Nightlife in Ellicott City

The sports bar has had more enduring success than bar sports, which have been officially banned from the Olympics for more than a year. Indulge your sporting and eating fancies with today's Groupon. For $10, you get $20 worth of food and drinks at First Down Sports Bar & Grill, conveniently located in the heart of Ballston.

At Relic, the fried frog legs in a spicy garlic sauce ($9) habitually sell out, so order them right off the bat if you're feeling adventurous. Chicken skewers with onions and peppers ($9), pan-seared crab cakes in lemon-butter sauce ($9), and a veggie tower of eggplant, mushroom, spinach, mozzarella, tomatoes, and peppers ($9) also make excellent starters. Save room for Relic's meaty main attractions: steaks and burgers grilled over a wood fire, both made from beef that has been dry aged in a Himalayan salt-aging chamber (much like your pet yeti-mummy). Steaks come in a variety of sizes ($19–$28) in New York strip and rib eye and can come with your choice of sauces, including bordelaise sauce, béarnaise sauce, and wild-mushroom brandy-cream sauce. Similarly, you can order your nine-ounce burger your way ($8), the "firy” way (chipotle paste, grilled jalapeños, port onions, and manchego cheese, $10), and the American way (house sauce, dill pickles, red onions, tomato, american cheese, $10), among others.

Elliott's raises the drinking bar, lowers and fills it with beer, and raises it again with its 20-beer tap tower serving all craft beer. Happy hour runs 4 p.m.–7 p.m. Monday through Friday and refreshes with half-price drafts, $2 domestic bottles, $3 import bottles, and $4 mixed drinks. Delighted drinkers who arrive before 7 p.m. on Tuesday evening will discover that their drinks remain at happy-hour prices for the rest of the night. All customers are encouraged to ask about the nightly pint and bottle specials, but if you know what you want and won't be dissuaded, grab an all-day, everyday economy-buster special such as the $12 pitchers of any draft, $15 domestic bucket or $20 import bucket (six bottles per bucket), or $4 Orange Things. On NFL Sundays, kick back with the $1 domestic bottles whenever the Ravens are playing. Baseball fans can enjoy $2 domestic suds and $1 hot dogs during Orioles games.

Since opening in 2008, this metro cocktail parlor has gathered quite a reputation for serving up scientifically engineered cocktails with a twist of uncalculated charm. Sample what Wisdom knows best on June 8 by tasting four authentic absinthe selections in addition to two of Wisdom's signature absinthe cocktails, or mix up French liqueur in four specialty St. Germain cocktails on June 22. Take a beer flight with first-class cheese and authentic brewery glassware on June 15, or simply follow your nose through 9 to 10 Old World wines, with bread and cheese accompaniment, on June 1 or June 29. Ungifted musical-chairs players are recommended to book early, as seats are limited.

The newly opened eatery serves up a fresh menu, offering soups, salads, sandwiches, and pizzas. Nosh on a Legare salad ($8.25), a mélange of arugula, prosciutto, figs, goat cheese, house-made croutons, and black olives in balsamic vinaigrette, or warm up to the Gadsden pizza ($11.50), topped with hand-cut pepperoni, spinach, black olives, and fresh mozzarella and feta. Justin's Café's sandwich selections feature veggie-dense, herbivore-pleasing tastes, such as the King sandwich ($8.25), which boasts a bed of grilled eggplant and basil mayo under tomato, roasted peppers, zucchini, and spinach, as well as carnivorous dream creations like the Radcliffe wrap ($8.50), which swaddles grilled chicken, Granny Smith apples, and mozzarella cheese in a spinach tortilla.

Vino 100 offers visitors a chance to peruse a head-spinning array of wine and complementing grub that will soothe even the most pork-rind-singed palate. Visitors dining in at Vino 100 will be able to bait a warming buzz by purchasing one of more than 100 wines priced at $25 or less (there is a $7 corkage fee). A boutique-style shopping experience is paired with a casual dining area, allowing patrons to shop and eat just like at the mattress store. Wines by the glass ($5–$9) change on a daily basis, while a wide range of delectable bites are available for noshing. Try a mixed cheese platter ($5), hummus platter ($6), or spinach dip ($6), or chow down on a hot panini (starting at $7.95, available starting June 15). Additionally, several premium beer varieties are available to soothe hoppy cravings and cannonball wounds.