It's been a sad week in Howard County.
A train derailment in historic Ellicott City took the lives of two nineteen-year-old girls Rose Mayr and Elizabeth Nass. Not only did two people lose their lives, but main street was closed due to the investigation and clean-up of tons of coal that spilled from the overturned freight trains - forcing many businesses to shut down.
In the past year, the Ellicott City restaurants and stores have had other problems including a major flood and a power outage.
To encourage people to shop and eat in historic Ellicott City this weekend, one of our favorite bloggers Tom Coale of
HoCo Rising suggested a
Main Street Appreciation Week. Another of our favorite bloggers,
veteran food blogger HowChow, joined forces with HoCo Rising and now the Main Street Appreciation Week is a big deal on
Facebook with over 300 people committed to supporting downtown businesses this weekend.
My brother Thomas and I are joining the effort. We decided to start last night. After we attended Thomas's middle school open house event, we headed downtown to
Ellicott Mills Brewing Company . We remembered they have fabulous ribs and they didn't disappoint.
 |
| Ribs with french fries |
A garden salad can
be added to your entree
for $2.
 |
Side sampler with shrimp & chicken salad. My
Dad said the shrimp and chicken were
well seasoned & honey mustard sauce
was good. |
 |
My mom ordered a shrimp and chicken in a thai curry sauce.
She liked it but it was on the spicy side. |
The fall off the bone ribs have a slightly sweet but heavy smokey flavor. You'll need extra napkins with this finger licking good sauce.
We ate upstairs where we noticed a huge steel wheel in the corner of the room. We knew the building was very old so we asked our waiter about it. He told us that it is one of the earliest known commercial elevators. A long time ago the building was a hardware store and the elevator was used for bringing lumber up to the second floor. At one point, the Smithsonian was even interested in having it.
 |
While it's not being used anymore,
if you look closely directly above the desk
you'll see old elevator's round wheels. |
There is a ghost rumored to be "hanging out" in the upstairs dinning room. Our waiter told us about it and recommended this new book sold at the restaurant (most EC shops sell it too).
It was such a nice night that we decided to walk around town.
We took pictures to show some of the great places to shop and eat.
Although we'll be back again this weekend, we encourage you to also make a reservation to eat at the one of the awesome downtown places including Rumor Mill, Portalli's, or Cacao Lane and shop at the many stores. It's a great way to give back to the community by supporting our local businesses.
Enjoy the photos....
- Charles
 |
A memorial to Rose Mayr and Elizabeth Nass who
died in the train derailment. |
It is located in historic Ellicott City next to the Little French Market Café and directly off of the parking lot near Tersiguel's.
There are about 19 ice cream flavors to choose from including classic vanilla to the unusual maple & bacon. 
