06-29-2023 Howard Magazine - Flipbook - Page 40
Best restaurants
Best Bar Food,
Beer List, Burger
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 freshmade 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.”
Clare Stever, owner of The White
Oak Tavern with The White Oak
burger. PHOTO BY KIM HAIRSTON
THE LIST
Value
Vegetarian options
Wine list
HUDSON COASTAL
RAW BAR & GRILL
GREAT SAGE
THE IRON BRIDGE WINE CO.
Honorable mentions:
Honorable mentions:
Honorable mentions:
The Elkridge Furnace Inn
The Food Market
Ananda
The Elkridge Furnace Inn
The Food Market
Tersiguel’s French Country Restaurant
The Food Market
The Elkridge Furnace Inn
Mikey & Mel’s Deli
View
THE TURN HOUSE
Honorable mentions:
The Elkridge Furnace Inn
Sushi Sono
Alexandra’s Restaurant
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| Summer 2023 | howardmagazine.com