Lets go to Bentleys!
R.J. Bentley’s was founded in December of 1978 by John Brown III, who spent the next forty-six years as a fixture at the restaurant, at the University, and all over the state of Maryland. A wonderful friend to everyone lucky enough to cross his path, he died in November 2024, leaving behind a legacy of wonderful friendships and countless extraordinary memories.
In his honor, his dearest friends and family, spearheaded and managed by Gregg Wilkes, have established an annual toast on his birthday, May 9: “John Brown Forever, Happy Happy Happy Birthday”
In 2025, the first year of the annual John Brown Birthday Toast, a crowd of his loved ones gathered at RJ Bentley’s to celebrate in person at 3p with a beverage of choice and the happy, shouted birthday salute.
But not everyone who loved John Brown can get together in person, and at 3p EST on May 9th all over the world his friends and family snap pictures and videos of themselves toasting their dear friend. As you’ll see, while some have glasses of wine and bottles of beer and cocktails, there are also cans of seltzer, water bottles, and cups of coffee. Not everyone can stop work at three! The contents of the glass are unimportant – what is important is taking a moment to acknowledge the love we have for JB and that he had for all of us.
So if you’ve found your way to this page and to the RJ Bentley’s Family, we welcome you to join us next May 9 at 3p EST either at the restaurant or wherever you happen to find yourself. Raise a glass to our friend and all the lives he touched and tag rjbentleys on Instagram, so we can include the photo in our collection.
And if you’d like to learn more about John Brown, check out this video and this article. To honor his life and legacy, his family and his friend Harvey Sanders have endowed two scholarships at the University of Maryland, one is a needs-based scholarship for first generation college students and the other supports University of Maryland athletics. Every year, his family takes a portion of the restaurant’s profits and donates them to these scholarships.