1100 New York Ave. NW (202) 628-2222 Hours of Operation and Prices Open: Sun-Th 11 am-11 pm, F-Sat 11 am-midnight Entrees: $7.25-$16 Other Information • All major credit cards • No Reservations • Dress: casual • Street parking • Nearest Metro: Metro Center • Handicapped accessible • The other Capitol City Brewing Company is at 2 Massachusetts Ave, NW, (202) 842-2337. At this printing, two more branches were scheduled to be opened, in Arlington, Va., and Bethesda, Md.

Yet there's a long menu, too, that runs the gamut from light (salad with grilled chicken breast, grilled or poached fish) to heavy (a variety of sausages, ribs, pork chops). Surely the dishes were devised to sell beer, as some of the best are hot enough to send you gasping for a cold draft. The chili has a real kick, Fireworks Shrimp is aptly named and among the sausages (which come as appetizers, salad, sandwiches or platters) there's an andouille with plenty of bite. Not all is spicy, though. Some dishes err on the bland side; vegetable-topped pasta with pesto, for example, can taste of little more than starch.

Habits die hard, and most people seem to stick to burgers at pubs, but then these thick, char-striped, cooked-as-ordered burgers (beef or turkey) can be worthy of the beer. They're served with thin fries, rather tasteless and chewy but so crunchy they seem as if they've been coated with flour. Fried oyster sandwich - purportedly a po' boy - is also popular, and the oysters have a pleasantly crackly cornmeal crust. Too bad they don't have a more authentic po' boy roll, though. The sleeper on this menu is the mushroom quesadilla, listed as an appetizer but certainly enough for lunch. It's rich and gooey with cheese, and comes with a brightly flavorful tomato salsa. More than Cobb salad or grilled salmon, it's a dish that seems like beer food.