The new late show: half-price oysters and beer at Brasserie Beck

I really like the Belgian beers and food at Brasserie Beck, but they come with high price tags -- most beers cost between $7 to $15 per glass (not a pint), and a half-dozen oysters from the raw bar will run you $14. That's why I was excited when managers announced earlier this month that, for the first time, they'd offer a happy hour. Half-price beers from 5 to 7 p.m. daily is a pretty good bargain, and it's been hard to get a seat at the bar ever since. (Last Friday, for example, could politely be called a madhouse.)

How does a place top that kind of success? By adding another happy hour, of course.

The new late-night weekend happy hour offers half-price beers and raw bar items from 10 p.m. to 1 a.m. on Thursday and 10 p.m. to 1:30 a.m. on Friday and Saturday. Check out what I found when I popped in with a friend for Thursday's debut: Two of the restaurant's specially brewed Antigoon Belgian blonde ale and a dozen oysters for $23. We had six varieties of oysters, including briney Totten Inlet oysters from Washington's Puget Sound and sweet local oysters from the Rappahannock River. (You can get a dozen for $14 or a half-dozen for $7 during happy hour.)

I know some people still love the late-night Oyster Hour madness at Old Ebbitt Grill and Clyde's, where all raw bar items are half off. But if you hit Beck, the beer is better and cheaper. For me, that seals the deal.

-- Fritz Hahn