Huge stores, microbrews.
That's the pitch being delivered by the Canadian-born owners of Rocky Run Tap & Grill, who plan to open their restaurant next month near the new Columbia Crossing retail "power center" in east Columbia. The Rocky Run owners plan to open a microbrewery inside the restaurant later.
Rocky Run will open inside the former Bob's Big Boy Family Restaurant off Dobbin Road. "The location was selected because the town of Columbia's retail focus is moving towards Route 175 and Dobbin Road," the restaurateurs said in a news release.
Columbia Crossing and Dobbin Center, at that intersection, and the community's first "power center," nearby Snowden Square, will offer more combined shopping space than The Mall in Columbia's former retail center, Town Center.
The restaurant will feature four theme rooms, including a Jimmy Buffett room, a Beatles room, a raised dining area and an enclosed smoking room designed to comply with Howard County's new smoking regulations.
Howard County has only one microbrewery -- Bare Bones in Ellicott City. A second microbrewery, the Ellicott Mills Brewing Co. of Ellicott City, has been granted a liquor license but has not opened, according to the county Liquor Board.
Rocky Run's microbrewery -- if approved by the Liquor Board -- will have eight tanks, each 4- to 6-feet high, said Bert Donnelly, one of the restaurant owners. The proprietors have one other Rocky Run Tap & Grill, in Glen Burnie.
Police log
Owen Brown: 7200 block of Steamerbell Row: Someone stole a black 1992 BMW between 10 p.m. Sunday and 8 a.m. Tuesday. It has Maryland license AAD431.
Pub Date: 10/17/96
