Nightlife in Manassas

Amid the satisfying clinks of cocktail glasses and the glow of neon lights, patrons at Laurel Station Bar & Grill feast on juicy burgers and steaks, lump crab cakes, and succulent steamed shrimp, all while enjoying the exploits of their favorite sports stars. Over 20 high-definition screens deck the brick walls, broadcasting all Sunday football games and most pay-per-view events, and an enormous projector screen unfolds sporting events and shadow-puppet cage matches in jumbo resolution. Guests belly up to the granite-topped bar for frosty draft beers, or book a private party room to ring in special occasions with good company and hearty pub fare.

Throughout the afternoon and evening, the streets of Ellicott City echo with the footsteps and laughter of revelers making their ways between the city’s pubs and breweries. Bar crawlers visit four local pubs; The Diamondback Tavern, Ellicott Mills Brewing Company, Judge's Bench Pub, and La Palapa Grill & Cantina. Revelers sip domestic beers, spirits, and wines as they tactfully ignore bar-trivia rivals inside the Diamondback Tavern's rustic interior, between the wooden trim and hanging amber-colored lamps of Ellicott Mills Brewing Company and the Judge's Bench Pub, or between the exposed brick walls and colored glass mosaics at La Palapa. To help stomachs soak up excess alcohol, some bar proprietors lay out snacks for touring groups. Participants on both earlier and later crawls walk away with a souvenir T-shirt, as well as a new layer of bar-crawling memories to replace lingering remembrances of high-school-trigonometry lessons.