The Island Hideaway

Marylanders have been coming to this stretch of the Patuxent since the nineteenth century, and The Pier puts you literally over the water for it, cold beer, fresh seafood, and a river view that has been the draw the whole time.

The Lighthouse theme fits a town that has guided watermen home for generations, an open-air dock bar where the Patuxent widens toward the Bay and the seafood is exactly as fresh as you would hope.

Solomons takes its maritime heritage pretty seriously most of the time, which is exactly why this Tiki Bar and its frozen cocktails feel like the town’s permission slip to have a little fun.

Somewhere between the dock bars and a French bistro sits Charles Street Brasserie, proof that Solomons Island can do a wine list without losing its waterfront soul.

Solomons Island usually looks to the Bay for flavor, but La Vela looked to Italy instead: handcrafted pasta and wood-fired everything on a waterfront that mostly does crab houses.