Here are the winners in Howard Magazine’s 2023 Best Restaurants Contest
More than 24,500 ballots were cast in 47 categories during this year’s contest — demonstrating that eateries are dishing it out like never before in 2023. From fine to casual dining, food trucks to sit-downs, familiar favorites to new on the block, there’s something for everyone.
Ambience: The Elkridge Furnace Inn
5745 Furnace Ave., Elkridge, 410-379-9336, elkridgefurnaceinn.com
The Elkridge Furnace Inn, a French-inspired farm-to-table restaurant that has been in business for nearly three decades, is nestled somewhere special — within the walls of a tavern dating back to approximately 1744, carefully restored by co-owners Dan and Donna Wecker.
“The dining rooms are intimate but well appointed,” Dan Wecker, 64, said. Dining also extends into an adjoining 1810 manor house. “It’s a very different feel than a lot of modern restaurants,” Wecker added.
Carpets and table linens dampen noise and the building’s 53 windows make it so that “in the evening, it just glows,” Wecker said. The historic complex was at one point under threat of demolition.
Now, the property sets the scene for an ever-changing menu that’s influenced by the restaurant’s locale.
The Weckers farm an acre of their land and feature ingredients on their menu that have been foraged, like wild mushrooms and stinging nettle.
“It’s a true farm-to-table approach,” said Wecker. “It’s not just a little snippet of microgreens.”
What sets the restaurant apart — aside from its atmospheric charm and unique menu — is a spirit of persistence and creativity.
“We never stop trying,” Wecker said. “We have been very consistent over many, many years.”
Honorable mentions:
Hudson Coastal Raw Bar & Grill
Cured | 18th & 21st
The Food Market
Bakery: Decadent, a Coffee and Dessert Bar
Honorable mentions:
AppleCore’s Bake Shoppe
Touche Touchet Bakery and Pastry Shoppe
The Elkridge Furnace Inn
Bar food: The White Oak Tavern
10030 Baltimore National Pike, Ellicott City, 410-680-8974. thewhiteoaktavern.com
Diners will never be bored by the bar food, beer or burgers at The White Oak Tavern, where menu selections change based on the time of year.
“We’re a seasonal scratch kitchen,” said Clare Stever, who owns the restaurant along with her brother, Peter Frey, both graduates of Long Reach High School. “We change things along with the seasons.”
That means every three months there’s something new to try, whether it’s pizza or poultry.
“Our wings are pretty popular,” Stever said. “We house-smoke them and then fry them.”
Wash down the wings with a beer from one of the 42 taps that are constantly rotated. The restaurant also makes its own sauces in-house that accompany items like handmade egg rolls and its top-selling burgers.
“Number one seller since we opened,” Stever said about the burgers that are fashioned from local dry-aged grass fed beef, nestled with porter-glazed onions and tucked between fresh-made buns delivered daily.
“There hasn’t been an item that’s beat that,” she said. “We didn’t want to change anything [through COVID]. People know they can come here and it will taste fresh and good. That’s most important.”
Next January, The White Oak Tavern will mark its 10-year anniversary. Stever and Frey have been in the food business since they were teens growing up in Howard County and working at local restaurants.
“We wrote up a business plan about 12 years ago and took it to our families,” Stever said. “And they helped us open our dream restaurant.”
Honorable mentions:
Hudson Coastal Raw Bar & Grill
The Food Market
Cured | 18th & 21st
Barbecue: Mission BBQ
Honorable mentions:
Kloby’s Smokehouse
The White Oak Tavern
Famous Dave’s Bar-B-Que
Bartender: Amanda Curtis, The Iron Bridge Wine Co.
10435 MD-108, Columbia, 410-997-3456, ironbridgewines.com
For Amanda Curtis, bartending is about something less tangible than mixing up a perfectly balanced cocktail.
“Being able to do a job well done on a Friday night when it’s really busy and everybody’s super happy at the bar — it’s the best feeling,” Curtis, 36, said.
Of course, she’s also an expert at shaking up a drink.
Curtis, who calls Columbia home, grew up in Laurel working in the restaurant industry as a server. At The Iron Bridge Wine Company, where she’s worked for the past six years, the beverage menu includes new takes on reliable favorites, like a “twisted cosmo” with elderflower for “herbaceousness” and a “gin y tonica” presented in a red wine glass, inspired by Spanish gin and tonics that are served in “fishbowls,” Curtis said.
But the drink Curtis most enjoys making — and sipping — is a spicy margarita; she muddles the jalapeño with simple syrup, prefers a blanco tequila and adds in Grand Marnier and orange juice.
“I just try my hardest to make sure that I’m anticipating people’s needs and making sure that I’m being an experience maker, and not an order taker,” she said of working behind the bar.
Honorable mentions:
Jose Gomez, The Iron Bridge Wine Co.
Phill Fassel, Hudson Coastal Raw Bar & Grill
Cat Reed, Cured | 18th and 21st
Beer list: The White Oak Tavern
Honorable mentions:
Cured | 18th & 21st
The Food Market
Jailbreak Brewing Co.
Best overall: The Food Market
Honorable mentions:
The Elkridge Furnace Inn
Hudson Coastal Raw Bar & Grill
The White Oak Tavern
Black-owned restaurant: Althea’s Almost Famous - I love This Jerk
Honorable mentions:
AppleCore’s Bake Shoppe
Mad Cow Grill
Anegada Delights Caribbean Cuisine
Breakfast/brunch: The Food Market
Honorable mentions:
The Elkridge Furnace Inn
The White Oak Tavern
Mikey & Mel’s Deli
Burger: The White Oak Tavern
Honorable mentions:
Hudson Coastal Raw Bar & Grill
The Food Market
Cured | 18th & 21st
Chef: Dan Wecker, The Elkridge Furnace Inn
5745 Furnace Ave, Elkridge, 410-379-9336, elkridgefurnaceinn.com
Dan Wecker, the co-owner and chef behind The Elkridge Furnace Inn, has spent 50 years in the food service industry.
From his start as an apprentice in 1976, he’s made French cuisine his focus — including from francophone locales in North Africa and regions including Southeast Asia.
“My favorite thing to make,” Wecker, 64, said, “is make people happy.”
“I do think, personally, that a perfectly sauteed piece of fish is sublime,” he added.
At The Elkridge Furnace Inn, Wecker serves mushrooms and greenery harvested from the land in true farm-to-table fashion.
“Almost everybody does a really good job with what we call the ‘center of the plate,’ the protein,” he said. “But we think that the vegetables, and the starches and things that go on that plate are just as important.”
The menu changes seasonally, every three months — but the feedback remains the same.
“I try to go to every table — if possible, every table every night. And people love the freshness,” Wecker said. “I work very hard to be consistent, and I feel like that is something to strive for.”
Honorable mentions:
Clinton Kopas, The Food Market
Vinny Bellofatto, The White Oak Tavern
Chico Portillo, Hudson Coastal Raw Bar & Grill
Chinese: Hunan Manor
Honorable mentions:
Peter Chang
Asean Bistro
P.F. Chang’s
Cocktail: Cured | 18th & 21st
Honorable mentions:
Hudson Coastal Raw Bar & Grill
The Food Market
The White Oak Tavern
Coffee: Decadent, a Coffee and Dessert Bar
Honorable mentions:
The Elkridge Furnace Inn
Mad City Coffee
Roggenart European Bakery, Bistro & Cafe
Crab cake: Hudson Coastal Raw Bar & Grill
Honorable mentions:
The Elkridge Furnace Inn
The Food Market
Leelynn’s Dining Room and Lounge
Deli: Mikey & Mel’s Deli
Honorable mentions:
Charter Deli
Wegmans
Touche Touchet Bakery & Cafe
Dessert: Decadent, a Coffee and Dessert Bar
Honorable mentions:
The Elkridge Furnace Inn
Hudson Coastal Raw Bar & Grill
The Food Market
Fine dining: The Elkridge Furnace Inn
Honorable mentions:
The Food Market
Cured | 18th & 21st
The Iron Bridge Wine Co.
Food truck: Althea’s Almost Famous - I love This Jerk
Honorable mentions:
Greek on the Street
T & J Waffles
DMV Taqueria
Frozen treats: The Charmery
6000 Merriweather Drive, #185B, Columbia, 443-546-3359, thecharmery.com
One day about 10 years ago, David Alima pulled an old ice cream maker from his kitchen cupboard and began experimenting.
“It’s very hard to mess up ice cream,” he said. “Even the worst ice cream I made was still delicious.”
And thus The Charmery was born. The first location in Baltimore’s Hampden neighborhood opened in 2013. The Columbia store is the fourth ice cream shop owned by Alima and his wife, Laura, and a fifth will open later this summer in Chevy Chase.
“An ice cream shop is a perfect little happy place within a community,” Alima said. " You see families, people on first dates.”
Each Charmery sells seven popular “always” flavors, such as vanilla, chocolate and mint. In addition, a new flavor is released each week that was created in collaboration with a local celebrity.
For instance, Howard County native Caroline Bowman was in town in June starring as Elsa in the touring Broadway musical “Frozen.” She and Alima’s team concocted a flavor called “Frozen Fractals” that incorporates vanilla, cookie dough and sprinkles.
Ten percent of the proceeds from the weekly flavor is donated to a charity of the celebrity’s choice; Bowman chose the Maryland Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.
“I love shining a light on all the stars of our city,” Alima said.
Honorable mentions:
Cindy’s Soft Serve
The Elkridge Furnace Inn
Cold Stone Creamery
Greek: Xenia Greek Kouzina
Honorable mentions:
Konstantine’s Greek Taverna
Greek on The Street
Georgia Grace Cafe (Gg’s Cafe)
Happy hour: Cured | 18th & 21st
Honorable mentions:
The White Oak Tavern
The Food Market
Mad Chef Kitchen & Bar
Healthful menu: Hudson Coastal Raw Bar & Grill
Honorable mentions:
The Elkridge Furnace Inn
Great Sage
The Food Market
Indian: Ananda
Honorable mentions:
Royal Taj Restaurant
Mango Grove
Chutney Indian Restaurant
Italian: Tino’s Italian Bistro & Wine Bar
Honorable mentions:
Galliano - Maple Lawn
Stella Notte
Facci Wood Fire Pizza Wine Bar of Maple Lawn
Japanese: UMI Sushi
8167 Main St., Ellicott City, 410-480-1888, umisushimd.com
Fish flown in twice a week from Japan. Check. Sea urchins from the coast of California? Check. Japanese flavors served with a modern twist? Check.
If you’re browsing the menu at UMI Sushi in Ellicott City, you’ve come to the right place, sensei.
The family-owned Japanese-inspired restaurant opened in 2019 hoping to be part of Main Street’s comeback after devastating floods hit the year before.
“We wanted to help with the revival,” says Coco Lin, general manager of UMI Sushi. “We wanted to bring the beauty of the [Japanese] culture to Ellicott City.”
The restaurant also brought the beauty of the ocean, specializing in seafood and fish, from sushi rolls to sashimi.
“We source our fish directly from Japan,” Lin says, noting that the restaurant uses seafood air-shipped from Tsukiji Market in Tokyo twice a week.
And while “fish is definitely our specialty,” Lin also points to a deep menu with a wide selection of Japanese-inspired dishes, including hibachi, udon and tempura favorites.
“We have a huge variety for everyone, so anyone is welcome, not just those who love fish,” Lin says.
UMI Sushi also serves up drinks and cocktails using authentic Japanese Saki.
“The most important thing is quality over quantity,” Lin says.
Honorable mentions:
Sushi King
Sushi Q Elkridge
Sushi Tendou
Korean: Honey Pig Restaurant
Honorable mentions:
Shin Chon
Bonchon, Columbia
Honey Pig Hot Pot + Korean BBQ
Late-night dining: Cured | 18th & 21st
Honorable mentions:
The White Oak Tavern
Silver Diner
Pub Dog Pizza & Drafthouse
Latin American: El Azteca
Honorable mentions:
La Palapa Too Mexican Grill & Cantina
Ranazul
Tasty Empanadas
Live entertainment: Cured | 18th & 21st
Honorable mentions:
The White Oak Tavern
Reckless Shepherd Brewing Co.
Toby’s Dinner Theatre
Lunch menu: Mikey & Mel’s Deli
Honorable mentions:
The Food Market
The Iron Bridge Wine Co.
The White Oak Tavern
New restaurant: The Food Market
10480 Little Patuxent Pkwy., Columbia, 410-997-7000, the-food-market.com
The sight and smells of imaginatively prepared comfort food greet diners before they walk through the door of The Food Market. The only odor no one ever detects is a whiff of pretension.
Chef Chad Gauss opened the first Food Market in Baltimore’s Hampden neighborhood in 2012 with the thought that food should taste delicious but never be intimidating. Nine years later, he opened a location in Columbia.
“We like to think that we succeed in giving high-quality fine-dining food and wine service with a very down-to-earth vibe,” said Morgan Blanchard, who manages the Columbia restaurant.
Instead of the standard bread service, diners at The Food Market are treated to truffle basil Parmesan popcorn, which is as addictive as it sounds. The French onion soup is topped with diner-style fried onion rings, while the Amish soft pretzels are served with a beer-cheese fondue that froths over the side of the miniature beer stein that it is served in.
Servers don’t wear uniforms, but their real clothes. Music playing in the restaurant is made up of feel-good songs from such artists as Michael Jackson and Pitbull.
“Sometimes we’ll have customers practically dancing in their seats,” Blanchard said. “We think fine dining doesn’t have to be stuffy.”
Honorable mentions:
Cozy Cafe, Bakery & Bistro
Dok Khao Thai Eatery Columbia
Peter Chang
Outdoor dining: Hudson Coastal Raw Bar & Grill
Honorable mentions:
The Elkridge Furnace Inn
The White Oak Tavern
The Turn House
Pizza: Coal Fire - Ellicott City
725 Richards Valley Road, Ellicott City, 410-480-2625, coalfireonline.com
When making pizza, there’s one maxim that Eric Sharoky knows to be true — from experience.
“The hotter the temperature, the better the bake,” Sharoky, 34, said.
He and his brother, Justin Sharoky, oversee operations at Coal Fire, the family-owned pizzeria their father, Dennis Sharoky, opened in Ellicott City with his partner Brian Kannee in 2009. Now, there are five Coal Fire locations across Maryland.
Part of the secret to their success is in the name.
“Coal is one of the hottest fuel sources you can have. You really get a special taste from a coal oven for your pizza,” Sharoky said. “The crust just has a unique crunch and flavor.”
You’d be hard-pressed to find the special kind of oven at many other pizza joints in Maryland, he said. The restaurant’s homemade mozzarella, sauces and dough also set it apart from the competition.
“People have been coming in for 14 years now and getting the same pizza that they loved last week and they know they can find that again,” Sharoky said. “We’ve watched kids that grow up and love our pizza now coming in with their kids.”
Honorable mentions:
Tino’s Italian Bistro & Wine Bar
Ledo Pizza
Trattoria Amore
Place to take out-of-towners: The Elkridge Furnace Inn
Honorable mentions:
Hudson Coastal Raw Bar & Grill
The Food Market
The White Oak Tavern
Place to take the kids: Hudson Coastal Raw Bar & Grill
Honorable mentions:
Decadent, a Coffee and Dessert Bar
The Crazy Mason Milkshake Bar Old Ellicott City
Mikey & Mel’s Deli
Seafood: Hudson Coastal Raw Bar & Grill
Honorable mentions:
The Food Market
The Elkridge Furnace Inn
Xenia Greek Kouzina
Server: Nicole Schaefer, The Iron Bridge Wine Co.
Honorable mentions:
Boris Bobrov, The Food Market
Jisselle Guzman, Hudson Coastal
Parrish Young, The Elkridge Furnace Inn
Sports bar: Looney’s Pub
Honorable mentions:
The White Oak Tavern
Glory Days Grill
Reckless Shepherd Brewing Co.
Steak: The Elkridge Furnace Inn
Honorable mentions:
The Food Market
GrillMarx Columbia Steakhouse & Raw Bar
Stanford Grill
Sushi: UMI Sushi
Honorable mentions:
Sushi King
Sushi Sono
Sushi Q Elkridge
Takeout: Tino’s Italian Bistro & Wine Bar
Honorable mentions:
Maiwand Kabob
Mikey & Mel’s Deli
The White Oak Tavern
Thai: Dok Khao Thai Eatery Columbia
Honorable mentions:
Manow Thai
Thai Aroma Restaurant
Pho Dat Thanh
Value: Hudson Coastal Raw Bar & Grill
Honorable mentions:
The Food Market
The Elkridge Furnace Inn
Mikey & Mel’s Deli
Vegetarian options: Great Sage
Honorable mentions:
The Elkridge Furnace Inn
The Food Market
Ananda
View: The Turn House
Honorable mentions:
The Elkridge Furnace Inn
Sushi Sono
Alexandra’s Restaurant
Wine list: The Iron Bridge Wine Co.
Honorable mentions:
The Elkridge Furnace Inn
The Food Market
Tersiguel’s French Country Restaurant
Editor’s note: Winners and honorable mentions were determined by popular vote. Readers were invited to nominate and vote online from March to April. The results are generated solely by readers’ votes. The Baltimore Sun does not take responsibility for the services offered or advertised by those listed.
