Ruddy Update...

So, with good intentions, we headed towards the Celebrate 375 Maryland events at St. Mary's college - some torrential downpours diverted us over to the brand-new Ruddy Duck, in search of local, craft-brewed heavily-hopped liquid barley sustenance.


Tall ships at St. Mary's college, right before the rain


The phrase that comes to mind is "great potential".

Sitting in the Ruddy Duck's cavernous space, all six of us well-cooled by ceiling fans and with a decor somewhat conflicted between Western Canada and Mid-Atlantic (surprisingly not a lot of traditional Chesapeake Bay hangings), the brewmaster's board said it all:



That's right, nothing published, with only 2 actual onsite brews to share - a fairly bland though refreshing Pale Ale, and a "Belgian Wit" that looked and tasted suspiciously like a well-limed Mohito. Luckily, a number of "guest beers" were available, most notably the spectacular Clipper City triple-hopped Loose Cannon...stealing the show.

Very nice and friendly staff, though obviously still learning the ins and outs of table-clearing, customer attentiveness, and keeping down the table-spraying around eaters.

Our Mucho Meat Pizza, Mussels and Rudy's Mega Burger were more than tasty, the kids' menu was certainly a step up from IHOP (but no crayons?), but the Caesar salad left a bit unsaid (mainly in terms of volume)...plus we had to ask for the wing sauce, for the wings.

All-in-all, a very promising brewpub and grill with high potential, should the kinks of newness get worked out - hopefully first on the brew-making side.



The Ruddy Duck is located in Solomon's Island right off of Rt. 4, co-located with Cherry Cove's Solomons Island Hotel The Hilton Garden Inn.