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Local chefs Jeff and Barbara Black have an enviable track record, having created four award-winning restaurants within eight years. Black Restaurant Group (BRG) includes Addie's in Rockville (opened in 1996), Black's Bar and Kitchen (1999), Black Market Bistro in Garrett Park (2004) and BlackSalt Fish Market and Restaurant in Northwest D.C. (2004).

Black's Bar and Kitchen received a $2.5 million remodeling three and a half years ago. Environmentally conscious BRG and GrizForm Design Architects used recycled materials, and the restaurant is powered by wind energy. The bar and glass-enclosed 1,500-bottle wine room separate the lounge and dining room. Just inside tall glass doors to the patio, a communal table overlooks the lounge area.

The oyster bar is the first thing you notice.

"You'd be surprised how many customers eat oysters in the winter," executive chef Quanta Robinson says. "It blows my mind every single day at happy hour."

The oysters are from Southern Maryland. Locally-sourced ingredients and sustainable seafood are BRG hallmarks, as is the seasonal menu due to change around the end of March.

Robinson, who previously cooked at BlackSalt, describes the menu as pretty modern and mainstream.

"I feel like it is one step from comfort food," she says.

It's higher end comfort food like the signature pan-seared sea scallops with crawfish-thyme butter, sautéed Swiss chard and garlic mashed potatoes, or pan-seared Hudson Valley duck, an appetizer our server notes can be doubled as an entrée.

Specials, Robinson says, are "edgy but approachable."

Indeed, our wood-grilled garlic baby octopus with chili oil couldn't be better. The pan-seared Maryland blue crab cake is delicious, although the accompanying Old Bay-accented sauce overly salty.

Pan-seared Atlantic flounder is the special of the day. Canadian swordfish, a big seller, Robinson acknowledges, is the market fish. But our eyes are drawn elsewhere.

The saffron-tomato seafood stew is a treasure trove of salmon, tuna, calamari, mussels, prawns and shrimp. With its spicy broth and croutons slathered with chive aioli, it rivals the best bouillabaisse I've had. Kudos to Black's for providing a slim fork to extract the mussels from their shells.

One discriminating diner proclaims the pan-roasted whole Carolina mountain trout kissed with blue crab almond brown butter one of the best of its kind. The accompanying wilted greens have just enough bite to offset the sweet potato puree. 

Prepared medium-rare with a lovely pink center, pan-seared yellow fin tuna loin is just as the chef and the diner prefer. It sits atop heirloom pepper slices, tomatillos and broccoli in a sweet ancho chile broth — great to sop up with the bread — laden with rope-cultured blue shell mussels.

Meat-eaters need not despair. Steaks, as well as pork tenderloin, get their due on the wood-fired grill.

Tables are close enough, and diners congenial enough, to ask your neighbor what they are enjoying, which we do. A friend admires the fried chicken with molasses-pecan jus and a sweet potato waffle, the sous chef's creation, on a neighboring table. But when his own arrives, it is the bacon-braised collard greens that earn his full approval.

When that table turns over, the newcomers ask us the same question. They duplicate our choices and thank us afterwards.

Pastry chef Catherine McArdle provides a welcome bread basket with homey whole wheat bread and buttery mini-biscuits. The L'Academie de Cuisine grad's Meyer lemon tart has soft meringue peaks and a complement of roasted blackberries and crème Anglaise. Her decadent chocolate-salted caramel trio consisting of a warm dense brownie, chocolate-salted caramel tart and caramel ice cream shows why salty caramel is the flavor darling of the moment. Adding ice cream to her devastating chocolate bread pudding is like gilding the lily.

With a splendid cup of coffee comes a gift from the pastry chef, a bite-size light-textured brownie and crunchy butterscotch morsel for each of us.

Sommelier Brian Murphy tends 300 select wines that range from $38 to $210. Not many bottles are in evidence tonight on tables, but wine glasses are everywhere. Diners are taking advantage of the quartino, a quarter of a bottle and a generous pour, delivered in a sleek glass flask. Sunday night wine specials feature a selection of half-off wines.

A glass wall with an illuminated 70-foot photomural is the backdrop for comfortable low-backed banquettes and light-colored wood tables in the 86-seat dining room. Red tiles line the open kitchen at the rear. With all its glass, the restaurant can get noisy.

But factoring in the excellent service, talented kitchen and top-notch ingredients, you can understand why Black's continues to draw the discerning diner.

Black's Bar and Kitchen

7750 Woodmont Ave., Bethesda

301-652-5525, fax 301-215-6781

Hours: Mon.- Thurs. 11:30 a.m.- 2:30 p.m., 5:30 p.m.-10 p.m., Fri. 11:30 a.m.- 2:30 p.m., 5:30 p.m.-11 p.m., Sat. noon-3 p.m., 5:30-11 p.m., Sun. (brunch) 11 a.m.-2:30 p.m., 5:30-9:30 p.m.

Bar menu: Mon.-Thurs. 2:30-10 p.m., Fri. 2:30 p.m.-11 p.m., Sat. 3-11 p.m.,

Sun. 3-9:30 p.m.,

Late night bar menu: Thurs. 10 p.m.-close, Fri.-Sat. 11 p.m.-midnight,

Happy hour:

Mon.-Fri. 4-7 p.m.

Style of cuisine: Modern American seafood

Entrees: $24-$32

Credit cards: All major cards

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www.blacksbarandkitchen.com