There is an article about the closing at www.northcountynews.com

Not entirely surprised ... was in there on a weeknight a few months ago and Im not sure there was anyone else in the place. They had good food and an adventurous menu, but a bit on the pricey side. Still, a notable loss.

Drat.

What a shame. My boyfriend and I celebrated our first Valentine's Day there 7 years ago, and many other occasions since then. We did notice a decline in quality in the past few months since the old chef moved on, but we had no idea they were closing. We will miss it, their bolognese was incredible.

Can't say that I'm surprised. The food really hasn't been all that great lately. Great food and high prices would have kept me going there.

I walked by the place in March. The outdoor furniture was locked down with a cable (perfectly reasonable), but they stretched the cable from one side of the front door to the other (totally unreasonable), so every single person that walked in or out of the front door had to step over a 1/2" diameter cable laying on the sidewalk. Had they used two shorter cables and two locks, they wouldn't have had the cable in front of the front door. And this was March, nobody was eating outside and hadn't for months.

Towson is lifeless and boring. This closing is not a surprise.

It was a nice break from the typical Towson food setting. They had decent happy hour specials and you really can't beat any kind of outdoor seating.

How come there's so much traffic in such a lifeless and boring town?

Isn't this where that family ate right before the dad gunned them all down and then offed himself?

The closing of this restaurant is the latest casualty of the urban planning disaster known as "Walkable Towson". Restaurant management was quoted in another article saying that traffic had begun to decline about a year ago. This is just when the "Walkable Towson" concept was implemented. Since then, northbound York Road is jammed to Burke Avenue at all times of the day, downtown is totally congested with traffic, everyone avoids it as much as possible, and no additional retail has moved into the downtown area. There are plenty of ways to increase foot traffic in Towson - increased access to public parking, support for retailers that differ from typical mall tenants, etc. - but "Walkable Towson" is not one ofthem.

I would guess that the decline of the Towson Commons has something to do with Paolo's closing. Going to a movie there became more than slightly creepy over time. You need critical mass.

Towson has turned into a culinary and entertainment wasteland in the past 15+ years. If anyone can list three good, interesting places to eat, please post them. I'm not talking about chain restaurants like Cheesecake Factory, PF Chang's or Fridays, but real restaurants or pubs with character. I can go to a chain without braving the traffic and that most ridiculous traffic circle.