restaurant24 Hours to Hell and Back · Season 3, Episode Special · Aired May 12, 2020
Phoenix Emporium
Ellicott City, Maryland
Still going, now under a new name. It now goes by Phoenix Upper Main.
On the show
Season 3, Episode Special · May 12, 2020 · restaurant
One of THREE businesses in the 2-hour 'Save Our Town' special covering Ellicott City, MD flood recovery (aired 2020-05-12, single episode -> 3 business rows). Historic restaurant/tavern est. 1979, hit by 2016 and 2018 floods; later merged with Ellicott Mills Brewing Co. into Phoenix Upper Main. business_type detail supplemented from Patch.com and Baltimore Sun coverage (Wikipedia synopsis did not break out per-business type).
What happened after
Historic restaurant/tavern (est. 1979) hit by 2016 and 2018 floods; merged with Ellicott Mills Brewing Co. into Phoenix Upper Main, relocated within Ellicott City to 8308 Main Street. Continues operating with active Facebook/Instagram as of Jan 2026.
What happened on the show
The season's finale broke the show's own format. In its only untimed rescue, Ramsay drove to Ellicott City, Maryland, to try to save an entire town after two catastrophic floods in 2016 and 2018 tore through Main Street, and Phoenix Emporium was one of three businesses at the heart of that effort. A historic restaurant and tavern dating to 1979, it had been battered by the same water that decimated the district around it. Rather than a hidden camera sting, this was a town wide mobilization, drawing in help that ranged from Cal Ripken Jr. and the Baltimore Ravens to Governor Larry Hogan, National Guard troops, and designer Nate Berkus. Ramsay's work here was as much about rallying a devastated community as fixing one kitchen, using the restaurant's revival as a spark for the whole street's recovery.
After the cameras left
Phoenix Emporium survived by transforming. After the repeated flood damage, the historic tavern merged with Ellicott Mills Brewing Company into a combined operation called Phoenix Upper Main and relocated within Ellicott City to 8308 Main Street. As of our latest verification pass it was still operating there, with an active Facebook and Instagram presence into January 2026. So the 1979 institution Ramsay helped rally a town around did not just reopen, it merged and moved uphill, a fitting survival story for a business twice hit by the water.
Sources
Confidence: high. Last checked 2026-07-19.