10-03-2025 10:16am

Thursdays Doom

Towson Sports Bar Closing After Thirsty Thursdays Go Awry: Reports

A popular sports bar is closing after Thirsty Thursdays went awry, drowning the Baltimore County business.

TOWSON, MD — The Greene Turtle will close its Towson restaurant by the end of the year because of financial struggles since halting its controversial "Thirsty Thursday" deals.

The sports bar announced the news during a hearing with the Baltimore County Board of Liquor License Commissioners, multiple reports said.

The Baltimore Banner said the board suspended the Towson bar's liquor license for Thursdays through October.

WBAL-TV reported the board also recently fined The Greene Turtle, located at 319 York Road, $1,000 for serving an underage police cadet.

WBAL said the bar ended its Thirsty Thursday promotions a month ago. The owners estimated that the lost Thirsty Thursday revenue would cost the business about $600,000 annually, The Banner reported.

Greene Turtle CEO Geo Concepcion called the Towson location, which opened in 2022 at a cost of $4 million, "the most expensive and shortest-lived project in the Greene Turtle's 50-year history," according to The Banner.

Concerns started in August when widely shared TikToks seemed to capture bar-goers overflowing into the Streets.

WBFF reported that a dirt bike hit a Baltimore County police officer on Aug. 29 around 1:10 a.m. near York Road and E. Chesapeake Avenue. The dirt bike operator is one of several people to face charges stemming from recent Thirsty Thursdays.

Police ramped up their patrols and crowd control throughout September.

Greene Turtle reported that sales dropped to a quarter of their usual number by the end of the month, The Banner said.

"The reality is we can't continue, so we are looking to close this location and work with the landlord to find a termination agreement that will be suitable for all of us," Concepcion said, according to WBAL.

Baltimore County Council Chair Mike Ertel (D-Towson) told WJZ that "while we don't want to see any business close, this might not be the end of the world."

"People that are coming aren't necessarily going and patronizing somewhere else," Ertel told WJZ. "They're just all hanging out by the bar that they wanted to go to."

Aaron Brave, who owns the nearby bar The Reservoir, chided The Greene Turtle.

"They don't have their finger on the pulse and the trigger of Towson," Brave said, according to WBAL. "Their deceptive business practices have negatively impacted us to a humongous degree."

Some customers will miss The Greene Turtle.

"It sucks cause we already had Nachos Mamas closed too," Daylen Robertson told WMAR.

The Greene Turtle also closed its White Marsh Mall location by late 2023.

The Maryland-based chain, which opened its first restaurant in Ocean City in 1976, still has dozens of bars along the East Coast.