And so it is, after too long a wait, that I visited Brasserie Beck (1101 K Street, NW, 202-408-1717) one afternoon for a lunch with friends.

Robert Wiedmaier came to Washington to open Aquarelle, the elegant riverfront restaurant that took over Jean-Louis Paladin’s old haunt in the Watergate. From this start, Wiedmaier has built a portfolio of fine restaurants, including Marcel’s and, more recently, Brasserie Beck. Wiedmaier’s preference for the Belgian influence shows quickly in BB, from the beer bar positioned right inside the entrance to the choice of ingredients and the selection of dishes on the menu.

Cassoulet and Salmon “en Papillotte” is comfortable beside the Veal Schnitzel and Rabbit Pie; even the sides are prepared with diligence and attention to artistic detail. The Butternut Squash Crêpe and Cream of Parsnip Soup stand out, but all the choices deserve attention.

The extraordinary list of mussels shows off Wiedmaier’s creative talent. Mussel-lovers and skeptics alike should indulge in any of the long list of options, including Spicy Red Thai Curry, Fennel & Chorizo, and Wild Mushroom, among others, delectable sauces spooned over the choice Prince Edward Island mussels.

  And if mussels don’t float your boat, don’t hesitate to try the Beef Carbonade, Whole Roasted Boneless Trout, or Roasted Merguez Sausage and Lentils. I worked through several friends’ appetizers and was more than happy to settle for the Lamb Sandwich, paired with a perfectly wonderful glass of Font de Blanche Côtes du Rhône.

The list of wines by the bottle is very extensive and, with representatives from every major wine-producing country, will very likely satisfy even the most discriminating palate. My only concerns are the relatively short list of wines by the glass (BTG), and the fact that the half-bottle list includes only white wines. It’s true, bottle orders are common at dinner and a restaurant that focuses on the dinner crowd might count on bottle orders. But lunch service needs to include more wines BTG, and even diners in for supper deserve the chance to order individual glasses of fine wine to suit their specific dishes.

But this was a memorable meal, one that encourages me to return – many times – and challenge Wiedmaier and his staff to impress me time after time.

Bargain Hunters’ note:  On Tuesday nights, most wines on Brasserie Beck’s list are 50% off.

Just an hour from Washington, North Beach has all you need for a day of fun. The Lighthouse stocks all the beach supplies you need, and Chez Elle offers a dazzling choice of smart women’s clothing.

But if you come for fun, you must come for the food, too. A new addition to the town is the Olde Bay Tavern (4114 7th Street, 443-964-5261), a casual place to dine that combines a terrific menu, well-considered wine and beer selections, and an affable environment.

Owners Colleen and Doug McClair spent their careers in computer consulting, dreaming of opening a restaurant but not pulling that string until they created Olde Bay Tavern just a few weeks ago. On my visits, the food has been uniformly terrific, the presentation casual, and the staff welcoming.

The cream of crab soup is chock full of lump crab meat, and the crab cakes are sumptuous. I saw plates of flatbread, club sandwiches, and pulled pork that looked delicious. For a special treat, try Olde Bay’s own version of surf and turf: a burger topped with a crab cake!

It’s no accident that the tavern claims Maryland’s famous spice for its name. A dusting of the famous seasoning appeared on nearly every plate that swung through the dining room.

The wine list is comfortably short, but well thought-out, giving a fair shake to the range of wines required for this menu. The beer list is crafty, and includes many of the specialty beverages we’ve come to expect in fine dining.

Now that Olde Bay Tavern is part of the landscape of this wonderful little town, I have only one question for Colleen and Doug: What took you so long?

You might ask, “When was it ever here?”

In fact, Washington has been host to Lebanese restaurants ever since the native land wrested itself from France during World War II. Some of the refugees of that extended conflict made their way to D.C. and set up shops, including dining establishments.

In recent years, Americans’ experience with Middle Eastern cuisine has been relegated to something plated at Lebanese Taverna, a nice enough eatery but hardly fine dining. Muddled between the questionable Mexican food at Qdoba, the Italian food at Domino’s, and the Brazilian food at Fogo de Chao, entrepreneurs have ignored the exotic elegance of foreign cuisine and tried to pass off bland plates of forgettable eats as the real thing.

  But some have discovered the other Lebanese restaurants, including one of my favorites, Me Jana, in Arlington.

The owners are justly proud of their extensive menu, but they remain more loyal to the dishes from their ancient land, and add to the excitement by carrying wines from that country also. You may not see Château Kefraya in many of the D.C. stores yet, but match it with Me Jana’s braised lamb chop and you’ll wish you could stock up on it.

Château Kefraya occupies a stretch of bucolic land in the Bekaa Valley, Lebanon, a region that is also home to the better known Château Musar. Château Kefraya was founded by French ex-patriot Yves Morard who later sold it to the De Bustros family. The number of wineries in Lebanon has grown from a fistful to more than 30 today, and the quality of the fruit and resulting wine promises to deliver more of the same. All we need to do is convince the U.S. market to import the wines. (Check Schneider’s of Capitol Hill and the DCWineGuy.com for local inventory.)

In addition to the scant local presence, Château Kefraya has several wines that can be bought online, including a rosé, a white based on the Italian grape trebbiano, and several reds based variably on French grapes like Grenache, Cinsault, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Mourvèdre.

Lots of terrific wines were poured last year, and this year many of these gracious winemakers are returning for the event.  Among them Bonny Doon Vineyard, Fess Parker Winery and Cline Cellars.  Newcomers include Stolpman Vineyards, Veritas, and Justin Winery, to name a few.  Look for a recap and a review of the wines in this column after the event.

I’m reminded of the report I once read that said if you spent five minutes on each exhibit in the Smithsonian Institution and worked forty hours a week, you’d never keep up with the constant additions to the museums. The birth and death cycle in the restaurant industry is similar: If you visited one restaurant in the metro area per day, seven days a week, you’d never catch up to the new establishments opening every day.

One that just arrived and is destined to be a huge hit is Seasons 52 (11414 Rockville Pike, North Bethesda, 301-984-5252). It’s part of a chain that began in Orlando and has since taken the restaurant business by storm.

Seasons 52 is unquestionably the most gorgeous restaurant in the Maryland suburbs. The dining room and bar flaunt a Frank Lloyd Wright-influenced design, airy spaces and tasteful yet discrete design elements dress up the dining area, and soft lighting offers the final touch. Cozy private rooms dot the perimeter of the estate and expand the breadth of the main dining room.

The bar sweeps gently about in a circle as you enter the room, with a piano man who tickles sweet music from the keys every night. A piano bar! Right in Rockville! (Oh, sorry, North Bethesda.)

So, the question is, could the food match that stupendous atmosphere? Tasting through a number of their dishes proved that the cuisine – and sommelier George Miliotes’ ingenious wine list – is actually more breath-taking than the romantic surroundings, if that’s possible.  The seasonally-inspired menu takes its cue from healthy eating and sustainable provisions (no menu item is more than 475 calories!!) but this is a nutritionist’s dream. The organic salmon and roasted lemongrass sea scallops were exquisite, and a fine tribute to the mesquite-grilled lamb t-bone chop and quail breast with bourbon-chili glaze. And in the face of such competition, the Sonoma goat cheese ravioli with roasted garlic, basil and tomato broth – brilliantly served with a Retromarcia Chianti Classico – was the highlight of the evening.

Seasons 52 is opening April 11, 2011, and will set a new – and very high bar – for dining in Maryland.

We – the fans – are left on the sidelines to watch. Of course, but that’s not bad considering “sidelines” means a slew of brew pubs in the D.C. area. Two weeks ago, this column featured Rock Bottom Brewery in Bethesda and, last week, The Liberty Tavern in Arlington.

This week, the focus is on the classic capital of regional brew pubs: Capitol City Brewing Company. There are three locations – downtown, Capitol Hill, and Shirlington, Virginia, but the biggest and best is at 1100 New York Avenue, NW (check www.capcitybrew.com for other locations). It has the most seats, the most spacious bar, and enough televisions to handle even an NCAA-size crowd.

The beer selection is broad, including long-time favorites as well as seasonal brews. Like the other brew pubs described in this space, there are beer samplers that will give you a chance to “pour” through the options before settling on a choice for the evening.

Iconic beers – with interesting names – are the draw at Capitol City Brewing Company. Pale Rider Ale is brewed in an American style, while Amber Waves Ale – with its hoppy aromas and malty flavors – is more filling. And then there’s always Prohibition Porter, a dense, dark beer that features roasted coffee and chocolate flavors.

The menu is beer-friendly and includes lots of finger food, perfect for stuffing mouths when they’re not occupied with yelling at the refs. And while the sandwich list offers nothing startlingly new, those that are featured are very good. So when the whistle blows for half-time and you give your brain a break from the court, you can order up a belly-filling meal to go with the beer.

Across the river but just outside D.C. is the Liberty Tavern (3195 Wilson Boulevard, Arlington, 703-465-9360). A teeming crowd of sports fans crowds this bar whenever any sporting event of importance is broadcast, but this is a prime place for socializing at any time of the year.

Owners of the Liberty Tavern take great pride in their wine list and cocktails, and a short review of either list will justify this pride. The wines include old friends like Ridge Zinfandels, Terredora Aglianico, and Barboursville sparkling wine, but the rest of the list is a very impressive collection of more obscure – and fascinating – wines from all over the world. Many white tablecloth restaurants would kill for the skill to compile such a list – maybe they should pay Liberty Tavern to write it for them.

But the establishment also has a range of beers on tap, from light lagers to dark beers. Magic Hat #9 is a favorite, but don’t miss the Brooklyn Lager or Dale’s Pale Ale. I only wonder at one thing: Why does Budweiser get tap space at a bar with such high standards?

And if you’re there for the Madness – and why wouldn’t you be – there are TVs a-plenty, with none of Jerry Jones patented ‘obstructed viewing’ seats.

And even when March ends and April 4 crowns a new national champion, Liberty Tavern will still attract large, young, and friendly crowds for happy hour and weekend nights. So don’t cry in your beer that you didn’t get any Final Four picks right; head to Liberty and set yourself free!

Over the next three weeks, this column will focus on drinks to wash down the throats grown hoarse from shouting at the Madness on television. Whether your team is North Carolina, Pittsburgh, Purdue, or Texas, the games attract thousands to area bars where the competition takes on a party atmosphere.

What better place to begin but at Bethesda’s Rock Bottom Brewery (7900 Norfolk Ave., Bethesda, 20814, 301-652-1311). This is Bethesda’s only brew-in facility – and one of few in the larger D.C. metro area – and it offers an array of beers produced on premises to suit every taste.

The food is straightforward beer-hall fare, including your usual selection of nachos, wings, firecracker shrimp, fish & chips, and steak & fries. But Rock Bottom, which has other locations across the U.S., throws more interesting choices at you, including lobster and shrimp tacos, Creole jambalaya, and asiago artichoke and crab dip. Best of all, the portions are large, large enough to keep you nibbling between excited rants at your team’s missed shots.

The beer’s the thing at Rock Bottom. The brewers are described as “equal parts scientist, artist and beer geek” on the website, which we care less about than that the results are impressive quaffers. Local production includes a range of styles, including light lagers, wheat beers, and a choice of red, brown, or pale ales. Last but not least are the rich, full-bodied dark beers, but choose a steak or beefy burger to go with these monster brews.

A bit of trivia that I bet even the Rock Bottom staff doesn’t know: The brewery is in a building once occupied by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. How do I know? I worked there, and I can promise you there was no beer in the building back then.

But there is now, and the multiple large television screens make this a perfect place to eat, drink, and survive March Madness.

Pairing with wine is less of a challenge than some would think. A quick search of my database suggests pairing lamb with Barbera (rice with lamb ribs); Cru Beaujolais (Moroccan-style lamb shanks), Bordeaux (maple-mustard rack of lamb in my column in The Washington Post, or Middle Eastern Lamb Burger in my column in Chile Pepper Magazine), even a sparkling brut rosé served with marinated baby lamb chops. Depending on the ethnicity of the cuisine, you could serve lamb with a Spanish Crianza, a French Malbec, or a California Muscadet.

But my favorite wine with lamb is the Agiorgitiko, a savory and full-bodied red wine from Greece. Mykonos (121 Congressional Lane, Rockville, 301-770-5999) is a pillar of the Rockville culinary community and a perfect place to prove the perfect marriage of Agiorgitiko with lamb.

Mykonos matches a relaxed environment with white-tablecloth service, and the tile floors, soft floral patterns, and pastel-washed walls can’t help but transport you to the sunny islands of Greece. Once inside, your only challenge is to choose from among a wide array of Greek-inspired dishes, then sit back and let the friendly staff turn your evening into an Hellenic adventure.

I ordered the roasted leg of lamb, a succulent dish served with orzo and brown lamb sauce. The luscious aromas and tender meat made it difficult to put down my fork, but the glass of Agiorgitiko was waiting, and of course, I had to comply.

Hailing from the northeastern Peloponnese, Agiorgitiko ranges from medium- to full-bodied, and is an exquisite partner with deep, earthy flavored meats like lamb and ostrich. As one of Greece’s best vinous products, it is proof positive that the wines of that country deserve much more attention than Americans are giving them.

And with the Mykonos leg of lamb, with its fork-friendly tenderness, the Nemea Agiorgitiko was just the way to make the point.