Pub Reopening With Crab Cakes, Greek Food In Baltimore County

ESSEX, MD — An Essex pub is reopening under new management after being closed for more than seven months.

Woody's Pub Grub will reopen in about two weeks. The exact opening date has not yet been announced.

The bar and grill, located at 11 Margaret Ave., has been closed since late August 2023.

The restaurant's new leader, Vasilios Kanaras Kourniotis, announced on March 25 that he and his wife will bring back Woody's.

Kourniotis was the man behind the former Crabby Greek restaurant in downtown Towson, WMAR reported.

"Coronavirus killed us. It wasn't about our food," Kourniotis told WMAR in 2022. "I was in an office building and everybody was working from home and all my clientele left."

Kourniotis pivoted and tried to reopen the Crabby Greek in Glen Burnie. He scrapped those plans when he ran into governmental roadblocks.

"Because Anne Arundel County does things and works at such a snails pace, my wife and I decided to just give this Glen Burnie location up," Kourniotis said last week on Facebook. "To stay, we would have to wait exactly one year to get everything going, and honestly paying rent for a place for one year without being able to open would not be conducive to us."

Kourniotis plans to keep about 90 percent of Woody's old menu. He will add a few Greek dishes and what he calls his "Famous Jumbo Lump Crab Cakes."

"We would love to see all of you, for food and drinks!" Kourniotis said on Facebook.

Customers can visit woodyspubmd.com or follow the business on Facebook for more information.