Category Archives: Grub and Grog Reviews

Grub and Grog Review: Davis’ Pub – The Maritime Republic of Eastport MD

Staff:5 Stars (5 / 5)
Seat to Beverage Time:5 Stars (5 / 5)
Food:4 Stars (4 / 5)
Company:5 Stars (5 / 5)
Hygiene:4 Stars (4 / 5)
Atmosphere:5 Stars (5 / 5)
Value:5 Stars (5 / 5)
Average:4.7 Stars (4.7 / 5)

Davis’ Pub is like the ‘Cheer’s’ of Eastport it seems everyone that enters know’s everyone’s name!  Davis’ Pub is a little place in Eastport right off the 4th Street dinghy dock in an old open beamed cabin type building.  It’s quite cozy and a bit tight, but they also have tables along the sidewalk if you feel like eating outside.

When we first found this place I could tell I’d like just right from the start, though we were unknown to the many regulars they were all very friendly folks and the open beamed building made me feel right at home.  The overall atmosphere of this place is something that can’t be manufactured;  it was built back in the 20’s and has been serving up food and drinks since the 40’s to the working class neighborhood it resides in.  Their menu states, ‘Where there are no strangers, only friends you haven’t met’, and here it’s no lie; the folks are quick to start up a conversation and you just might know the names of their extended family by the time you leave.

While you can’t go wrong with there standard pub food  I can state their ‘Chicken and Sausage Gumbo’ is great and it’s less than $10!  We also at the specials a few times which were also very good, just ask the folks sitting next to you what they like and they’ll tell you.

If you want to feel like an instant part of the the community stop by here and you’ll have some new friends in no time.  Oh Guy Fieri came here for the Food Channel a while back and liked it, don’t really like the guy (Guy) but I suppose he know’s  a bit what he’s talking about.

Grub and Grog Review: The Boat Yard – The Maritime Republic of Eastport MD

Staff:5 Stars (5 / 5)
Seat to Beverage Time:4 Stars (4 / 5)
Food:4 Stars (4 / 5)
Company:2 Stars (2 / 5)
Hygiene:4 Stars (4 / 5)
Atmosphere:5 Stars (5 / 5)
Value:4 Stars (4 / 5)
Average:4 Stars (4 / 5)

The Boat Yard Bar and Grill seems to be the ‘go to place’ for the area’s yachting scene.  You’ll see seasoned sailors, east coast yuppies and yacht club douchbags and maybe a few tourists sprinkled in sitting in a place that’d I’d like to replicate in my home for interior design.

As soon as you enter there is  a large beautiful bar that wraps around to the right with some seat yourself bar tables along side, to your left are hosted seated tables with another room further down that has quite a fine dining atmosphere.  The place is very busy on weekends starting with breakfast and get’s quite loud and boisterous as the day winds on.  Though there are a lot of people here it’s one of the few establishments that we didn’t have a memorable experience meeting folks.

We’ve stopped be here a number of times when our boat was in Back Creek sucking our wallets dry at a few various boat yards.  During lunch we normally just sat at the bar and had fairly good service.  They’re sandwiches are really good and I’ll recommend the Cuban.  We’ve also had a sit down dinner in the fancy room down to the left, which actually was quite a surprise.  It is a really elegant room with capable and friendly service.  We split a pizza and salad that were both great and reasonably priced.

Next time we’re in Annapolis we’ll make the journey over to The Boat Yard even if we aren’t stuck in Back Creek. . . sometimes we just need to hang out with the classy folks and you can do it here fairly cheap.

 

 

 

Grub and Grog Review: Stan and Joe’s Saloon – Annapolis MD

Staff:4 Stars (4 / 5)
Seat to Beverage Time:5 Stars (5 / 5)
Food:2 Stars (2 / 5)
Company:3 Stars (3 / 5)
Hygiene:3 Stars (3 / 5)
Atmosphere:3 Stars (3 / 5)
Value:4 Stars (4 / 5)
Average:3.4 Stars (3.4 / 5)

Stan and Joe’s Saloon is a unpretentious sports bar like establishment that’s got lots of beer, pub food and locals.  Nothing really to appeal to the tourist and a bit up the road from the main Annapolis downtown area Stan and Joe’s is a great dark place to grab a beer and a fried snack.

We’ve visited Stan and Joe’s a few times in our multiple stops to Annapolis and would likely go back if we’re making our way past, but won’t go out of our way for a visit.  The place is reasonably dark with a long bar that goes almost the length of the place with table seating along side there is also a nice patio out back for the great summer evenings you can have in Maryland.

They have quite an array of beers on tap, I’m sure everyone in your party can find something to their liking or choose to have a cocktail.  The food is standard pub food likely frozen and just dropped in the deep frier.  I’m not a fried food kind of person so I always walked away with a bit of a stomach ache, but can see how other corn fed americans would love it.  The cliental is mostly all working stiff locals that are removed from the more pretentious boating scene that’s closer to the water, which can be quite refreshing . . . but the only transient we’ve seen in town eats here for lunch and he smells anything but refreshing, if you see him at the bar do not sit down wind!

All in all a good place to stop in for a snack and a beer.

Grub and Grog Review: Rams Head – Annapolis MD

Staff:5 Stars (5 / 5)
Seat to Beverage Time:5 Stars (5 / 5)
Food:4 Stars (4 / 5)
Company:3 Stars (3 / 5)
Hygiene:4 Stars (4 / 5)
Atmosphere:4 Stars (4 / 5)
Value:5 Stars (5 / 5)
Average:4.3 Stars (4.3 / 5)

Rams Head Annapolis is part of a few locally owned establishments that put a lot of emphasis on live music and good craft beer, what could be wrong with that?   Absolutely nothing. . . and it get’s better.  The bar itself has a few different primary areas, the first is at street level where you’re greeted by a nice wood, brass and mirrored bar with friendly faces serving up drinks.  There is also a nice patio out back and a snug and intimate  second bar downstairs that is reminiscent of taverns of yesteryear.  You can’t really go wrong where you park your butt.

So how does it get better than a good live music line up with a great selection of craft beers in a cool setting with cool folks?  Throw in some free food and you just might have won the competition for our favorite place in Annapolis.  That’s right free food, during happy hour where craft beers are only $3 you also get tickets to go up to the staffed buffet where the selection changes daily; tacos, wings, carved meat, even oysters . . . and it’s all pretty darn good.  We did order off the extensive menu a few times and were not disappointed and prices are reasonable.

Every day of the week Rams Head has some type of live entertainment, but check times as it varies.  Our favorite act that required us to stay up past our bed time was Swamp Candy who are a duo that play what I would consider to be ‘dirty blues’.  Check them out if they are still on schedule.

Grub and Grog Review: Pusser’s – Annapolis MD

Staff:3 Stars (3 / 5)
Seat to Beverage Time:3 Stars (3 / 5)
Company:4 Stars (4 / 5)
Hygiene:3 Stars (3 / 5)
Atmosphere:5 Stars (5 / 5)
Value:2 Stars (2 / 5)
Average:3.3 Stars (3.3 / 5)

The Pusser’s in Annapolis may be the biggest in their chain, though I haven’t been to all I’ve been to quite a few.  The place takes up a significant portion of the bottom floor of the Annapolis Marriott and looks to have space for special events as there are always a few empty open rooms.  Enough about the inside, never even spent any time inside except walking through, it’s their patio that makes this place special.  Pusser’s Annapolis takes up what looks to be about 200ft of dock space on Ego Alley.  What’s Ego Alley?  Ego Alley is a small dead end channel that goes to the heart of Annapolis downtown where folks cruise their boats.  When I mean cruise I mean like cruising your ’81 Z28 on Alki during a rare warm Seattle Saturday night, not cruise as in cruising like we’re doing.

I digress. . . Pusser’s is actually quite fun on summer weekends.  We’ve stopped by here just to see what’s going on and stayed a bit too long a number of times.  The boats are sorta fun to watch, but most are not quite as nice as the captains think they are.  It’s the drunk folks from DC that are fun!  They seem to come to Annapolis for a weekend get aways and flock to Pussers to suck down painkillers as if they’re getting they’re fill of rum before a global shortage.  Diana and I are pretty much batting 500 here for free drinks.  We start up a conversation with folks at the bar and once they hear what we are doing with our lives they wont let us leave and entice us to stay by buying drinks.  We first thought it was a fluke, but it’s happened multiple times; so who are we to walk away from free drinks and trying to encourage others to live they’re dreams!  I will say all of these occurrences happened during the late afternoon, the evening crowd is douche central.  Watch out ladies because there are some smooth operators here at night 😉

We never sampled the food here as it’s quite expensive and wasn’t really appealing for some reason, though it seems to be a bit fancier than the stuff you get at the Pusser’s locations in the Caribbean which are okay and still a bit overpriced.  The drinks here are also more than anywhere else in town, but that doesn’t stop folks from packing themselves in.