The bars on Route 1 make for great stops to unwind on free weekends or after a long day of classes for students at this university. We put together a guide to the best bar deals around the university. 

cornerstone

CORNERSTONE GRILL AND LOFT

Right along Route 1, the bar is close to the campus and has long hours, closing at 1:40 a.m. everyday and 2:40 a.m. on Fridays. The bar has 14 HD TVs, a projector-screen TV and 12 different draft lines of beer, according to its website — making it a great place to watch sports with friends or have a couple of drinks. 

With different deals for every day of the week, the bar offers $2 beer draft Mondays, $3 Fireball on Wednesdays and $2.50 Captain Morgan and Coronas on Fridays, as well as Sunday Drafts — offering reusable mugs of beer all day and all night.

If you like games, there is also the loft, which is equipped with 13 TVs, two pool tables and video games. The bar also offers events for different TV shows that premiere for the first time on networks. 

turf

TERRAPIN’S TURF

Terrapin’s Turf has been gaining popularity since it opened in 2013. Sitting on Knox Road adjacent to Route 1, this bar provides a wide variety of drinks, and for those who just want to watch a game or be with friends and eat, its menu includes sliders, nachos and even seafood.  

“Turf runs a bunch of deals on drinks on Tuesdays, so a ton of people will come out,” said freshman government and politics major Greg, whose name has been withheld because he discusses underage drinking.

The drink deals include beer towers, bottomless mimosas on Mondays and “Fishbowl Fridays,” one of the most popular deals, in which the bar provides drinks inside different sizes of fishbowls.  

Junior family sciences major Nicole Malament deemed Turf one of her favorite bars, partly because of the atmosphere. With a party-like environment, live music and TVs to watch sports games, Terrapin’s Turf has something for everyone.

bentley’s

R.J. BENTLEY’S

Another local bar along Route 1, R.J. Bentley’s was founded in 1978 by university alumni and was transformed from a 1920s gas station into a bar and restaurant.  

Bentley’s provides specials every day of the week, including $2.50 Miller Lite Mondays, Natty Boh drafts for $2.50 on Mondays and Tuesdays and Half-Way Wednesdays, when burgers are half price all day and drinks are half price from 9 p.m. to close. It also offers beer drafts on Thursdays and $11 Domestic Buckets, which include five bottled beers on Sundays all day.

“Bents is my favorite, because you can dance there, but they also have an outside space,” junior computer engineering major Amanda Lotwin said.

Looney’s

LOONEY’S PUB

Looney’s Pub has four locations in the state, but the Irish-themed pub’s College Park location appeals to students at this university and residents in the area.

The bar offers happy hour drinks and food from 2 p.m. to 7 p.m. every day of the week, with a wide variety of food deals, such as $6 burgers and fries and $1 tacos on Tuesdays. 

“On Saturdays, we have $2 rails for all UMD students -— that’s one of the best drink specials in College Park,” bar manager Kevin Wright said.  “We do game day specials on Mondays, Thursdays and Saturdays and have over 50 TVs, so we have all of the NFL games.”

The bar also offers $2 mystery shooters on Friday nights and Power Hours on the weekends. All students at the university get in for free on Fridays and Saturdays with a valid University ID. On Sundays, there are happy hour-priced drinks all day, as well as the game day menu available on Sundays, Mondays and Thursdays.

Looney’s also offers activities for students, hosting Trivia Night on Mondays and Tuesdays at 6:30 p.m., DJs on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, live music on Thursdays and Fridays and ’90s night one Friday every month.