Nightlife in Ellicott City

Built by a group of friends interested in camaraderie, cold drinks, and good food, Diamondback Tavern aims to put a contemporary spin on a traditional Maryland tavern, and its pub menu has earned accolades from the Baltimore Sun and Howard Magazine. Wrangling local meats, seafood, produce, and bread, the staff builds fresh sandwiches filled with garlic-braised pulled pork and caramelized bananas, crab-cake platters loaded with two 5-ounce jumbo lump crab cakes, and veggie risotto topped with grilled portobello. Behind the bar, chilled local and domestic brews and sangria blended from a family recipe cleanse palates and put out fires after fire-eating competitions gone wrong. Diners enter under a traditional hanging tavern sign emblazoned with a brown diamondback-turtle shell before nestling into a spacious sports bar or dining room. Diamondback Tavern also hosts open-mic nights and screening events around NFL games to keep ears and eyes entertained as mouths gnaw on the minimalist, modern decor.

The Life of Reilly Irish Pub & Restaurant recreates the feel of an Emerald Isle public house. Framed jerseys decorate an exposed brick wall opposite the bar, above which flat-screen TVs showcase the latest international rugby matches. The bar itself stocks an extensive selection of Irish whiskeys, and its 10 drafts spotlight classic Irish brews such as Guinness and Magners Irish Cider.

But the kitchen's head chef, Dale Fields Jr., hasn't forgotten he lives in Baltimore. Alongside fish and chips and shepherd's pie, he underscores regional classics including a melt comprised of two mini crab cakes served on toasted english muffins. He rounds out his menu with other pub staples such as chicken quesadillas, beer-battered buffalo shrimp, and steak fries smothered with cheese and bacon.

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.

Smokin' Hot Bar and Grille specializes in drenching their hickory smoker meats in their house-made barbecue sauces, from pork and beef to entire turkeys. A buttery wooden bar stretches across the edge of the dining room, where visitors quaff drafts of Sam Adams or Smokin Hot's house ale, order classic or flavored martinis, and enjoy live music on Friday and Saturday nights. Beside their beers, the staff prepares smoked wings coated in one of nine barbecue sauces that range in heat from a pleasant brown sugar to a daringly fiery Black Jack. Steaks coated in house rub char to perfection on the grill, which also cooks pairs of 4-ounce cheeseburgers draped in two different sauces. The kitchen also serves hearty house-made mac and cheese four ways: straight, topped with chili, mixed with black beans, or fried with marinara sauce for dipping. Smokin' Hot Bar and Grille’s team prides itself on creating an atmosphere that’s fun and family-friendly, unlike an R-rated seminar on tax deductions.

Though 200 domestic bottles, craft beers, and imports reside on the drink menu at Hop Heads Ale House, the bar’s draft selections are some of its most popular brews. With a rotating selection of kegs on 11 taps, servers encourage guests sample bright and foamy brews culled mostly from small-batch breweries. To accentuate the flavors of each pint, the kitchen crew at Hop Heads crafts pub specialties such as rib-eye-cheesesteak sandwiches and chicken wings smothered in one of eight sauces. Wraps come stuffed with the likes of seared ahi tuna or veggies, and fresh soups are tapped fresh from local soup trees. The bar also runs a daily happy hour from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. each day, in addition to nightly specials and live music every Friday and Saturday night.

Proprietor Don Dey Ermand has been running Sly Horse Tavern for nearly 30 years, but the restaurant looks much, much older. That's because it was modeled after the 18th-Century elegance of the Raleigh Tavern in colonial Williamsburg. A fireplace spills warmth out into the room, where it is easy to imagine early American colonists warming their hands or whittling the extra corners off their hats. The flickering light wends across oriental rugs and merlot-red tablecloths. Atop them, waiters slide plates of cuisine that fuse modern American and European culinary traditions. Chefs stir steaming pots of cherry and bourbon sauce and craft lobster crème, destined to crown cuts of salmon, ostrich, and Chesapeake Bay crab cakes. Sparkling, white, and red wines pair with dishes such as stuffed trout, which the Washington Times said was “generous in size, exceptionally flaky and sweet, and was complemented with just the right portion of rich crab imperial.”