TV Restaurants

What Happened to J.A. Murphy's After Bar Rescue? (Baltimore, MD)

Closed verified

As of September 2026, J.A. Murphy's has closed — confirmed via Yelp, August 2026.

Primary source
Yelp ·
Secondary source
gazettereview.com ·

Last verified

What the source shows: Yelp's listing for J.A. Murphy's Tavern at 1703 Aliceanna St, updated August 2026, is marked CLOSED; Gazette Review's 2026 update states a taco restaurant now operates in the same Baltimore space.

  • Season / episode Season 2, Episode 3
  • Original air date
  • Address 1703 Aliceanna St, Baltimore, MD 21231

Interactive map — loads when you ask for it.

Everything on this map is also in the list below.

© OpenStreetMap contributors © CARTO

What happened after Bar Rescue?

J.A. Murphy's was run by two friends, Keith Murphy and Joel Gallant, at a Fell's Point address in Baltimore when it was featured on the August 5, 2012 episode "Murphy's Mess" (Bar Rescue S2E3). Per Wikipedia's summary of the episode, Jon Taffer arrived to find two young owners who did not know how to properly run a bar, including one whose arrogant, abrasive manner had already cost the business key staff members. The bar had built a reputation as an unpredictable, drinking-games-driven hangout since opening in 2009, a culture that fed directly into the operational problems Taffer identified. Partway through the rescue, the situation escalated when Taffer discovered that the building itself was structurally unsound, a defect serious enough that the episode became just the second in the show's history in which neither a stress test nor a soft opening could be completed as normal. Faced with that constraint, Taffer's team pushed ahead with a renovation and renamed the bar Murphy's Law, intending the modernized name to carry the business past its rocky history.

The rename did not get a chance to prove itself. According to Gazette Review's coverage of the bar's history, the Fell's Point location actually closed in July 2012, before the "Murphy's Mess" episode ever aired that August, meaning the structural and staffing problems the show tried to fix proved fatal regardless of the new name or renovated interior. A 2026-dated Yelp listing for J.A. Murphy's Tavern at the Aliceanna Street address confirms the location is marked CLOSED, and a 2026 update from Gazette Review states that a taco restaurant now operates in the same space. Wikipedia's location note for the episode records only "Fell's Point, Maryland" without naming Baltimore directly, which this record's compiler flagged as a case where Fell's Point is understood to be a Baltimore neighborhood rather than a separate municipality. No source was found describing any post-2012 attempt to reopen the bar under either the J.A. Murphy's or Murphy's Law name.

Featured on Bar Rescue

Season / episode
Season 2, Episode 3
Original air date
Episode title
Murphy's Mess
What was featured
structurally unsound tavern renovation, staff and drink-game culture
Role
Featured restaurant
Name on the broadcast
J.A. Murphy's

Frequently asked questions

Is J.A. Murphy's still open in 2026?

As of September 2026, J.A. Murphy's has closed — confirmed via Yelp, August 2026.

What happened to J.A. Murphy's after Bar Rescue?

J.A. As of September 2026, J.A. Murphy's has closed — confirmed via Yelp, August 2026.

Is J.A. Murphy's permanently closed?

As of September 2026, J.A. Murphy's has closed — confirmed via Yelp, August 2026. We publish a closure only with a dated source behind it, and we say plainly when it has not been independently confirmed.

Where is J.A. Murphy's located?

1703 Aliceanna St, Baltimore, MD 21231. That is the address on the record as of September 7, 2026.

What season and episode of Bar Rescue featured J.A. Murphy's?

Season 2, Episode 3 of Bar Rescue, first aired August 5, 2012. The episode is titled “Murphy's Mess”.

Did the makeover last at J.A. Murphy's?

The episode first aired August 5, 2012. Our most recent check was September 7, 2026 — 14 years later —: As of September 2026, J.A. Murphy's has closed — confirmed via Yelp, August 2026.

What do reviews say since Bar Rescue?

According to Gazette Review's coverage of the bar's history, the Fell's Point location actually closed in July 2012, before the "Murphy's Mess" episode ever aired that August, meaning the structural and staffing problems the show tried to fix proved fatal regardless of the new name or renovated interior. We summarise what dated sources report; we do not publish our own rating.

Every status on this site carries a confidence label and a date, and names the source it rests on. Read the Editorial & Corrections Policy for what each label means and how quickly we act on corrections. The questions above are generated from this record's own published fields — we never publish a question we cannot answer from the data.

More from Bar Rescue

Every Bar Rescue restaurant we track

Other TV restaurants in Maryland

  • Abacrombie Inn

    Baltimore, MD

    Hotel Impossible

    Closed verified Checked

  • Alewife Baltimore

    Baltimore, MD

    Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives · Food Paradise

    Closed verified Checked

  • Ambassador Dining Room

    Baltimore, MD

    Best Thing I Ever Ate

    Open verified Checked

  • Bad Decisions Bar

    Baltimore, MD

    Food Paradise

    Closed verified Checked

  • Blue Agave

    Baltimore, MD

    Food Paradise

    Open verified Checked

  • Blue Moon Café

    Baltimore, MD

    Best Thing I Ever Ate · Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives · Food Paradise

    Open verified Checked

All Maryland locations

Nearest tracked restaurants

  • Blue Moon Café

    Baltimore, MD · 0.1 mi away

    Best Thing I Ever Ate · Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives · Food Paradise

    Open verified Checked

  • Brick Oven Pizza

    Baltimore, MD · 0.1 mi away

    Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives

    Closed verified Checked

  • Slainte Irish Pub and Restaurant

    Baltimore, MD · 0.1 mi away

    Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives

    Open reported Checked

  • Bad Decisions Bar

    Baltimore, MD · 0.1 mi away

    Food Paradise

    Closed verified Checked

  • Pierpoint Restaurant

    Baltimore, MD · 0.1 mi away

    Best Thing I Ever Ate

    Open reported Checked

  • Heavy Seas Alehouse

    Baltimore, MD · 0.4 mi away

    Food Paradise

    Closed verified Checked

Visit info

Address
1703 Aliceanna St, Baltimore, MD 21231
Venue type
bar
Official website
None found

Businesses change fast. Always confirm directly with the restaurant — call ahead, or check its own current website or social media — before making plans around anything on this page.

Sources

  • Yelp — https://www.yelp.com/biz/ja-murphys-tavern-baltimore
  • gazettereview.com — https://gazettereview.com/j-a-murphys-on-bar-rescue-update/
  • Wikipedia — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bar_Rescue_season_2

See something wrong?

We work hard to keep every status accurate and dated, but restaurants change fast and our sources aren't perfect. If something here is wrong — a status, a name, an address, anything — tell us what you're seeing and where you saw it, and we'll check it.

See something wrong? Tell us →

Share this page

Record br-013 · last verified .