Don’t misunderstand. We are well aware of the fact that Palena, Harry’s Tap Room, Sonoma and many others in the D.C. area sling a pretty good hamburger. But when the Bosnians do it, the burger is elevated from mere junk-food/pub food status to an ethnic cuisine epiphany.

Cosmopolitan—a Bosnian carryout in a shopping center on N. Kings Highway in Alexandria—serves a terrific pljeskavica, or “Bosnian Burger.” An enormous slab of mildly spiced beef is sandwiched between a halved bun of proprietary bread—soft and spongy in the middle, grilled and crunchy on the outside. The burger is then topped with a liberal scoop of sour cream and is accompanied by ajvar (pronounced “eye-var”), a mild sweet red pepper sauce that is best used in copious amounts with the meat and bread. An odd, but appreciated, extra is a mound of raw, sliced white onions, which mix nicely with the contrasting sauces and the tender beef.