1233 Brentwood Rd. NE (202) 635-3991 Hours of Operation and Prices Open: M-Sat 11 am-10 pm Closed: Sun Entrees: $4-$13.50 Other Information • Credit Cards: MasterCard, Visa • Reservations: No • Dress: Casual • Parking: Free lot • Metro: Rhode Island Avenue For the two Maryland branches of Levi's BBQ: • 6201 Livingston Rd., Oxon Hill, Md., (301) 567-0050 • 5310 Indian Head Highway, Oxon Hill, Md., (301) 567-1700.

Levi's serves more than barbecue. And it serves more varieties of barbecue than North Carolina chopped pork. The main locations are full-service, soul-food cafeterias. North Carolinians would shake their heads, but the steam table features pork ribs and beef ribs thickly slathered with tomatoey sauce that would be more familiar in Texas or Kansas than in the Carolinas. The steam table is also likely to be piled with such down-home necessities as baked or barbecued chicken, meatloaf, smothered pork chops, beef liver, Salisbury steak, pig's feet, chitterlings or fried seafood (whole fish, fillets, scallops, shrimp, oysters, crab cakes). And vegetables: greens fragrant with vinegar, potato salad enlivened with pickles and celery seeds, yams, butter beans, long-stewed cabbage and string beans. Unfortunately, the potatoes taste like instant and the hush puppies are heavy. The sleeper is the pork chop sandwich. The chop is half an inch thick and batter-fried; though it's reminiscent of chicken-fried steak, it's far more juicy and incomparably more delicious.

These are big, bustling cafeterias that concentrate on carryout but have plenty of sit-down space. And eating-in has one major advantage: It's a short trip for that second sandwich.