Web3.eth – How to Get Value of a Contract Public Property

using web3 javascript library how do you get the current value of a public property. e.g.

contract MyContract {
    address public owner;
    ...
}

Here's a snippet of the abi:

[{
  "constant": true,
  "inputs": [],
  "name": "owner",
  "outputs": [
    {
      "name": "",
      "type": "address"
    }
  ],
  "payable": false,
  "type": "function"
},
...
]

I've tried several methods, but to no avail:

    var web3 = new Web3(new Web3.providers.HttpProvider("http://localhost:8545"));
    var contract = new web3.eth.Contract([...], "0x1234...");

    // These don't work:
    var owner = contract.owner;
    console.log(owner); // "undefined"

    contract.methods.owner.call(function(error, result) {
        console.log("This doesn't get called");
    });

    contract.methods.owner(function(error, result) {
        // Displays an error to console:
        // Error: Invalid number of parameters for "owner". Got 1 expected 0!
    });

    var x = contract.methods.owner();
    console.log(x); // Displays the contract object below:

The last line displays the contract object. Here's a snippet:

{ call: { [Function: bound _executeMethod] request: [Function: bound 
_executeMethod] },
  send: { [Function: bound _executeMethod] request: [Function: bound 
_executeMethod] },
  encodeABI: [Function: bound _encodeMethodABI],
  estimateGas: [Function: bound _executeMethod],
  _method:
  { constant: true,
     inputs: [],
     name: 'owner',
     outputs: [ [Object] ],
     payable: false,
     type: 'function',
     signature: '0x8da5cb5b' },
  _parent:
   Contract {
       // etc...

EDIT: Using version 1.0.0-beta.4 (later packages don't install properly with dependency lerna). Docs: http://web3js.readthedocs.io/en/1.0/web3-eth-contract.html