I had been by the Byblos on Avenida Balboa at least a hundred times, and the first time I noticed it I took a mental note. I worked for a number of years in Dearborn, Michigan and there acquired a taste for the Arab cuisines of the Levant.

Cuisines, plural. Along an arc from Greece to Egypt, everyone claims that they invented baklava, and they all do it just a little bit differently. The same more or less applies to hummus, pita bread, kibbe and other Eastern Mediterranean standards. That stuff almost surely pre-dates the Arabic language, ancient Greece and the Jews' flight from the land of Goshen, back to the Phoenician culture or before. It is much less certain that the foods we now associate with the Eastern Mediterranean cultures are as old as the city of Byblos. The archaeological record of that northern Lebanese town dates it back at least 8,000 years, making it one of the world's most ancient cities. Byblos had been settled for at least three millennia by the time that the Phoenicians established their civilization in that part of the world.

Anyway, my mental note had to do with satiating an occasional craving for baklava. Dearborn has a huge Arab population, mostly Lebanese and Palestinian, with quite a few Yemeni arrivals in recent years. (Metro Detroit's other big minority from the Arab world, the Chaldeans, are mostly found in the area's northern suburbs rather than the neighborhood where I worked.) Home to many fine Lebanese and Palestinian bakeries, Dearborn is a very good place to develop a taste for Arabic pastry, which I did.

I am glad that my first visit to the Byblos wasn't just for dessert. To be sure, I had the baklava, along with a little cup of strong and sweet Arab coffee, and these were pretty good.

However, that came after dinner, which was even better.

Actually, from my perspective the best part of the meal didn't even show up on the menu. It was the appetizer at the beginning. As in fresh hot pita bread, simple but amazingly good, with some smooth and fresh hummus, topped with a little extra virgin olive oil. There are plenty of restaurants that serve fresh bread while your meal is cooking, but this is well above and beyond the call of excellence. Ordering the hummus and pita bread, which appear on the menu among the appetizers, makes for a simple but wonderful little meal in itself.

I ordered the shish kebab tarbiali, the grilled hunks of chicken breast with sweet and subtly spiced yellow rice, a grilled onion and grilled tomato, and a little dish of yellow hot sauce on the side. Everything about this simple selection was perfect --- the texture, the flavor, the presentation --- as was the service.

What is it about Lebanese food that makes it stand out above the neighbors' culinary cultures? I think it's the French influence, dating back to the Crusades and more recently when France ran the country for a few decades after World War I.

Byblos is also good for the atmospherics, which isn't usually the norm for a place that allows smoking. (Lebanon is one of the most tobacco-addicted cultures in the world, and though it wasn't in use during my visit, I noticed the hookah in the back.) But the tables are far enough apart, there's an outdoor dining section, and the ventilation system is good. The simple but elegant decor is classic Levantine and befits a restaurant named after such an ancient city. The music, not too loud, is very tasteful modern Lebanese. There's a bar for those who care to imbibe alcohol.

The prices are moderate. The most expensive thing on the menu is $15 and most entrees are $10 or less. My meal, with coffee, dessert and tip, came to $15 --- but I'm one of these gringos who used to caddy for tips as a kid and thus I tip an American 15 percent rather than the 10 percent Panamanian norm.

Proprietor Jorge "Giorgio" A. Cheaitelly also owns and operates the Cafe Du Liban, which is in the Casco Viejo near the presidential palace. Despite his restaurant's name, he's from southern Lebanon rather than Byblos. After my meal we talked for a bit. I visited relatively early on a Thursday night, and business was slow. So many worthy restaurants have come and gone in Panama's tough economy, but Cheaitelly said that he intends to hang on until better times. "All around the world, the only restaurants that make a lot of money are McDonalds," he said, "but I'm a cook and even if I'm not making money I'm doing what I love to do." He's expecting next year to be a good one for the Panamanian restaurant business, due in large part to an influx of tourists for centennial year events.

To be on the safe side, you should check out Byblos sooner rather than later. You don't want to miss this place.

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