THE MARRINER CLAN’S NEW HOME HAS ROOM FOR THE ENTIRE FAMILY, AND A BREWERY TOO
STORY BY CAROL SORGEN / PHOTOGRAPHY BY ANDRÉ CHUNG
“We don’t ever plan to move,” E. Randolph (Randy) and Mary Marriner said five years ago when I visited them at Roxbury, the stately home they had painstakingly and lovingly built on an 83-acre historic estate in western Howard 
county.
I reminded them of that proclamation as they gave me a tour of Manor Hill, the new, equally impressive – but much less formal – home that they once again have painstakingly (over two years) and thoughtfully built – this time on 54 acres of rolling hills in Ellicott City. Now though, they insist, they’re here for good. (Let’s check back in another five years.)
Randy, Mary and daughters Victoria (Tori), and Rachael (whose married name is Mull) have another reason to remain committed to this property. By the end of the year, it will also be the site of Manor Hill Brewing, Howard County’s first farm brewery. After all, they concede, it would be hard to relocate a brewery.
Already owners of the popular Victoria Gastro Pub which opened in Columbia seven years ago, the family is excited about expanding their hospitality holdings; in addition to the brewery, they have plans for a new restaurant in Clarkesville, named FoodPlenty, though the timing of that has yet to be firmed up.
The brewery was Mary’s idea. She had read about a similar operation in Denver, one that was situated between the owner’s farm and restaurant. “This is us,” Mary exclaimed to Randy.
“Two years later, what Mary read about is coming true,” says Randy of the brewery, which will be housed in a barn on the property. Under Maryland law, farmhouse breweries can manufacture up to 15,000 barrels of beer per year; Manor Hill’s brews will be served initially at Victoria Gastro Pub (which currently serves produce grown on the Marriners’ farm) and eventually, they hope, at other restaurants and pubs in the area. The family’s plans are to keg the beer, a less expensive option than canning or bottling.
Where once Randy and Mary spent five nights a week at the restaurant, today they are pulling back and letting their daughters handle more of the day-to-day workload. Tori, 32, for whom the restaurant is named, serves as “chief experience officer,” visiting each table during lunch and dinner to make sure the restaurant is “exceeding” the guests’ expectations, she says, while Rachael, 35, who holds an MBA and is a CPA by trade, joined the family business five years ago and serves as chief financial and chief operating officer.
“I’m a social butterfly so I love meeting people,” says Tori, adding that she has met some of her best friends at the restaurant. “I’m the project planner,” adds Rachael, the mother of two young children, Nathan, 3, and Sydney, 1. “I’m happy for Tori to have the spotlight.”
“And I’m the babysitter,” says Mary, who, at 61, claims to be ready to let go of the reins a bit. Even so, Mary planned and designed the new home – and has done much of the work herself, from faux painting to landscaping, so it’s hard to picture her slacking off. Indeed, says Tori, of her mother, “If I have just a fraction of her work ethic, I’m good to go!”
Tori currently lives with her parents, though she has plans to build her own home on the property at some point. Rachael and her family, who live in nearby Fulton, are frequent visitors to family get-togethers that – not surprisingly – revolve around food. Frequently the menu is one of Tori’s “kitchen sink” creations. “I just go to the store, see what’s fresh and put something together,” she says. Tori, a graduate of Baltimore International Culinary College (now Stratford University) describes herself as more of a cook then chef. One of her favorite offerings is a “a mess of steamed crabs at the end of a lazy summer afternoon,” she says.
The Marriner women come by their culinary expertise naturally. Mary grew up working in Blob’s Park, her family’s German-style beer hall in Jessup, and Tori and Rachael both joined the maternal family business as youngsters. “Even as a child, Tori would remember all the customers’ names,” her mother recalls.
Mary’s domestic endeavors go beyond the kitchen. She oversees the interior and landscape design and has been described by Tori as “Martha Stewart on steroids.” Rachael and Tori also contributed ideas for the new house. It was
Rachael’s call to forego a formal living room for an expanded kitchen and great room and to keep most of the living space on one floor. Meantime, Tori takes credit for the dumbwaiter that can whisk a case of wine from the cellar to the garage, saving everyone’s back muscles.
But it has been Mary, who designed their former house as well as Victoria Gastro Pub, who took the lead on their new home. She chose stucco for the exterior because there was no stone present on the property – as there had been at their previous property. She selected and planted more than 150 trees on the land, and hand-painted faux finishes on the walls inside – such as the “extremely tedious” Venetian plasterwork in the foyer and main hall, the wide gold and silver metallic hand-ragged striping above the wainscoting in the dining room, and the textured walls with a multilayer color wash in the kitchen, family room and breakfast nook. Along with a master suite, the main floor of the 7,900-square-foot home includes a library/ billiards room, dining room, sunroom leading to the outdoor kitchen and pool, and a kitchen befitting a family with a passion for food. There are cherry cabinets, granite countertops and a professional grade Wolf range and Sub-Zero refrigerator/freezer.
Throughout the home, most of the floors, walls, doors and beams have been fashioned from wood reclaimed from ramshackle barns taken down on land owned by Dr. Bruce Taylor of Taylor Manor Hospital.
One of the home’s quirkier features is interior windows in the kitchen leading to the hallway to give the impression that the house has stood for generations and the kitchen is a modern addition. “Dad loves to create stories,” says Rachael.
Though the Marriners lived for many years in Baltimore County, they have long been drawn to Howard County. “It’s so convenient to everything but at the same time still so peaceful,” says Mary. And with more than 500 preservation-protected acres surrounding the house, that is unlikely to ever change.
The family doesn’t plan to open the brewery to the public on a regular basis, but they will continue to host special events – as they did at Roxbury – such as the Howard County Wine Masters Event on September 13 to benefit the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation Maryland Chapter. Their charitable efforts also include work with the Howard County Food Bank and the Ulman Cancer Fund for Young Adults.
Whether it’s at home, at the restaurant or in the community, the underlying passions that bind the Marriners together remain the same: family and food.
“Everyone working together is a dream come true,” says Mary. *
