‘We are lucky to be open’: Carroll County small businesses happy to open doors, with some strings attached

At Daughters Cafe in Hampstead, owner Michelle Long was so eager to get back to work, she opened her dining room Saturday morning at half capacity, even though restaurant service remains restricted to carryout and delivery across the state.

She said adapting her business to sell takeout cost her thousands of dollars, and she was desperate to prove customers could visit while remaining at a safe distance from one another.

“I’m a little guy. I don’t have a bunch of money behind me,” she said. “What’s going to happen when the utility company says, ‘Hey, you owe thousands of dollars’? Where am I going to come up with that if I don’t do something?”

But her experiment only lasted about two hours, until she said she got a call from Hampstead police advising her she was in violation of Hogan’s executive orders. She got back to her carryout business instead.

In Baltimore, where Mayor Bernard C. “Jack” Young has extended a stay-at-home order and nonessential businesses remain closed, police said they received some 60 calls about “illegal gatherings" Friday night and Saturday, “more than we’ve received in the past,” Det. Donny Moses said.

Police suspect that was largely because Hogan relaxed the statewide restrictions, even though they remain in place in the city, Moses said.

In one video shared on social media, lines could be seen stretching down the street Friday night at Hip Hop Fish and Chicken on Reisterstown Road, as groups of dirt bikers passed by. Moses said police responded to calls of disorderly conduct there, but did not issue any citations.

Most business activity also remains restricted in Baltimore, Howard and Anne Arundel counties, where leaders said the coronavirus remains too prevalent to safely start returning to normal.

But in Carroll and Harford, residents and small business owners were eager to take advantage of the relaxed restrictions.

At Pomeroy’s Jewelers in Westminster, Bentley, a tan and white American bulldog, enthusiastically greeted the first customers to the store he’s seen in two months.

Customers who declined to wear face masks were prohibited from entering, though.

“We are lucky to be open,” said Toni Pomeroy, the store’s owner. “We’re trying to keep everyone safe, so we’re refusing to let customers come in unless they wear a face mask. Some people don’t believe in it, and we don’t judge. But we have to follow the law.”

Though some customers might have less disposable income than they had before the pandemic, they still are purchasing jewelry for special occasions: birthdays, graduations, Mother’s Day, and of course, for weddings.

Pomeroy’s kept going throughout the pandemic by offering online shopping and curbside deliveries.

Down the block, a steady stream of visitors wandered into the Cultivated gift shop to greet owner Tiombe Paige like the old friend she is. They got caught up while browsing for bangles and books. But Paige had removed most of the comfy chairs and sofas that in pre-pandemic days had encouraged customers to linger.

”We spent a lot of time thinking,” Paige said, “about how we could encourage the flow of customers to keep people safe while preserving the same friendly feel that we’ve always had.”

And at Flourish Beauty Studio, owners Jennifer Shinderman and Heather Smith clipped the hair of a husband-and-wife couple who booked the first appointment they could get.

Shinderman said, ”To say that we’re excited to be open is an understatement.

”For Heather and me, this isn’t just a hair salon. It’s a mission. So much of people’s identities is tied up in the way their hair looks. To be prevented from exercising what you’re gifted at doing has been challenging.”

Some places lend themselves more easily to social distancing than others. On Saturday afternoon, with temperatures near 80 degrees and under sunny skies, nearly every parking space in the small lots lining Hashawha Environmental Center were full.

But the people themselves were spread so far apart that the nature preserve seemed almost empty. On the lake, a man showed two small boys how to cast their fishing poles into the water. Elsewhere, a trio of young girls with hiking sticks trudged down a trail.

An exuberant young boy ran down the path, veering within a few feet of a visitor. His mother, following close behind, gasped in horror and shouted for him to wait.

Laughing apologetically, she told the stranger: “There are so many new rules we all have to learn.”