Hootch and Banter

Small but very good place in downtown Frederick. It was happy hour when we first arrived and got a pint of Evo #3 for $ 4. If your not familiar it’s a craft beer and that’s s decent price.
We started with the bacon wrapped jalapeños. They bacon could have been done a little more to my liking but over all pretty good. Came with a marinara sauce for dipping. The peppers had some heat but not too hot. Friends had the chicken empanadas which were a good size and tasty.
Husband had the Kidd burger and I had the bbq chicken sandwich. Both were good and filling. The roll/​bread they came on really rounded out the sandwich.
They have some items always on the menu but it does change frequently which makes me think we’ll be back.
Our service was outstanding and I don’t say that often. Our server, Oakley, had a great personality, knew the menu and provided recommendations. He checked on is but didn’t hover. He definitely added to the experience.

This restaurant by far has the best crab cakes I have ever had! Everything was delicious, friendly staff, excellent drinks, an all around favorite new restaurant for me! Great job to the chef

Incredible service augments a spectacular modern American menu. Right in the heart of historical downtown, parking is ample, and ambience is relaxed and sophisticated. Our server, Robert, was simply aces.

Update: reducing to 3 stars after 2 back to back bad service experiences. Our second time back we ordered the steak and lasagna. The steak took 40 min to make and it came out rare (asked for medium well) so we had to send it back and wait another 15 minutes. The lasagna wasn’t great and didn’t look appetizing. They did provide us with a free drink for the extremely long wait and mishap with the dish.
The next time we ordered Mac and cheese which apparently takes forever to make (no one mentioned that). Again we waited for 40 min to get our food and the Mac and cheese was boiling hot and lacking flavor. They kept apologizing for the wait but they should have offered us bread or an app. I’m not inclined to come back again to wait 40 min for a hit or miss in terms of flavor. Sad as we really enjoyed it the first time around.
Solid 4.5. What a great addition to downtown Frederick. Located near Carroll creek it’s a tiny place that you’ll more than likely need to wait to get a seat at. The place is kind of crammed but it’s quaint and trendy.
We decided to get a few different dishes to share and honestly non of them disappointed.
The cheese board is fantastic and you choose your mixture of cheese and meat and they supply bread, mustard, greens and the most amazing fig jam ever! (the Cahill cheese is a must try it’s so creamy!) next we got the wedge salad which was good too — the dressing tasted like homemade buttermilk ranch mixed with blue cheese. The wings were also quite good and the banter sandwich which is their take on the classic Ruben is great– it had large chunks of meat and they definitely didn’t skimp out on it.
The Johnny Merlot drink is so different and with a try!
The service was also good, it really seemed like the waiters and food runners were trying.

We had a fabulous time recently on a busy Friday night at Hootch and Banter. We were seated promptly front and center at the cozy table by the bay window at the front of the restaurant.
Our server Mike was very attentive and made wonderful drink, appetizer and entrée suggestions. He recommended the charcuterie platter with wild boar which was phenomenal.
Mike guided us in our entrée selections which were Dr. Pepper short ribs and scallops which we enjoyed tremendously. High praises for Mike’s knowledge and experience and the rest of the staff for making our dinner experience outstanding. Hootch and Banter is now a fave of ours… which we would highly recommend to others and will be returning frequently in the future.
Mary Ellen and Tim

We came here based on Unilocal reviews, as we aren’t from the area.
There was a 40 min wait on a Saturday night which is totally reasonable and we were actually seated a bit early as someone else didn’t show up for their table.
We ordered cocktails and apps. Both of which arrived quite quickly. The drinks were pretty decent and the cheese and meat assortment was delicious.
We both ordered the Kidd burger, mine on a gluten free bun. It was nothing to write home about. My GF bun was rock hard and the burger was pretty bland. The house fries were fine but I’ve had better at Five Guys.
We didn’t really see our waitress at all as she was busy with a bigger table and it was really loud in here.
We were disappointed in our night out here as we don’t get date nights that often.
If I could give 2.5 stars I would.

Went today for lunch. Do NOT order the shrimp and avocado salad — I could have made a better salad at home in 3 minutes — bag of romaine lettuce and cherry tomatoes — oh, and avacado which was ROCK HARD — it was honestly so hard that I couldn’t get a knife through it. What chef would serve that on a salad? And, there was NO dressing, I had to ask for it. The manager came over to apologize and said she would take the salad off the check and ended up taking 20% off the check ($ 3.00) — just terrible. On the flip side, the server, named Oakley, was great — funny and very attentive.

Cheese cake or chocolate? We could not choose! So what did we do? Order both of course! Their sweet treats are phenomenal and their Spanish and Irish coffees are awesome. So I have no idea how their food tastes, but if it is anything like their cakes I will be in for a treat.

Tried this place for the first time on Sunday, Dec. 6. What a nice surprise! Very cool place indeed. Loved the intimate ambience, the hip décor, the great drinks, the outstanding menu. Jeff the bartender (he’s there every day except Monday & Thursday) is a genuine mixologist. He tells me his buddy Colin mans the bar on Thursday, and he’s also a serious mixologist (I’ll give Colin a try later in the week and let you know if it’s true.) I had the Oysters Rockefeller; my date had the Wedge Salad. Both were outstanding! The chef clearly knows his way around the kitchen. I wholeheartedly recommend H & B! Personally, this is going to be my new most favorite place to hang while in Old Towne Frederick. I can’t wait to turn my out-​of-​town friends on to it.
Well, Jeff was right: Colin is every bit the master mixologist that Jeff said he was. I introduced myself to Colin on Saturday evening, January 16, and found him to be very personable and highly professional. After watching him work the bar for more than an hour, I decided to switch drinks, trading in the nice IPA for an Irish coffee. Wow! What a nice treat. It was so nice, I had two of them. Made with Jameson Irish Whiskey, freshly churned cream and crushed vanilla bean, coffee never tasted so good! Hey, I can’t speak for the occasional visitor who mistakes H&B for just another burger joint, but if you’re anxious to find a really great little restaurant with a friendly staff, outstanding food, and excellent cocktails, Hootch & Banter is an excellent choice. On the other hand, if it’s hamburgers you’re looking for, try McDonalds. I hear they fix them you way. Or maybe that’s Burger King … I forget.
H&B master mixologist Jeff is really something. Every time I visit this place, the guy surprises me with some new creation. The latest specialty cocktail is something called «Irish Eyes.» It’s a combination of Irish whiskey, lime juice, honey, merlot wine (floated on top), and a twist of lemon. Wow! What a great drink! You gotta be careful, though … This is one of those drinks that’ll sneak up on you. It’s got 2 full ounces of whiskey in that little glass — and it goes down very easy, totally painless.

My son, his girlfriend, and I decided to try this new place on a Friday for dinner. We arrived around 6pm and of course it was pretty crowded. The host gave us a friendly greeting and took my son’s cellphone number, saying he would text when a table opened up… about 30 – 45 minutes. We walked down Carroll Creek and took in some sights, then stopped into the Wine Kitchen for a glass while we waited. Sure enough, about 35 minutes after popping in, we got the text!
We walked the short distance back, and were seated at a table across from the bar, with a bench on the wall side. It’s very dark inside, but has a chic, retro décor that is both feisty and comfortable. Our server was clever and attentive, and made a few suggestions for wine and appetizers. We chose the duck eggrolls. The menu changes based on fresh, local availability.
The eggrolls were fabulously delicious. I would order them for my meal next time. My son started with the lobster bisque which was creamy and flavorful. I got the crabcake for dinner and it was the best of the three dinners we chose. Little breading, lots of lump meat and flavor. The «kids» got handhelds, and while «the Kidd» was pretty good, the pork handheld was needing a sauce desperately.
All in all, a very good experience at a hip, new place. The service was top notch. We’d try it again.

Terrific crab cake, great meat & cheese plates, great service. My wife’s sea bass was cooked perfectly .
I’ll be back soon .!

The staff could not have been nicer.
They had a special vegan menu in honor of the vegan festival.
I had a roasted veggie sandwich and side salad. Everything was fresh.

Solid 4.5! Service was out of this world. We arrived only an hour before our show was to begin and the staff went out of their was to accommodate our table in a timely fashion. Decided to go for starters before the concert and returned after the show for entrees. I highly recommend the mini Wellingtons! The truffle mac and cheese was too runny for our liking but still delicious. I was most impressed by the extensive cocktail menu! The Moscow Mule was my favorite! Cheers to Jeff, the bartender!

I went here last night with my fiancé and really had a lovely experience all the way around. There are no reservations, but they took down our name and phone number and called us when a table was ready. We got lucky and got a table by the window looking over market street and Carroll Creek. The other tables looked okay too, but close together.
We ordered the buffalo wings app and they were amazing, just cooked right and came with blue cheese dressing with crumbled blue cheese on top, fabulous. My entrée was the grilled chicken palermo which was a great combination of chicken, mozzarella cheese with basil, red peppers and balsamic vinaigrette. Very tasty. My fiancé ordered the prime burger which I had bite and was also very flavorful.
Ambience was pretty cool low lights with light background music, not too loud easy to converse. Price was worth the experience, would highly recommend.

We found this new restaurant a great treasure to Market Street. It was a great experience from the moment we walked in and were greeted by the owner and a lovely hostess. The food, (crab cakes) desserts (binnets and brownie) and service were top notch .
The only thing I would say that is a bit of a negative is the noise level and the size of the $ 10 drinks .
But certainly going to be a place I will return.

After hearing raves about the Frederick restaurant scene, I drove in from DC and Hootch & Banter was my first stop. I can’t remember the name of my cocktail but it was a whisky sour made with Bulleit Rye, shaken with the egg white in the traditional way. It was perfection. I wish I had more time to try out their cocktails, as it’s clear they take it seriously. By the way, my city girl wallet was amazed at how much cheaper the booze is here in Frederick. For dinner, I had the crab cake and it was one of the best crab cakes of my life. One giant softball of crab — big chunks of crab, and delicately seasoned. It came with a just a few bites of hush puppies and slaw, so as not to overpower the main star of the plate. I also enjoyed the cozy, candle-​light vibe of the restaurant, and everyone was super nice. It was totally worth a trip up from the city.

Great new place. My recommendation is to steer away from the entrees which run pretty expensive (Tasting Room is better choice for that) and focus instead on drinks, appetizers, sandwiches and desserts.
I went for my birthday dinner originally and was pretty underwhelmed with both the entrees my boyfriend and I got. I got the pork chop and he got short ribs which came out cold. Weirdest thing to me was two little pieces of potato that came with my meal. Granted they were perfectly cooked, but would’ve been nice to have at least three!
Went with a party of 12 another time and everything was flawless. I tasted a lot of different drinks and all were well made, apps were great, The Kidd Prime burger was really good and beignets for dessert were awesome. The waiters we had were friendly and fun.

This is an adorable speak-​easy style restaurant with a nice window view of Carroll Creek. Inside it is very, very small. That’s the only complaint I have. I’d be concerned about noise or your neighboring table hearing your whole conversation. However, the décor is amazing, the service is top notch and the food was equally enjoyable. I will definitely go back. I would love to try their happy hour next, I love the look of the bar.

Came here the week it opened– good thing we had reservations– it was packed!
The food was excellent, the mixed drinks were fantastic.
The waiter was not great, but considering it was the first week he gets a pass.
I loved the décor and the ambiance. It truly feels like a speakeasy in the heart of Frederick. I see in the reviews that some said it was too tight– well, it’s a tiny place and it’s also part of the charm. You can’t expect to have a table of right here. It’s perfect for dates and double dates.
I seriously can’t wait to go back!

Tried H&B for the first time last Friday, I was very excited to see somewhere new in Frederick that was not a chain…
It is beautifully renovated but is tight space wise. The way the front is configured if you have to wait no matter where you go — short of outside — you are in the way. We were able to be seated quickly without a reservation so that was nice. Our waiter was new and you could tell, he was great but didn’t know answers to some questions, info about items, etc. but he was more than willing to ask.
Started with a pumpkin cocktail, although I realize very predictable I can’t help myself and I am not sorry about that — its pumpkin! The cocktail was underwhelming and pretty bland.
Together we ordered:
— Cheese and Charcuterie plate with five options
— A wedge salad with balsamic and cheese toppings etc.
— A side of fries
— Rockfish with sides
I personally had the cheese and charcuturie plate and the salad. The plate was good, nothing earth shattering, and the salad was great. I really liked it so much so I might go back just for that.
The fries came out cold and had to be sent back, it took some time to get hot fries. I was also VERY surprised at the price (especially when they had to be sent back…)for a small side of fries it was $ 8. These weren’t duck fat truffle super-​duper fries but potatoes fried… that was a little odd especially since fries about the same side with a burger as meal cost $ 14 or so, seems off to me.
The rockfish was very disappointing — for starters the presentation is lacking (even the waiter commented on that) it came in a bag which was opened upon arriving and unlike a Christmas gift you can’t wait to unwrap and once do so are greeted with excitement this was beyond underwhelming. The fish was an extremely small piece of plain white soggy looking rockfish. I understand this is fine dining — not Golden Corral — I am not looking to stuff my face but the portion was way off, plus the flavor was pretty bland too. The pepper cress was missing off the plate so we had to ask and wait for that.
The meal aside the main issue that left me scratching my head post meal was the fact that it seemed the concept, menu, and execution do not align. The atmosphere is far more bar then fine dining, but the menu and some prices seem that they are going more fine dining. You sit in VERY close proximity to the people next to you, there is no privacy, which again feels more bar. I could hardly get down to use the restroom without bumping the couple next to me. Most of the tables are high tops with stools or benches built into the wall again seems more bar and this seems not to align with a $ 34 3 oz. piece of fish. It just seems much more polished bar then fine dining. Firestones seems to have that nailed, H&B not quite yet (and if you are craving rockfish Firestones has a great rockfish on the menu!).
I think I might go back once things settle in service wise but will proceed knowing that this is more of a bar and approach as such.