A new contender for best burger arrives in Montgomery County

There’s a new burger king in town.

MilePost 7 Pub, an elevated, cozy neighborhood tavern from Soko Butcher owner and chef Brad Feickert, has arrived in Takoma Park.

The menu features elevated bar classics, including cheese sauce and jalapeño-covered pub nachos ($14), a hot honey chicken sandwich ($17) and hake fish and chips with a malt vinegar tempura and green goodness tartar sauce ($22).

But, if you’re looking to add a dish to your best of 2026 restaurant list, go for the Pub Burger.

Feickert draws on his background as a butcher to create a hefty, juicy patty made of a blend of dry-aged hanger and ribeye steak, topped with two slices of American cheese, lettuce, tomato, onion and crispy, bacon-like slices of guanciale, a salt-cured Italian cut of pork ($29).

Pro tip: Upgrade your side to the garlic parm fries — thick-cut steak fries crispy on the outside and fluffy on the inside.

The drink menu features classic, specialty and frozen cocktails, wine, and canned and on-tap beer. Perhaps the most iconic option: a dive bar-inspired $10 combo featuring an all-beef hot dog from Maryland-based Roseda Farm and a shot of your choice.

Feickert’s original intent to open Phia, a modern Appalachian restaurant considered one of the area’s most anticipated openings of the year, didn’t “go according to plan,” per a September announcement on Phia’s Instagram page. In the meantime, it announced, MilePost 7 will open soon.

It’s more than a solid Plan B.

The warm, 3,340-square-foot interior puts a modern spin on old-timey industrial, featuring brick walls, wood and iron open shelving, and a display of old-fashioned candy jars full of Gilliam hard candy sticks, Tootsie Pops, candy buttons and taffy.

The bar also offers outdoor seating, parking on the side for designated drivers and plenty of TVs for Commanders watch parties.

MilePost 7 Pub, currently open Wednesday through Sunday from 4 p.m. until close with plans to expand hours, is located at 8000 Flower Ave. in Takoma Park in the space previously occupied by West African bar and restaurant Mansa Kunda.

On the opposite end of the small Flower Avenue strip, Feickert is also owner and chef at Italian-inspired Koma Cafe, as well as butchery and sandwich shop Soko Butcher about a mile northeast of the two neighboring eateries. Soko, one of the area’s leading champions of quality, local, sustainable and ethical farming, offers a great all-beef-patty burger itself, in addition to its gargantuan Philly cheesesteaks. It also recently expanded to Leesburg, Virginia, Capital One Arena and Union Market spinoff Harvey’s by Soko in D.C.

Existing MoCo burger favorites such as Steeze Burger of Gaithersburg, Aventino Cucina of Bethesda and Duke’s Grocery of Potomac remain high on the list of local burgers you need to try.

But MilePost 7 proves to be a serious new contender worth the visit to Takoma Park.