Outback Steakhouse is packing up its Canton outpost after more than two decades at The Can Company, and when the Boston Street restaurant goes dark before the end of 2026, Baltimore City will be left without a single location of the chain within its borders. The steakhouse's exit adds another vacancy to a complex that has already watched several tenants come and go in recent years.
News of the closure was first reported by The Baltimore Banner, whose food reporter Christina Tkacik detailed the closure with contributions from Wesley Case. According to the Banner, the restaurant at 2400 Boston St. will become available for lease once Outback departs, and a Canton Outback server told the paper they had not been informed of any plans to close. Outback has operated at the site for more than 20 years, part of the wider retail and dining mix inside the roughly 200,000-square-foot, three-building Can Company complex.
A Steakhouse With Strong Sales, Closing Anyway
Jeremy Landsman, co-owner of the Can Company complex, told the Banner that the steakhouse had strong sales, framing the closure as a lease decision rather than a performance problem. Landsman, who also co-owns properties in Towson and Baltimore's Hampden neighborhood, described the departure as an opportunity for a new local operator to move in. Per Landsman, the space is expected to sit empty until the right tenant comes along, since Canco's owners are focused on tenants that enhance the surrounding neighborhood rather than simply filling square footage.
The exit fits into a much larger corporate retreat. Outback's parent company, Bloomin' Brands, used a turnaround strategy in 2025 that closed underperforming branches across the United States, according to the Banner's reporting. Nationally, the chain closed 21 locations and flagged 22 more restaurants with expiring leases for non-renewal in late 2025, according to SeafoodSource, on top of 41 underperforming locations shuttered in early 2024. That pruning has shrunk Outback's U.S. footprint to 670 locations by late 2025, per Restaurant Business Magazine, more than 10% smaller than the over 750 units the chain operated a decade earlier. A Bloomin' Brands spokesperson could not immediately be reached for comment on the Canton shutdown or any possible relocation, the Banner reported.
Once the Canton restaurant closes, Baltimoreans looking for an Outback fix will have to leave the city, with the chain still operating in Perry Hall, Hunt Valley, Owings Mills and Ellicott City. The first Outback Steakhouse opened in Florida in 1988, a detail that underscores just how far the brand's footprint has receded from its expansion-era peak.
Canco's Long Run of Turnover
The Boston Street closure is hardly the first vacancy at Canco in recent years. The complex has also lost Regionale, Cold Stone Creamery, Starbucks and &pizza, with the Starbucks closure part of a nationwide wave of closures for the coffee chain. The space once occupied by Venezuelan restaurant Alma Cocina Latina remains vacant after the restaurant relocated to Baltimore's Station North neighborhood in late 2020, following more than five years at the property, according to Baltimore Magazine. And &pizza's own run at Canco was brief: the fast-casual chain signed a lease for a 2,300-square-foot storefront in late 2019 for its eighth Maryland location, per the Maryland Daily Record, before shuttering.
Landsman told the Banner that he and his partners prefer local tenants over national chains, and Canco's recent additions reflect that shift — the complex has gained 7th Street Burger, Spice Kitchen and Poke Taco, even as Chipotle has extended its own lease there. Greenspring Realty Partners and Reba Holdings purchased the Can Company complex in 2024, and the ownership group appears to be steering the property's identity away from national chains toward homegrown operators.
Not every incoming tenant is a restaurant. The former Starbucks and Cold Stone spaces will become a branch of Aberdeen Proving Ground Federal Credit Union, Landsman told the Banner. According to the MD|DC Credit Union Association, APGFCU plans to open a 2,700-square-foot branch at Canco in the first quarter of 2027 featuring 24/7 interactive teller machines — the credit union's first physical location in Baltimore City. DAP, the sealants and adhesives manufacturer that has anchored Canco's office space since establishing its 40,000-square-foot headquarters there in March 1998, will also expand its footprint at the complex, according to Explore Baltimore Heritage.
Canton's Broader Restaurant Shakeup
The Outback closure lands amid a rough stretch for Canton dining more broadly. Hoodline reported that Midlina permanently closed on Boston Street in August after 18 months in business, following a rent lawsuit filed by the building owner. Just days earlier, Simply Marie's, a breakfast institution on Elliott Street, served its last meal on August 23 after 15 years, closing due to the owner's retirement. And in December 2024, Tex-Mex mainstay Nacho Mama's announced it would close its original Canton location after 30 years in the neighborhood.
Together, those closures paint a picture of a neighborhood in flux, where both multi-decade local institutions and short-lived national concepts have struggled to hang on. Explore Baltimore Heritage notes that the Can Company complex itself dates back to 1895, when it was built by the Norton Tin Can and Plate Company before becoming an American Can Company factory that employed up to 800 workers before shutting down in the late 1980s. Whether Canco's owners can fill the Outback and Alma Cocina Latina spaces with local restaurateurs willing to bet on Canton's waterfront amid rising costs remains an open question.
