Columbia Restaurant

A robber pointed a handgun at employees of a Columbia restaurant before it opened yesterday morning and stole an undetermined amount of cash.About 9 a.m., a gunman entered the Ruby Tuesday restaurant in the 9000 block of Snowden River Parkway through a back door and ordered several employees into an office, police said.The robber then took out a gun, demanded money and fled with an undisclosed amount of cash, police said.Anyone with information is urged to call 410-313-3700.Pub Date: 8/13/98

There's no denying — craft beers are more popular than they've been in decades. To keep up with demand, restaurants and bars have upped their draft selections, hosted beer tastings and started pairing food with beers. In the Baltimore region, few restaurants fill this niche as well as Frisco Taphouse and Brewery . This Columbia restaurant and bar serves a fantastic selection of beers, and backs it up with solid dishes. Crowds have responded — on a recent Wednesday night, Frisco was packed.

A 20-year-old Elkridge woman was held up at gunpoint and forced to withdraw cash from an ATM machine early yesterday, police said.In another incident, two robbers stole more than $3,000 from a Columbia restaurant Wednesday, police said.About 12: 35 a.m. yesterday, the Elkridge woman was washing (( her car at the Water Works Car Wash in the 6300 block of Old Washington Blvd. in Elkridge, said Sgt. Morris Carroll, spokesman for the Howard County police.Two men approached her and asked for directions to Interstate 95. Suddenly, one man brandished a handgun and demanded money, Carroll said.

On a busy night at Sushi Sono , which by many accounts is every night, the wait for a table in the cramped entrance area, even with a reservation, can be an exercise in patience. Formalities and niceties are mostly dispensed with, and the service on a busy night can border on the hectoring. The idea that you could maintain a state of quiet contemplation in Sushi Sono's hectic dining room is laughable. None of this matters. The reason to make the trip to Lake Kittamaqundi, to put up with the confusing signs and alienating ingress into Wincopin Circle, is that Sushi Sono might just have the best sushi in the four-county area.

Jean Poholsky looks forward to dining at Iron Bridge Wine Co. for the upscale ambience as well as for the food. So when she arrived at the Columbia restaurant for lunch with friends Monday, she was shocked to see glass shards covering a stone walkway that had been spray-painted in red with the words "Get rid of the foie gras." An admitted lover of the French delicacy made from the livers of ducks and geese, Poholsky concurred with the restaurant's owners that whoever was responsible for the overnight vandalism could have expressed their opinion differently.

A 19-year-old Laurel man has been sentenced to 15 years in prison for his part in the robbery and shooting of a Pizz-A-Boli deliveryman outside the east Columbia restaurant in July.Tyron Andre Holmes of the first block of Woodland Court in Laurel was sentenced Thursday by Howard Circuit Judge Diane O. Leasure.Holmes -- who was arrested in Prince George's County in August on a separate robbery charge -- pleaded guilty to two counts each of armed robbery and unlawful use of a handgun in the commission of a robbery.

For David G. Albert, a good brunch includes eggs Benedict, and a good restaurant is one that can do the saucy egg, muffin and bacon dish well. No wonder three good meals from a Canadian brunch restaurant two years ago prompted Albert to open the restaurant here in Columbia. Eggspectation, off Route 100 at Snowden River Parkway and Waterloo Road, is the first U.S. location for the Canadian chain, but it won't be the last, Albert said. He and his partner, Jon Hinkle, have purchased development rights for the northeast corridor, and are already looking for a second location to expand the chain.

Once a month, a group of opera singers takes talent to a venue not often thought of as a classical music hotspot - a local restaurant. For the performers it's a chance to work their magic in a relaxed setting where diners are as eager for Pavarotti as they are for pasta. "To be able to perform in front of an audience is always a good thing," said Jessica Swink, a coloratura soprano. "If you can do it with people who are eating and clanging silverware, then when there's an orchestra you will be able to do it effortlessly."

Piccolo's in Columbia is an Italian restaurant that has the panache of a New York-style supper club.As we entered, jazz musicians were playing softly and soulfully in the sunken central bar of the restaurant, and the lights were turned down low. Candles flickered behind frosted shades. It just took a little imagination to turn the traffic on nearby Snowden River Parkway into a street scene on New York's stylish Central Park West, especially with the trees outside wrapped in little white lights.

Bill and Belinda King, of Woodstock, MD, announce the marriage of their daughter, Danielle L. King, to Richard S. Mirabelli, of Las Vegas, NV. They were wed in Tampa, FL on August 7, at the father's family church. The reception followed at Columbia Restaurant, Ybor City. The bride is a graduate of Florida State University and teaches at Mayfield Wood Middle School in Columbia, MD and she is pursuing her Master's. The groom was honorably discharged from the Army as an M.P. and he is currently working in security in Washington, DC. The couple resides in Ellicott City, MD.

A Columbia restaurant that was vandalized twice in three weeks in late March and mid-April because of foie gras on its menu was the scene of a peaceful protest Friday. About 15 people representing the Humane League of Baltimore stood in front of the Iron Bridge Wine Co. on Route 108 wearing T-shirts that read "Got Compassion?" in reaction to the restaurant's servers being adorned in T-shirts reading "Got Foie Gras?" The six-year-old Howard County restaurant has been at the center of a running debate about serving the popular French delicacy made from the fattened livers of geese and ducks.

Jean Poholsky looks forward to dining at Iron Bridge Wine Co. for the upscale ambience as well as for the food. So when she arrived at the Columbia restaurant for lunch with friends Monday, she was shocked to see glass shards covering a stone walkway that had been spray-painted in red with the words "Get rid of the foie gras." An admitted lover of the French delicacy made from the livers of ducks and geese, Poholsky concurred with the restaurant's owners that whoever was responsible for the overnight vandalism could have expressed their opinion differently.

The Clyde's American 10K run is more than just a 6.2-mile run through Columbia. It's a party. Fifty gallons of chili, seven kegs of beer and lots of chicken, pasta and strawberries. Big strawberries. Two disc jockeys blasting songs such as "Soul Man" and "Love Shack" to get everyone in the mood. And this is before 10 a.m. From toddlers in strollers to senior citizens, the crowd at Sunday's race was soaking up the spectacular sunny morning and festive atmosphere on at banks of Lake Kittamaqundi in Town Center.

Bill and Belinda King, of Woodstock, MD, announce the marriage of their daughter, Danielle L. King, to Richard S. Mirabelli, of Las Vegas, NV. They were wed in Tampa, FL on August 7, at the father's family church. The reception followed at Columbia Restaurant, Ybor City. The bride is a graduate of Florida State University and teaches at Mayfield Wood Middle School in Columbia, MD and she is pursuing her Master's. The groom was honorably discharged from the Army as an M.P. and he is currently working in security in Washington, DC. The couple resides in Ellicott City, MD.

The Melting Pot restaurant in Columbia offers a delectable dip into fine dining. So lush is its mood, service and cuisine that it is hard to believe that the popular fondue restaurant is part of a chain of franchises throughout the United States. The Melting Pot in Wilde Lake Village Center elevates the fondue pot to haute cuisine, offering a variety of cheese, meat and seafood, and chocolate fondues. Begin and end dinner with a specialty coffee, or sample one of the restaurant's 140 wines.

Like an alien invasion in paperback sci-fi, a Chipotle Mexican Grill could be dropping down in your neighborhood. Instead of running away from this fast-growing chain, people are flocking to it. There are 350 locations in the United States, with new ones opening each month. Landing recently in the Columbia Crossing shopping center, the fast, fresh Mexican burrito stop offers customers a mix-and-match selection of spicy fillings to suit individual tastes. Even if you walk in at 7:30 p.m. on a Tuesday evening and the line stops at the door, in 10 minutes the serving crew will be warming up your tortilla for an oversized, overstuffed burrito or fajita that you'll be hard-pressed to finish in one sitting.

After more than a decade, Plata Grande and Margarita Maggie's, a Mexican restaurant and bar on Route 175 in Columbia, has closed its doors.Carrollton Enterprises of Beltsville, the owners of the restaurant, said yesterday that they are in negotiations with a steak and seafood restaurant to lease the 17,000-square-foot building off Dobbin Center Way.Officials say the interior of the building will undergo some renovations before reopening. They are unsure when it will reopen.Over the last year, the chain has closed its other locations in Richmond, Va., Ocean City, Annapolis and Calverton, as the management company has focused more on the shopping centers it runs in Prince George's County.

Three representing Hunan Manor win HCC service award Robert Foo, Kevin Tong and Tak Wong received Howard Community College's 2002 Gayle C. Heitlinger Award on behalf of Hunan Manor Restaurant on March 17. The Columbia restaurant was honored for its exceptional service to the college and its students. Hunan Manor has donated 100 percent of the proceeds from its annual buffet dinner to scholarships for the college's Silas Craft Collegians Program. Since the restaurant's first fund-raiser for the program in 2000, the event has raised more than $20,000.

A 22-year-old Elkridge man pleaded guilty yesterday to four charges stemming from an early-morning robbery of Copeland's restaurant in Columbia. Derris T. Moore's plea to charges of armed robbery, handgun use and two counts of felony assault follows a similar plea made last month by 24-year-old Nathan T. Hicks of Columbia in the case. Prosecutors say they will recommend lengthy jail terms for both men - a cap of 21 years in jail for the robbery and assaults, and five years without parole for the handgun charge - at their sentencings.

Three Brothers Italian Restaurants is taking over the site of a former Piccolos restaurant that closed two years ago, and it has plans to create its own miniature restaurant park there. The restaurant company - owned by brothers Michael, Mario and Peter Repole - purchased the site off Snowden River Parkway. They are renovating the building for a planned opening in January. Part of the $2.4 million business plan involves enclosing the patio to create a cafe that could eventually be leased by small vendors such as ice cream or coffee shops.