzerias at that time
04:52that I only had a half an hour every morning, and if I hadn't, you always think, I'll wait until
04:58I have
04:58two weeks. I'll wait until I have that whole weekend, and you're never going to have it. You
05:02have to force yourself, and that's how I got started.
05:06Why here? Why now? This location specifically?
05:10Where we're sitting? Even when I got the loan, so I'm funded.
05:15Yeah.
05:15Landlords did not, they were not excited to work with me. I'm a no-name. I couldn't be my own
05:21personal guarantor, and I knew I couldn't be primetime. By primetime, I mean near La Diplomat or,
05:27you know, the flash year, Georgetown, Logan Circle, the White House. No way I could afford that rent,
05:34and an Adams Morgan landlord. All these things weren't working out, and I was getting really
05:39frustrated, and I found this place. It has gas lanterns outside, which you have to be grandfathered
05:45in for, and I remember seeing it and just being like, at some point, you just got to say yes,
05:50even though you don't know what the outcome's going to be. And this landlord, there were some
05:54tough contingencies, like because I couldn't be my own personal guarantor, I had to give up a large
06:00chunk of my loan that I wasn't expecting to. I will get it back, but like burns back slowly
06:06starting year three. So now at the time, I'm already on my back foot. That was the only way
06:09to do it. And so happenstance, this place. I fell in love with the corner. Loved that it was on
06:15a
06:15corner. Loved the lanterns.
06:16And bring me idea, bring me into the concept. Bring us in. Let us know what was the vision?
06:21In my spare time, I go to restaurants and bars. Always have.
06:26And I lived in New York for a long time. And when I moved back, I remember never knowing I'd
06:30open my
06:31own place, complaining to my mom, gosh, there's no middle ground. There's no place to like really
06:36hang. I'm at a, I love dive bars, but sometimes you want to eat something that's not from Cisco
06:42or, or sometimes you're, you want to hang in your sweats, but you do want a Negroni that's
06:46stirred correctly. And I also love fancy restaurants, but that's its own thing. And you need to dress a
06:52certain way and you can't sit for four hours and cut up. And I was reminded of places like JG
06:58Mellon or corner bistro where you and I might go couple of bloodies burger switch to beer. I'm like
07:05really, you know, our friendships getting stronger while we're sitting there and you become actual
07:09friends with the bartender. I yearn for that here. When I moved back. Bring me into how you think
07:15about bartending. I have a lot of really talented bartenders working for me, people that have worked
07:20at top 50 bars, people that have worked at death and company. And I appreciate that level of skill
07:25so much, but the most important thing to me and a good bartender is how you make people feel you.
07:30They feel seen. You remember that their grandmother had surgery. You remember that they had a bad date.
07:36You know that they happen to be the person that needs a side card of ice. And for me, that
07:42is more
07:42valuable than the absolute perfect, most creative cocktail.
07:46So one of the craziest happenstance is that it's one of our technology partners actually
07:53gave us the opportunity to come and tell a story here.
07:56Okay.
07:57We're here now. Tell us about hospitality. How does hospitality work in your bar? What is your
08:03vision for hospitality?
08:05I'm well, it's inspired by the show Cheers, which I know everybody here is not old enough to really have
08:11been during that era, but we all know what it was. I really think people want to feel seen. And
08:18in my
08:18opinion, also, we, anybody that comes to my place, their day should get at least a little bit better,
08:24whether they started on a great day or a bad day. And I don't ever want their day to get
08:29worse.
08:29And that doesn't mean to me that every burger is perfect. We're going to send out overcooked burgers,
08:35but the recovery and the actual caring and not picking favorites, actually genuinely caring
08:42about the human being and appreciating that they're choosing to spend their time and their
08:47money with us. That's hospitality to me.
08:49Did you know that Toast powers over 140,000 restaurants across the United States, Canada,
08:55and UK? It's an incredible company. I'm on the Toast customer advisory board. They are proud
09:01sponsors of this show, Restaurant Influencers. We couldn't do it without their support. They power
09:05our barbecue restaurants in San Diego. If you have questions about Toast, if you're thinking about
09:11bringing Toast on to be your primary technology partner at your restaurants, please reach out to
09:16me. I'm happy to get a local Toast representative to take care of you. You can reach me at Sean
09:22P.
09:22Welcheff on Instagram. Once again, thank you to Toast for believing in the power of technology,
09:28the power of storytelling, the power of hospitality.
09:31Back to the show.
09:32How long is the barber note bill?
09:34Four months and a few weeks.
09:36Four months and a few weeks.
09:37When was your, oh shit moment?
09:41When was that first line?
09:42Being scared or, oh, gosh, I think it was one week in.
09:46One week in.
09:46And I wasn't prepared. I thought this was going to be like, I don't know if you've been to
09:51like Corner Bistro or here in town to tune in, but you need to come in and the bartender
09:54goes, hey guys, like sit wherever you like.
09:56Yeah.
09:57There's no hostess.
09:57There's no system. I thought that this back bar that we're in right now would be closed
10:03Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. Or, right, this sort of thing. I have, there's a bar in
10:08the front, but we were at capacity. I had no systems in place. Snoop Dogg was not performing
10:16here. And I'm like, this is the worst thing in the world. This is a corner bar, not a nightclub.
10:20People are going to be so annoyed. They might do it for the weekend. So I immediately, as
10:24fast as I could, I hired a host. Then I realized I need two hosts because one's seating someone
10:29and there's a horde of people in the front. So now while we don't take reservations, we
10:34take your phone number. Then you can come drink here in place, which I think is great. And
10:39also probably beat the wait list because you're Hunger Gamesing it at the bar. The bars are
10:43first come for serve. Or you can go drink across the street at Shaw's Tavern. You can go do
10:47your laundry. You can go do whatever you like. And then we text you. And then you text them.
10:52Right. But that was never the plan. So that was pretty shocking. I think it was about a weekend.
10:57Yeah. Bring me into the beer program. I'm really into beer. What's funny is I have all these taps.
11:05Only half of them are up because I can't fit the kegs and the food for the volume we're doing.
11:11But I do have a light and dark, which is in Ode to McSorley's in New York City. I imported
11:16lucre faucets from the Czech Republic. So they create a cappuccino, like 60% beer foam cap.
11:23So when you order a light and dark, I'm going to hand you two mugs, 10 ounces each. There's some
11:28foam. You're getting 16 to 19 ounces of beer. And it's one of the best beer drinking experiences.
11:33I think you can have Schilling, Alexander's the Light, best lager maker in the country.
11:37And then the dark, I volley back and forth between Sojourn, who's in Virginia,
11:41and lost generation here in DC. So we were just over at Pub Key filming and they told me about
11:46the 10 ounce glass. I guess this hasn't made it to the West Coast or maybe I'm just not hip
11:51enough.
11:52Tell me about the 10. It's two 10 ounce mugs. Yeah. And so, but, but it's viewed as one beer
11:57because with this nice thick, you know, foam from the Czech taps, you're getting, again,
12:03each pour is a little different. We're busy, but 16 to 19 ounces of a low ABV beer.
12:08That's awesome. People, people love it. Now, how about the food?
12:12I was very obsessed with the food. Every item is something I'm really into. I'm not a chef
12:19originally. So there's no world where I could like force myself to develop skills for items that I'm
12:24not obsessed with. The coat de buff of this menu is a burger. It's dry aged, incredible amounts of
12:32pepper wrapped in tallow before you come in. We make our own bun here, 48 hour ferment. Very
12:37particular about if you were telling me a crazy story, I want to put that burger down, get my
12:42martini. And I want the burger to be there for me when I come back, but it can't be so
12:46heavy that
12:46it's like too formidable and you can't eat it. So I worked on that for really a long time of
12:51pastry
12:51chef friend help, things like that. But, um, and it's served with fries. There's a thick onion on it's
12:56very simple, but it's high end and everything else price-wise comes down from there.
13:01Club sandwich, huge, probably best value on the whole menu. Yeah. Tell me about your North star.
13:07Oh, uh, in my podcast, they were saying that if you're trying to change your life or do something
13:12for the first time, you should choose a North star, someone to sort of, um, look up to and kind
13:18of see
13:18how they did things. And I chose this chef and will now big deal restaurateur. His name is Billy
13:25Durney. Billy doesn't know me. I've been to his place. I tried to, I went to a wine dinner to
13:30kind
13:30of try and meet him, but I was too shy to really, um, tell him that he was my North
13:35star, but he,
13:37I believe worked in security in Brooklyn, became obsessed with barbecue and just worked on it. I
13:43don't know for an entire year. Maybe I'd have to refresh the story, but open a place, some of the
13:47best barbecue I've ever had in my life. Then he opened red hook tavern. I'm very particular and very
13:53detail oriented, like every baseball card in my baseball bathroom. I thought about,
13:57you know, the color and how that looked, the teams, the representation, things like that.
14:02Um, and he is very detail oriented and particular. And now he's opened in Sag Harbor. He's doing some
14:10huge project in Manhattan. He loves, when you look at his Instagram, he loves hanging out with like
14:15other guys that make food, other people that like wine. He enjoys his life, um, to the fullest it
14:22would seem and has created some of my favorite places. Tell me about the community. How's the
14:27community responding? Mostly great. I mean, sometimes people, DC is not New York. They're
14:32not, I was on a five and a half hour wait on Saturday, five and a half hours. Yeah. It's
14:37longer
14:38than TSA. And one table in particular, it was a 10 top. They waited seven hours and 18 minutes.
14:43And sure. I sent them around a chenar and I thank them for their patience. Most people are happy for
14:51me.
14:51Yeah. Some people, um, somebody on Saturday, you know, said, go fuck yourself when quoted the wait
14:57time. And I don't like it when people are rude to my hostesses who are working their tails off.
15:02This is one of the hardest doors in town. Most people are awesome. And every time I'm stressed
15:08and I think, oh gosh, I'm such a disorganized person. I'm such a disaster. Everything's going
15:12wrong. I am able to pretty quickly take a step back and go, oh, boo hoo. This is the best.
15:18What's happening
15:18to me is the best. Go back and look at the photo on the wall. Yeah. It's wild. I go
15:25to the coffee
15:26shop and a stranger asked if they could take a photo with me. Someone took a photo of my car.
15:31I get notes on my car. I mean, it's really, it's really, I'm not used to it. And it's a
15:37lot of lows
15:38and highs. Like, oh, you got invited to the Caps game. Now you're plunging a toilet, you know? And,
15:45and you know what? That's big memories. Lows and highs. That is, it sounds like the life of a
15:50restaurateur, bar owner for sure. Yeah. What does the vision look like? Have you had a chance? I mean,
15:55you're still so deep into it, trying to just keep up and, you know, we come in here barging in,
16:01like we get an interview. You're, you're all over the place, but you're building something
16:05very special. You have like magic in a bottle. Thanks. I, I had secret goals. I was too embarrassed
16:12to tell anyone. Like I, people came and looked at the space, chefs, other people that own bars
16:17and told me what they thought I could do per year. Yeah. I knew, I knew what I had to
16:21do to pay my loan
16:22back and pay my rent. I had secret goals of, you know, I can have a little bit of a
16:26life if I hit this
16:27number, but my, what I wouldn't tell anyone because I just thought they'd think it was ridiculous.
16:32So that I wanted to do 3 million revenue. This is only 1800 square foot, all in kitchen and
16:36bathrooms. I am doing, I am out. I have blown it. I think things will calm down, but even if
16:42they
16:43calm down by 30%, blowing my secret goal out of the water, my other secret, secret goal was like
16:48someday I really, I think maybe when I was thinking about Billy Durney, I was like,
16:51I have three different ideas, but I would never tell anyone because it seemed
16:56just not realistic. And now like every day people are asking me to open another place
17:02and offering financing. And I need to get this place organized and dialed. And I need to decide
17:07is the path forward. There's a group here called Clyde's. People want more EBS. Do I put another
17:13EBS? Do I get us off a five and a half hour wait and into a, and put another one
17:18here? And how do I
17:19make it just as special? Well, I got to co, I got to co-design it with my mom again,
17:23right? I got it.
17:24I got, I order a burger here every day. Well, now I need to go to two places and have
17:28a burger
17:28every day. And I think that's a possibility or there's like Keith McNally and not that I would
17:34ever compare myself to him, but you know, every single one of his ideas is unique and different.
17:39I'm more casual than him, but I have unique and different ideas. Or do you do like an EBS
17:45umbrella and they're all a little different, but they're all, I don't know. I mean,
17:48I've never done this before, right? I'm doing everything for the first time.
17:52Super upset.
17:53Yeah. It's really, it's like, I live in a studio apartment. It has no dishwasher,
17:58which in DC that's rare. I have no laundry. My car is a 2008 stick shift Toyota Corolla with
18:04a huge dent in it that I never fixed. And so for people to say like, we really want you
18:09to come
18:09look at this flagship property, you know, really it's an out of body experience for me.
18:16It is a testament to perseverance. It is a testament to betting on yourself.
18:22Yeah.
18:23Um, that's why we do this show. We never know where the greatest stories are on earth.
18:28Entrepreneurs, business owners, bar owners, restaurant owners, like we love what we do.
18:34Yeah.
18:34We love it. Despite how much it kicks us as well.
18:37This is a really hard business, super hard business. It's, it's never been more difficult,
18:42but it's also never been more beautiful.
18:44I agree. I agree. And I think it's really hard for individuals now. I think it's all groups,
18:49it's all VC and that's always a safer bet, but it's, I'm really proud that I did something that's
18:56sort of like the American dream. I'm proud of that. And I love what I do. People should not do
19:02it
19:02unless it is like a, their only choice or be their absolute passion because as glamorous as
19:08it bite lookers seem, it is very difficult, but I am thrilled. I love Evie's. I, when I look in
19:17the
19:17kitchen, I see the guys cranking the burgers and they're like the nicest people in the world. When I
19:22see people drinking martinis and laughing, when I see like a couple meeting here, it makes me really
19:27happy.
19:28If you could go back and talk to yourself back when you were working in the pizza business,
19:33handing out all those hours, what kind of advice would you give to yourself?
19:36It's the advice I'd give anybody now that says, I want to do what you do. And I say,
19:40start now because it's going to take way longer than you think, unless you are one of these fortunate
19:45people with an uncle with unlimited funds. Also like, why not you? Why not me? That was one of the
19:53most important things that I had to say over and over again. Why not me? And it took years for
19:59me
20:00to like finally believe it. And it wasn't even that I believed it. You just have to force yourself.
20:04Motivation is not really coming for you. You have to pick up your concrete leg and force it forward.
20:11At least for me, who I do struggle with like a fear of failure or a fear of you. I
20:18couldn't even admit
20:19out loud like, oh, I would like to make over a hundred grand a year. It sounded ridiculous as
20:23someone who was always a waitress, always a boat trainer, never able to pay my rent. Crap credit.
20:29And so it feels embarrassing and you have to push through it anyways. Yeah. What an amazing message.
20:35If you guys are watching this, if you're listening, thank you. Please share this with another
20:39business person, somebody that has hopes and dreams that's in the hospitality space.
20:44We're grateful that Entrepreneur Toast give us the opportunity to go and tell these stories.
20:48Thank you to seven shifts, uh, scheduling platform for
20:52literally putting Emily on our doorstep. But so, it's so great. We use seven shifts.
20:56This is 100% the reason why we do this show, why we travel all over the country
21:00and now all over the world to tell these stories. Um, you guys can reach out to me anytime at
21:05Sean P
21:06Welchef. Instagram is the fastest. Emily, what's the best place for people to keep in touch with you?
21:10So right now I'm on the Instagram. It's only me. I don't really know how to, people say,
21:16who's doing it. It's not really very try hard. It's so, it's so avant garde. It's because I don't
21:20know how to make a reel, but it's me. You can, I have, um, like 800 unread DMS. I try
21:27to keep up
21:27with everybody. I have a website that I don't even have access to. It's a friend of mine's husband.
21:34So you can write us there, but, uh, I'm here very, very often. Come by and say what's up.
21:39Come by and say what's up. Amazing. Thank you for having me, by the way. This is awesome.
21:43Seriously. This is, this is honestly why we do the show. We're so grateful for the opportunity.
21:47Um, as always guys stay curious, get involved and don't be afraid to ask for help. We'll catch you next
21:52episode. Thank you for watching. Thank you for listening. If you've made it this long,
21:59you are part of the community. You're part of the tribe. We can't do this alone. We started,
22:03no one was listening. Now we have a community of digital hospitality leaders all over the globe.
22:08Please check out our new series called restaurant technology, sub stack. It's a sub stack newsletter.
22:14It's free. It's some of our deep work on the best technology for restaurants. Also go to
22:19YouTube and subscribe to Cali barbecue media, Cali BBQ media on YouTube. We've been putting
22:24out a lot of new original content. Hopefully you guys like that content. If you want to work with us,
22:29go to be the show.media. We show up all over the United States, some international countries.
22:35We would love to work with you and your growing brand on digital storytelling. You can reach out to
22:39me anytime at Sean P. Welchef on Instagram. I'm weirdly available. Stay curious, get involved.
22:45Don't be afraid to ask for help. We'll catch you next episode.
22:49We'll catch you next time.
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