Towson wants WTMD, the alternative rock station whose call letters reflect its origins as part of the Towson University music department, back in the county seat.

The station moved earlier this year into WYPR’s facilities at 2216 N. Charles St. in Charles Village as part of the merger of the two public broadcasters. WTMD’s name has been stripped off its high-profile location just north of the Towson circle and its scrolling news ticker familiar to travelers on York Road has gone dark.

The departure leaves a hole in the county seat’s central business district, where officials have been trying to diversify a retail base that’s healthy but heavy with restaurants, Nancy Hafford, executive director of the Towson Chamber of Commerce, said.

“We didn’t want them to go and now we want to get them to come back,” Hafford said. She’d like to convince WTMD to return to another location in Towson as part of a headquarters expansion the station owners are considering. Some of its art programming is funded by the Baltimore County Commission on Arts and Sciences.

The cost of having two locations and a desire to bring the staff of the two stations together prompted the decision to combine forces at the Charles Village location, which WYPR owned, Craig Swagler, president and general manager of station owner Baltimore Public Media, said.

But the space is tight.

“There’s only so much you can grow in a two-story building,” he said. That’s led him into discussions with prospective builders about relocating again or renovating the existing building to make way for an expanded public radio hub with performance space. Part of the decision may rest with the success of a capital campaign now underway.

Could the merged entity end up in Towson? “Nothing has been ruled out,” he said, diplomatically. But, he added, there is a desire to remain in the city to support it. “Whatever we do has to align with our mission and economics.”

The listener-supported radio station, 89.7 FM on the radio dial, was founded on the TU campus in 1972 and relocated in 2012 to the 8,000 square-foot space at the Towson City Center in a much-publicized expansion. The new digs featured four studios, offices and classrooms, rentable event space as well as a 1,300 square-foot performance venue that hosted its popular “Live Lunch” broadcasts.

WYPR, an NPR-affiliated talk and news outlet founded as WJHU by Johns Hopkins University but spun off in 2002, paid $3 million for WTMD in 2021.

The nonprofit Baltimore Public Media reported  revenue of $9.9 million and expenses of $9.6 million for the fiscal year ending in July, 2023, the most recent year its tax filings are available.

Before they got into the business of coworking, Haven‘s founders had seen what other “corporate” coworking spaces were like. They were sterile and boring with no energy; it felt like they were in a hospital.

Haven’s founders knew they could do better, and, realizing that they would not only have to run the office but also spend much of their time there, they vowed to create a fantastic aesthetic and workplace experience. A brand new concept for them and their first location, Haven celebrated its grand opening on May 17, 2024.

Nestled in the heart of Towson, Haven Coworking brings the benefits of office life without the long commute and long-term lease. Conveniently situated by Whole Foods, Haven not only offers shared amenities like a kitchen, twenty-four hour access, and conference rooms; it offers free parking for all members.

Besides the free parking, the biggest perk might be the coffee. Haven has partnered with Aveley Farms Coffee Roasters — located just down the street — to serve members their daily dose of sustainably sourced, locally roasted coffee.

With Haven, members can get out of the house, find community, and build networks —without spending half the day on the road. They can socialize with other members in the same space, and they can even run into the owners at happy hours, lunch & learns, and Cava Tuesdays.

At Haven, it’s all about flexibility and price transparency. If members aren’t ready to commit to monthly or annual plans, they can opt for 10-day, five-day, or even one-day passes. Members can start small and add as they grow, instead of being locked in to traditional long-term leases.

Haven’s members include remote workers, entrepreneurs, freelancers, lawyers, and other area professionals. Here’s what a few of them have to say:

“Look no further for the perfect blend of modern coworking with a social club atmosphere. I enjoyed the flexibility to choose how and where I want to work — there’s an open concept that energizes creativity along with private offices for focused productivity” – Marissa Reed

“Incredible space, I was one of the first offices rented. Larger than other local office suites in Towson / Baltimore, great staff, incredible views and the open coworking space is inspiring. Ownership is friendly and open to suggestions. 24/7 access and free coffee are great perks as well. Will be here for a long time” – Austin Carroll

“Finally. A coworking place that just gets it right. I recently moved my business to Haven Coworking and have been loving it here. The staff are super friendly and I like that there are no hidden fees. This is a great location in the heart of downtown Towson, close to everything! Highly highly recommend” – Katie Pike

To learn more about Haven Coworking, visit https://havenspace.com/, or book a tour at https://havenspace.com/book-a-tour/.

For decades, the Edenwald retirement community has towered over the Goucher College campus, on land purchased from the college many years ago. Edenwald residents have enjoyed their proximity to the campus loop and to the trails that wind through the college’s acres of woods. Now plans are underway to expand this arrangement by creating what’s known as a University Retirement Community, or URC.

The partnership between Goucher and Edenwald would involve opportunities for Edenwald residents to take classes and participate in travel programs, in addition to other benefits. Love & Company, a Frederick, MD-based senior living marketing firm, has been assisting with the project.

While the concept of URCs is not new, interest is growing. URCs have been established at Notre Dame, Stanford, the University of Texas at Austin, Arizona State, and other places. The URC connecting Goucher and Edenwald, however, will be the first in Maryland, according to Mark Beggs, president and CEO of Edenwald. 

Why create a URC?

Demand for senior living options is fueling the project. “The way people are aging is changing,” says Beggs. “The expectations that people have are different than they were when life-plan communities first evolved. They don’t want to be cared for — they want to be engaged in the world around them. They want to be relevant.” 

The project would also provide financial benefits to Goucher. Edenwald plans to lease land from the college to build three new residential towers of up to 12 stories in height, a total of 127 apartments. Edenwald residents looking to audit classes at Goucher would most likely pay tuition – at a rate still to be determined. The college has for years explored ways to improve its financial profile, including a controversial 2018 decision to drop a number of majors and add others thought to be more in sync with market demands.

“When you start to realize what’s occurring demographically across the country,” Beggs says, “with an aging population and a shrinking [traditional-age] student population, Goucher understands that bringing in an older student is one of their strategies towards success.”

Beggs anticipates no problem filling the 127 units in the planned new towers, and he is confident that the arrangement with Goucher will increase Edenwald’s attractiveness. Beggs points out that more than 10 percent of Edenwald residents attended Goucher, and the retirement community’s  partnership with Goucher figures to draw even more.

Planning session held

Earlier this year, a brochure was sent to some community members inviting them to a planning session at Goucher where they could “share [their] ideas about developing senior living residences.” Recipients who planned to attend were asked to fill out a 13-question survey. About half of the survey questions sought input on how attractive recipients found retirement communities (including Edenwald) and the URC concept, and about half sought to gather demographic information, including recipients’ estimated annual income and household net worth.

The planning session, held June 19 at Goucher, was well attended. Beggs reports that around 200 people showed up, and several put down a $1,000 “priority deposit” that gives them first choice of apartment options in the new towers.

“The entire Goucher campus is excited and engaged in the process,” Beggs said in an email. 

But Beggs’s enthusiasm belies the fact that the response from Goucher has been almost non-existent. Two faculty members said to be deeply involved with the project have either referred inquiries elsewhere or have not responded to repeated requests for comment. A request for comment sent to the student newspaper has gone unanswered. The most prominent mention of the planned URC on the college’s website is more than two years old. Multiple attempts to contact Goucher president Kent Devereaux have been unsuccessful. Goucher’s official response has been to defer any questions until the fall, when there will be “much more to announce and discuss.” 

The college said in an email that any request for information is “premature for us at this time.” 

Goucher and Edenwald have signed a letter of intent to pursue the partnership. Mark Beggs says he has initial approval to expand Edenwald from the Maryland Department of Aging, and is moving through the process of getting community-development plan approval from Baltimore County, to ensure that the expansion meets existing codes and to give the community an opportunity to comment. He hopes to break ground on the new towers in late 2025. Before then — possibly as soon as the end of 2024 — he expects to have many of the programmatic elements of the URC partnership in place. “We’re starting our priority deposit so people [will] be first on the list to get an apartment when we make them available,” he says. “We will be considered a university-based retirement community probably before the end of the calendar year.” 

The project has been keeping Beggs busy — and is advancing.

“It’s  been exciting to work on it,” he says. “Just to make something like this happen in the Baltimore market I think is really a great opportunity for me professionally and I think it’s going to be a great opportunity for those who are aging in the local community.”

Business in Towson is booming. 

Over 50 different businesses have found their way to Towson since the beginning of 2020, according to Nancy Hafford, Executive Director of Towson’s Chamber of Commerce.

“Towson has become more of the urban environment in Baltimore County; it’s sort of like a mini downtown, but it’s a safe place to go,” Hafford said. “Towson University is a very important part of making that happen.”

The university, which welcomed its largest-ever incoming class for the Fall 2023 semester, also owns some buildings in Uptown, including the armory and a former-hotel-turned-residential building on Burke Avenue, among others.

Towson students frequent Uptown for its restaurants and bars. Among the most popular bars in the area are the Rec Room, owned by Brian and Scott Recher, and the neighboring Towson Tavern and The Recher. 

Brian Recher credits the shift back to pre-COVID norms as a main reason why his businesses have seen an increase in business over the last couple of years.

The Recher family has been in Towson for over 28 years, and Brian Recher says they’ve been fortunate to make some good business decisions over the years.

Since opening businesses in Towson, Recher has seen more bars and restaurants open in the Towson area. However, he doesn’t see them as competition. Instead, they’re a reason people come to the area.

“We get people from everywhere,” says Recher, who has seen people make a night out of going to different bars in Towson. “Of course, you want them to stay at your place. But the whole idea of community is for everybody to succeed. In a perfect world, they’ll stop at more than one place so that everybody benefits.”

But it isn’t just older businesses that are thriving in Towson. Roggenart European Bakery, Bistro & Cafe opened in Towson in March 2023. Since then, owner Brody Tennent said the business went through a “honeymoon phase” of business right after opening. However, the sales have remained high, especially over the last six months.

“People know who we are and I think people are starting to know we’re there,” Tennent said. “Definitely have seen some growth over the last six months or so.”

Roggenart opened a new location in Baltimore on Monday, marking the seventh open location for the company. When Tennent opened the Towson location, he factored many different things into the decision.

“We look for the right customer bases; that is our clientele, and we try to go wherever that is,” he said. “Towson is such an integral part of Baltimore County. A big workforce is there. There’s also people that appreciate quality food in Towson and I think that really solidifies what we’re looking for in regard to finding the right mix of community, the right mix of business, and the right mix of people that want to come down and have a nice, unique experience.”

Another business that has moved to Towson since 2020 is Aveley Farms Coffee Roasters, which opened in October 2022. Avaley Farms started in Harbor East but was forced to move after the building they were in was sold. Owner Corey Voelkel said the company was already looking to expand to Towson, so it made sense to move there.

Towson is currently the only location, but it was announced on Friday that Avaley Farms is partnering with Diamondback Brewing Company and opening a store in Timonium.

In addition to being born and raised in Towson, Voelkel decided to open a shop in Uptown Towson because of the economic activity in the area.

“You have the college campus, which is a big economic driver,” Voelkel said. “The surrounding area, the suburbs in general. And then you have Baltimore County Courthouse; you have a lot of economic activity, and I just felt like it was an underserved area in terms of coffee.” 

Voelkel said he doesn’t get too many Towson students inside Aveley Farms, but he has partnered with Aramark, Towson’s new food vendor company. Aveley Farms has a cafe on Towson’s campus, part of Local Restaurant Row, an initiative from Aramark to bring local businesses on campus.

Aveley Farms moved into a building that had been vacated for 12-15 years, according to Voelkel. Bringing it back to life is indicative of what is going on with a surge in business in the area.

With the new businesses coming to the area, Hafford said there has been an increased need for more housing. Hafford said there’s a need for housing for students, as well as higher-priced housing for longer-term residents to help businesses deal with the quieter months.

Most students go home over the summer, leaving a three-month gap in the middle of the year during which many businesses see less customer traffic.

“The one slight downfall with student housing when it’s in Towson is that when they go away for the summer, it sucks all those bodies out at one time,” Hafford said. “So you want to have a balance between higher-end liveable housing and student housing.”

To combat the problem, Towson is creating more non-student housing. A 175-room hotel opened recently on Susquehanna Avenue, providing more housing for visitors.

Two local craft beverage companies are joining forces to open an “all day and all night” concept in Timonium.

Aveley Farms Coffee Roasters and Diamondback Brewing Company announced on Friday that they’re planning a venture that will be a mash-up of both: a roastery and café from Aveley and a brewery, taproom and pizza kitchen from Diamondback.

Construction on the new concept is expected to start this spring at 9490 Deereco Road in Timonium, and it will be an expansion for both businesses.

Aveley has a cafe at 42 W. Chesapeake Ave. in Towson, and Diamondback has a brewery, taproom and pizza kitchen at 1215 E. Fort Ave. in Locust Point. Both will remain open.

According to the owners, the Timonium venture was born out of a need by both companies for expanded production space and a desire to serve a Baltimore County audience. It’s also a return to the owners’ roots. Aveley founder Corey Voelkel has known the Diamondback ownership team of Tom Foster, Colin Marshall and Francis Smith as friends and classmates since they all attended Loyola Blakefield for high school. After taking varied paths following college, they all returned to Baltimore to start craft beverage businesses.

“Tom and I started kicking this concept around about a year and half ago as we were both looking to expand our manufacturing and retail footprints,” Voelkel said in an announcement about the new venture. His business was founded in Harbor East in 2019 and relocated to Towson in 2022. 

Aveley focuses on sustainably-sourced, high-quality coffees from around the world and roasts them locally to serve in its cafe and for its wholesale accounts throughout Maryland. The company plans to move its roasting operations to the Deereco Road address and offer a full espresso bar, drip coffees, cold brew and more, as well as a breakfast menu including pastries, toast, and breakfast burritos.

Foster, Marshall and Smith founded Diamondback as a contract brewing operation in 2014. They opened their Locust Point brewery and taproom at McHenry Row in 2016 and added a pizza kitchen in 2020. They now produce 1,500 barrels a year and have distribution across Maryland and Washington, D.C.

In Timonium, they plan to add a smaller brew system to produce experimental/small batch and barrel-aged offerings, and will feature 10 rotating draft beers, beer to-go, and a full pizza menu similar to the one they have in Locust Point.

The new location is expected to open later this year. “This is a natural collaboration for our two businesses, and we feel really grateful to have found the right space to make this happen for Aveley and Diamondback,” Foster said.

Through the lens of his Nikon D40, Trevor Brake, founder of the Rosebud Flea Market, captures the moments of people proudly holding up the hidden treasures they found amongst the racks, filled with the fashion that transcends the times of the 90s to early 2000s.

They say, “One man’s trash is another man’s treasure.” That’s certainly the case as the Rosebud Flea Market brings back the Y2K clothing and streetwear from the 90s.

“Getting to treasure hunt and find unique vintage pieces from the past is so freaking cool,” Lydia H., a vendor from the Rosebud and owner of Ramblewood Vintage, says. “I love what I get to do, and I love that I get to share my finds with others.”

Brake strives for an inclusive and welcoming community by bringing vendors who sell vintage items, where every item is a timeless treasure for many discerning collectors.

“I found that I have a community that comes around and really enjoys being in the presence of a fun environment, safe, inclusive, and nonjudgemental,” Brake says.

He decided to open an event on Feb. 25 and March 3 for all small vintage businesses to come together in Barley’s Backyard uptown in Towson.

Along with the events at Barley’s Backyard, last summer, he hosted the Rosebud Flea Market at the Radebaugh Florist Shop, which consisted of 31 vendors.

Before Rosebud, Brake tried other ventures and hosted nightlife entertainment in Winona, Minnesota.

He even worked with his sister as a vendor during the 2021 Lucky Flea Market, learning some tricks and tips on how to manage a flea market.

“My sister is the driving factor of the brand identity and most creative person I work with to this day,” Brake says.

While working with his sister during the summer, Brake learned about the operations behind a flea market, along with the layout and management.

“I learned about the operations and how everything maneuvered around in the flea markets, along with the tips, tricks, and layout,” he says.

Brake says that vintage clothing and the sustainability of it has become fashionable, creating a larger market for these specific items.

The driving trend for vintage clothing began in earnest in 2020, as the pandemic has led many to focus on the longevity and sustainability of clothing.

The expeditions and experiences he gained led to him seeing an opportunity in Towson.

“Towson never had something like this and as a businessperson, I always see opportunities where I can do something better for the community,” Brake says.

“Also, Towson is growing as a city and I believe as it grows, more businesses are going to grow with it, and I would like to be part of that growth.”

Zoe Brier, a student from Goucher College, says that this is an intriguing setup to bring students and other people of all ages out for a day event in Towson.

“Towson is typically a small town, and to have an event going on that has never occurred before was really intriguing and exciting,” Brier says.

“I feel like it brings students together from different campuses, specifically Towson and Goucher.”

Jeremiah (JR) Quarles, owner of Mozart’s Thrift Shop, attended the Rosebud Flea on March 3, selling vintage T-shirts, football jerseys, and anything relating to 90s pop culture.

“I grew up in 90s pop culture, so anything I see that is 90s related, I pick it up,” Quarles says.

“For me, I am a student of art so everything I see with a great graphic design, I pick that up.”

While being newly exposed to marketing, he came across the difficulty of pricing his items fairly.

He now tells his customers that he “charges what he would pay” to make his items affordable for students and everybody.

“I base my prices on the continuous model of knowing who my customers are,” Quarles says.

“My customers are young college kids and not everyone has a lot of money to spend on shirts, so I try to make stuff affordable for everybody.

“I know what it was like to not have any money.”

During COVID, there was a month-long period when Quarles was unemployed, and he decided to sell vintage clothing as a side hustle.

“My girlfriend, now wife, at the time, was telling me to keep doing this,” he says.

“A year ago, I took a chance on this on trying it out and it just worked out.

“I just have been loyal to Rosebud and Trevor.”

The Rosebud Flea has given not just college students, like Brier, but people of all ages an outlet to gather around and appreciate the unique styles and treasures each vendor presented.

Brake and Quarles, along with the other vendors who attended on Feb. 25 and March 3 did not fail to create an inclusive and positive environment for the people of Towson.

“It is a welcoming and arm-opening place where everyone is welcomed and the overall vibe I try to create is that everyone can walk out with a smile and tell their friends about the Rosebud,” Brake says.

“The last thing I want is for someone to leave with a frown on their face.”

Whiting-Turner Contracting Company of Towson has been selected to build a $600 million data center in Oregon for a subsidiary of Google, according to constructiondive.com.

Design LLC is the Google subsidiary that chose Whiting-Turner to build the data center in Wasco County, Oregon. The 290,000-square-foot facility will be added to an existing complex that Google has in the area, known as The Dalles Google Data Center.

Never fear, Nana’s here!

Well, nearly here. In less than one week on Jan. 31, James Beard-nominated chef Carlos Raba will host the grand opening of his new Towson restaurant, Nana. Raba will open the doors at noon for lunch for diners to get their first look at his casual-dining concept, specializing in the “savory fire-roasted delicacies and sweet treats of his Sinaloan hometown of Culiacán,” reads the press release announcing the opening.

The restaurant is three years in the making, with Raba having to navigate the challenges of gutting and rebuilding a space for the new restaurant during the height of COVID-19, while managing his hugely successful restaurant in Charles Village, Clavel.

Nana will specialize in whole rotisserie chickens (prepared hourly in its Rotisol oven), pork al pastor (shaved from the vertical roasting spit), Sinaloa-style hot dogs (wrapped in bacon, smothered in toppings), seasonal vegetables and other regional specialties and treats. Tacos and quesadillas on handmade tortillas and “drowned” torta sandwiches will also feature prominently. There will also be entire roasted cauliflowers, baked slowly in vegetarian-friendly marinade.

“Nana is named in honor of my grandmother” says Chef Raba. “It is a celebration of family tradition, and I welcome the entire community to celebrate with me.”

The restaurant will have 15 seats for in-house dining, and provide many options for taking meals home, including meal packages to feed the whole family. Diners and those waiting for take-out will be able to see Nana’s taqueros preparing their meals in the open kitchen, adding to the restaurant’s bright, joyful atmosphere.

At first, Nana will be open for lunch and dinner, six days per week. Raba expects to expand hours and add delivery options in the spring, including a weekend brunch with breakfast tacos and specialty coffee.

When Raba spoke to Fishbowl about Nana in December, he explained his vision for the restaurant, and what it represents for him. “I want the neighborhood kids to say, ‘Dad, I’m gonna go and ride my bike and have adobo.’ ‘Hey, Dad, I’m gonna go and ride and have three tacos.’ ‘Hey, do you want to pick up chicken from Nana and you don’t cook today?’ ‘Hey, don’t worry about dinner. I’m gonna go and get a whole chicken and Nana before dinner and you come here.’”

With Nana, Raba is channeling his childhood, and what he wants for his own child and the kids in the neighborhoods around him. He said everything about his cooking and businesses is based on things he loves and feels passionately about.

Nana is located at 6901 York Road, Towson, MD. It is in the historic Stoneleigh Community Building, where the former Purdum Pharmacy once was.

Editor’s note: This article won second place (Division C) in the Business Reporting category of the Maryland, Delaware, and D.C. Press Association’s 2023 Contest. Read our other award-winning pieces here.

Carlos Raba, chef-owner of the acclaimed Clavel restaurant in Remington, is set to open his newest restaurant, a taqueria called Nana, in Towson this January.

Raba’s personality exudes youthful exuberance. In fact, kids, childhood, and family are front of mind with everything going into his newest venture, which will replace the former Purdum Pharmacy in the historic Stoneleigh Community Building at 6901 York Road.

Inspired by his mother, aunts, and grandmother, Nana pays tribute to the women who raised Raba and who ensured that a tragedy that occurred before he even drew his first breath would not impede the joys he would find throughout his life.

Two month’s before Raba was born, his father was murdered during a home invasion on Raba’s older brother’s birthday.

“I was born in March. It was my brother’s birthday; my brother was born on January 9. They were coming back from buying presents for my brother and the home invasion (happened),” Raba said. “They came into the house. My dad fought them. It was a shooting. He shoved them, he got them out of the house, and then he went after them. That’s when he got murdered.”

After that, Raba’s mother fled with her children from southern Mexico to northern Mexico. They moved to Culiacán, where Raba’s mother had four sisters, with whom they lived from then on.

It was there he was deeply influenced by cooking and the concept of the taqueria. While his mother worked as a journalist and editor, his aunts and grandmother would take care of him and his cousins.

“They used to love to go to taquerias,” Raba recalled. “So, Friday night and Saturday night, they will take all my cousins and myself to this sit-down corner taqueria which was on the street. A metal cart with a taquero making tacos and two people or three people. There was a dishwasher, a taquero, and the lady making tortillas. I was passionate about the beauty of the taco.”

As a journalist, Raba’s mother uncovered corruption by the highest government officials — including Raba’s own grandfather.

“He was a diplomat, and when she didn’t agree to stuff that he was doing she would hit him in the newspaper,” Raba said. “From the early ’80s to the late ’90s she was feared by politicians of corruption, that she will publicize them. She wrote in the national papers. She was one of the founders of Processo, the magazine. She wrote in Noroeste. I have pictures of her with the president of Mexico interviewing and walking around. So, she was very influential to me.”

Eventually, due to his mother’s profession, Raba’s family had to seek asylum in the United States as political refugees.

They arrived in Washington, D.C. and were held by Amnesty International when Raba was 16 or 17 years old. He attended Blair High School in Montgomery County, Maryland.

“It wasn’t easy,” he said. “We were homeless for a little bit and then then we find some people to help us just little by little.”

His mother, who has bipolar disorder and schizophrenia, returned to Mexico. She hasn’t been able to work since she left the U.S., Raba said.

“My brother and I hustled and sent her money, and we were lucky that she purchased a house,” he said. “She had a house, and we sold a house.”

Now, she lives in a retirement home. “Yeah, she’s looked after,” he said. “But she kind of had a really rough life at first. I grew up around strong women. She was a fighter like all my aunts, so this is what I’m going to do here.”

Raba’s other restaurant, Clavel, has been lauded by Food Network, Travel and Leisure, Oprah Magazine, Saveur Magazine, among many others. The restaurant, and Raba have been nominated for James Beard awards; Clavel is a two-time semi-finalist in the bar category.

With Nana, Raba is channeling his childhood, and what he wants for his own child and the children in the neighborhoods around him. He said everything about his cooking and businesses is based on things he loves and feels passionately about.

“In Clavel, probably one of my happiest moments was when my son — he’s now 9 — he said his favorite food is torta de cochinita pibil, which was my favorite food when I was his age and my aunt used to make it for me,” Raba recalled. “So, it makes me really happy that my son had the same experience that I have, and he was like, ‘Dad, I want to go to the jiu jitsu party and then I want to walk to Clavel and have torta de cochinita pibil.’ And there’s the same thing that I want us to hear.”

In describing his vision for Nana, Raba said, “I want the neighborhood kids to say, ‘Dad, I’m gonna go and ride my bike and have adobo.’ ‘Hey, Dad, I’m gonna go and ride and have three tacos.’ ‘Hey, do you want to pick up chicken from Nana and you don’t cook today?’ ‘Hey, don’t worry about dinner. I’m gonna go and get a whole chicken and Nana before dinner and you come here.’”

He describes wanting to feed a family with a chicken and three sides for $35. When people see his proposed menu, they are in disbelief about the low prices.

“It’s kind of silly, because every time that I present the menu to people, they’re like, ‘Wait, you are making all that type of stuff $5?’ I’m like ‘Yeah, I want [people to say] ‘I’m gonna go with $5. I could buy myself a taco, or I can make three tacos with the $7’ or stuff like that. It creates excitement to the kids and into the adult people too…. I want to make it fun!” Raba said.

Nana will be more casual than Clavel, with a louder, more exuberant, out-on-the-street type of feel.

“You’re gonna hear people chopping.… Everything’s going to be cooked on fire. So, you’re going to have carne asada, pastor, rotisserie chickens. And you’re going to have two taqueros, taking the meat and chopping it up and making the tacos, each taco with a little paper and a little tortilla, and a single taco to three tacos per plate,” Raba described excitedly.

He continued, “There’s different cooking also. Everything is on the fire. Everything in Clavel are slow cooks. They do more from the south of Mexico. The north of Mexico is very influenced by the Germans, by fire, by grilling, a really low open fire flame. A lot of tacos that are northern cooked, it’s more challenging because I have to teach my staff the skill of being on the kettle, the skill of chopping the meat, the skill of cooking the meat into the fire, making sure that is the right temperature, the right seasoning and being consistent with that. So it’s a totally different challenge of what I had in the other restaurants.”

Raba is the only staff carryover from Clavel; he’s hiring everyone new and training every cook himself. This is one of the challenges, but he feels confident that organizing and creating systems that work is a strength of his based on his days working at places like Whole Foods and Giant.

“I want to mentor and teach and I’m going to make sure that a Latin restaurant is strong in this community. There is not a lot of Latin restaurants here. There is Chipotle, and that’s what it is,” Raba said. “Towson is highly populated by Hispanics. So, I want to have a proud Mexican taqueria.”

He wants the place to be for kids of all ages, too. It’s not lost on him that his location is near numerous colleges and high schools.

“I want the kids from Towson coming here. I want the kids from Loyola coming here and having tacos. I want to have a place of like, ‘Man, I don’t know what to eat. Let’s go to Nana.’ Or ‘Let’s order from Nana online,’” Raba said.

He wants 60% of Nana’s business to be online and/or to-go orders.

“I want people to be home with like, ‘I want to order some tacos,’ because that’s what I did,” Raba said, harkening back to his childhood again. “In Mexico, there was multiple nights that my aunts didn’t want to cook, that my grandmother didn’t want to cook. They were like, ‘Order tacos. Just order tacos,’ and there were like 10 or 15 tacos from the taquerias and then there was a feast in the house.”

Again, Raba thinks of what it’s like to be a kid.

“When I talk to my business partner, he’s like, ‘Come on, it’s YOU. It should be $7 a taco.’ But the point is I want to be a kid and I want to have $5 and go and have a taco,” Raba said.

He made the point that if his son asked for $5 to buy candy, he’d give it to him. He loves the idea of that same $5 buying him a meal.

“I want to think I’m hard working enough to be able to provide for him. I’m in a neighborhood that he can say, ‘Dad, can you get $10? I’m gonna go and bike down (to Nana),’ and they want to have two tacos and they’re going to go back home. You call your friend and say, ‘Hey, man, I want to go to Nana,’ and we get on our bikes in the summer, and we call them and then we have three tacos and then we ride our bikes back.” Raba said.

The décor also reflects his childhood and his family. Three enlarged photos will be framed and hung: one of his entire family from the early 1970s in Mazatlán; one of his mother, grandmother, and aunts; and one of Mazatlán itself. The tiles decorating the walls were inspired by a quilt one of his employees made during COVID that Raba purchased. The colors of the quilt matched many of the colors of houses and flowers seen in Sinaloa where he grew up.

His grandmother’s favorite flower was the bougainvillea, which customers will see in Nana’s logo and on the menu.

Raba’s handiwork will even be seen in the menu design itself, on which he and his wife collaborated.

“I want to make it fun-looking. The menu looks like you know when you go to a Mexican market and everything is painted on hand,” Raba said.

Of the entire Nana experience, Raba said, “I want to make it like you’re going to market then you see the taquero and then you see the menu and you hear that the taquero screaming to people, ‘We have two tacos! We have three tacos!’ So, the person is screaming to the people here and then you’ll have a kid running around, creating excitement, you know what I’m saying? Excitement of culture, excitement of food, just excited.”

Now on the auction block: one used Baldwin piano with burn marks. And oh yeah, did we mention it has ties to John Lennon, Yoko Ono, Sam Green, and Andy Warhol?

The instrument is being auctioned by Towson-based Alex Cooper Auctioneers, with a starting bid of $300,000.

The condition is what you’d expect from a well-loved instrument, with some wear and tear. There are burn marks on the finish in the shape of a circle — possibly from an ashtray or cigarette ash — but we think that adds to the charm. The top key’s hammer is nearly completely worn through, but mostly no one plays that last key anyway, right?

If you do become the piano’s new owner, there’s no guarantee that either talent or elite social status conveys. But the instrument’s history alone is enough to excite most fans of its former owners.

This is the 1929 Baldwin Concert Grand Piano Model D that John Lennon and Yoko Ono purchased from the Baldwin showroom in 1978. In 1979 Lennon gifted it to Sam Green, a dear friend of the couple. Lennon and Yoko had an engraved brass plaque attached above the Baldwin insignia that says, “For Sam/Love From/Yoko and John/1979.”

In 1980 Green moved the piano to his Fire Island home, where Lennon and Ono visited often, and where Lennon composed some of his final album, “Double Fantasy.”

Green was also close with Andy Warhol, and loaned the piano to his Interview Magazine office, The Factory. There it remained until 1986, surrounded by celebrity hoi polloi, witness to significant social events, and played by hopefully appreciative and respectful hands.

In 1987, Green loaned the piano to the New York Academy of Art for “special events and creative outlets,” who lost it by selling it without Green’s consent. Unless David Copperfield was involved, we’re not sure how you lose track of a nine-foot piano that basically has its name sewn into its collar, but stranger things have disappeared in New York City, we suppose.

Green sued the Academy, saying the piano was a loan rather than a gift. He dropped the lawsuit in 2001, seeing that the court was not on his side.

(This native New Yorker would like to imagine the piano was found pacing back and forth in front of LaGuardia High School for Music and Art and Performing Arts, begging future stars to play it and trying to convince the students there that really, back in the day, it used to be somebody.)

The piano was located in 2003, and eventually donated in 2018 to the Mercersburg Academy in Mercersburg, Pennsylvania, with a deed of trust that ensured the profits from its sale would create a scholarship fund for students there.

The fair market appraisal of the piano is over $5 million, so truly, $300,000 is a steal. It’s unlikely the price will be that low, though, as the auction house is expecting the piano to fetch between $2 million and $3 million.

Don’t be sad if this one is not in your price range, though. It just means that your search for a piano will have to be just like starting over.

Online bidding began on Friday, Sept. 15, 2023, and there will be a live auction on Saturday, Sept. 30 at 10 a.m. at Alex Cooper Auctioneers, located at 908 York Road in Towson.

Baltimore County businessman Trevor Brake said he’s tried a couple ventures before as an entrepreneur, but Towson’s new Rosebud Flea Market is the first one that has gained real traction.

The flea market, located outside Radebaugh Florist Shop every Saturday between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m., bills itself as “Baltimore County’s largest vintage flea market.”

People are noticing. Brake said that during the grand opening on July 17, Rosebud Flea Market attracted between 400 and 500 visitors. It currently hosts 31 vendors who offer goods including (but not limited to) vintage apparel, art, jewelry, music, and decor.

“We’re a family-friendly flea,” Brake said. “I tell you it’s a very rewarding feeling. More or less not because of how the business does, but how I get to see how the community grows–seeing new faces, and watching our vendors, who truly are small businesses, who get to thrive and have a place to prosper.”

Sierra Fischer is a vintage clothing and small-item seller from Westminster, Maryland who sells at the flea market through her business “Seams Like New.”  Her younger customers here now are trending toward buying long skirts, and workman jeans. But someone’s taste in vintage items also depends on the individual, she said.

“Like Trevor said, it’s really not about the money,” she said. “It’s about the connection I’ve made with my clientele. Seeing those light-up moments for them, that really hits home with me, because I know that they love the product just as much as I do, and they’ll actually use it. We’ve seen so much waste in the world, and it’s just really sad to see it all go unused. There’s some really good treasures out there.”

Fischer fell in love with the work of finding, sharing and selling vintage items, and hopes to make it into a full-time business soon. Her background is in customer service, and she strives to give customers a personal touch at Seems Like New.

“I want to give everybody that little piece of attention, make them feel welcome, make them feel listened too,” she said. “It’s a huge part of what I do. It is extremely important. It’s the little things, even just a compliment or a smile can brighten their day.”

Brake learned some of his own business style from attending a Rochester, New York flea market his sister was a vendor at during the summer of 2021 called “Lucky Flea”.

“I watched and learned the whole process of a flea market operating–how the employees make things run smoothly, how the vendors set up their own shops,” he recalled. “I used to work for my brother who is a tech company owner. It’s called ‘Let’s Tap In.’ It’s a night life business. It does a lot of events. I took the event management operating. I combined it with vintage clothing, and you get a flea market.”

Both entrepreneurs have found a home for their passion and positivity at the Rosebud Flea Market. Brake said he hopes the market could expand in the future. Fischer has found kindred spirits in the local community.

“Towson is an incredible community, really a wide range of ages,” she said. “I feel that I can really connect to each and every person. It’s really opened my eyes. I’m from a small town in Cecil County, grew up in the middle of a corn field–so I didn’t know that many people in the community. Coming to a city it’s been a really great experience to meet all different types of people.”

The newest Maryland location of Dogtopia, a doggy daycare, boarder, and spa for pets, has opened in Towson. The owner, Heather Davis, will mark the occasion with a grand opening and ribbon-cutting ceremony, followed by a special National Dog Day event on Saturday, August 26.

Dogtopia Towson is a women-owned small business led by Heather Davis. She brings 20 years of franchise experience to the role, and an enthusiasm for supporting Towson’s community through philanthropy, athletics, and animals.

As part of a sponsorship with Towson University athletics, Dogtopia will spotlight a ‘Dog of the Game’ at every football, basketball and lacrosse home game, as well as host a fun ‘dog toy toss’ benefit game at gymnastics meets where, according to a release, “attendees throw dog toy donations on the gym floor mats which are given to BARCS.”

The event is billed as “fur-friendly” and a “celebration of all dogs,” with local dog owners invited to participate in the fun at Dogtopia Towson. There will be a National Dog Day “pawty,” with prizes, local food, music, and fundraising. The event is free, though some activities do require a donation to the Dogtopia Foundation to participate.

The Dogtopia Foundation funds programs focused around service dogs for veterans, youth literacy programs, and employment initiatives for adults with autism. The foundation aims to “identify needs, fill gaps, and integrate knowledge for continuous improvement in the three areas of focus,” according to a news release. “By connecting dogs with organizations the Foundation supports, the Foundation is helping returning veterans, children and adults with autism reach their full potential,” it reads.

Dogtopia is centered around animal wellness, quality of care, safety, and transparency. Dogtopia Towson aims to support its neighbors through philanthropy and local hiring.

“Since moving here in 2018 from Baltimore City, I’ve learned that Towson is full of community, opportunity and, what I love best, dogs!” said Davis. “We’re excited to welcome our Towson neighbors to Dogtopia. We can’t wait to build a community where loving, caring for and pampering pets is at the heart of everything we do. National Dog Day was the perfect opportunity to open our business and our daily celebration of dogs to the greater community. We hope you’ll stop by so we can meet your pup in person!”

The line-up of events for Dogtopia Towson’s Grand Opening on Saturday, August 26 is as follows:

• Kick-off ribbon cutting with the Towson Chamber of Commerce at 10:00 a.m. 
• Rock out to music from the School of Rock Baltimore  
• Enjoy catering from some of your favorite Towson hot spots, including Papi’s Tacos  
• Try some amazing boutique California wines by Cobden Wini and VGS 
• Spin the Dogtopia Foundation prize wheel for the chance to win free dog daycare, boarding, swag or other Dogtopia prizes 
• Share about your dog’s “superpower” to enter the #MightyDogtopia Sweepstakes for the opportunity to win a trip for four to Los Angeles to attend the PAW Patrol: The Mighty Movie on September 16. 
• Meet Dogtopia staff and introduce pets to potential new teachers 

Dogtopia Towson is located at 1270 E. Joppa Road #200 in Towson, MD. The Grand Opening celebration runs from 10:00 am to 4:00 pm.

Editor’s note: This article won second place (Division C) in the Growth & Land Use Reporting category of the Maryland, Delaware, and D.C. Press Association’s 2023 Contest. Read our other award-winning pieces here.

The Catskills town of Hobart Village in New York has fewer than 400 residents, but at least eight independent bookstores along its main street. Charlottesville, Virginia, population 45,400, is home to at least 10 bookstores. There are at least 10 bookstores as well in Saratoga Springs, New York (pop. 28,600).

There are towns with multiple bookstores in Scotland, South Korea, Switzerland, Norway, and all over the world.

Yet if you exclude campus bookstores or shops that mostly deal in college textbooks, Towson, with a population of more than 50,000 and home to two colleges (Goucher and Towson), has zero.

A Towson Yelp search for “bookstores near me” yields, in its top five, The Ivy Bookshop (Baltimore City), the Bird in Hand Café & Bookstore (Baltimore City), Barnes & Noble (Pikesville), The Book Escape (Baltimore City), and Greedy Reads (Baltimore City). None, in other words, in Towson.

“It’s a little crazy,” says Jay Hilgartner, a former community relations manager at the Towson Barnes & Noble bookstore who worked for the company for a dozen years.

It wasn’t always this way. Not that long ago Towson readers could buy books at Greetings & Readings, or Ukazoo Books, or even at large chain bookstores like Barnes & Noble and Borders. But Greetings & Readings closed its Towson store before relocating to Hunt Valley, and in 2019 closed that store as well. The former location of Ukazoo Books off Dulaney Valley Road is now a bike shop, and Ukazoo’s Loch Raven Boulevard location closed a couple of years ago. The Borders Bookstore chain went bankrupt more than a decade ago. Barnes & Noble is still around, but the chain closed its Towson store in 2017.

So what happened?

The easy answer is that Amazon happened. Amazon, founded in 1995, recognized the market for online book purchases and captured that space. As Amazon grew, the number of independent booksellers plunged. In 2007, Amazon introduced the Kindle electronic reader, to give readers of online books an Amazon-endorsed device on which to read them. Amazon came to dominate the e-book market. Is it fair to blame Amazon?

“It’s not that simple,” says Leo Gordy, assistant manager of the Barnes & Noble in Bowie. “Each individual company has their own story.”

For the now-out-of-business Borders, says Gordy, who once worked for the company, the end came after it gave away too much business knowledge to Amazon. The Towson branch of Barnes & Noble closed when a leasing issue caused it to vacate its location in the center of Towson. Barnes & Noble has not died, however, and many of its stores continue to operate. After he was brought in to preside over the closing of the Towson Barnes & Noble store, Gordy moved on to manage the Barnes & Noble in Pikesville, Maryland, which was recently featured in an NPR story about how the company has rebounded from “the brink of extinction.”

And nationally at least, independent booksellers have made a remarkable comeback. The American Booksellers Association reported that there were nearly 2,500 bookstores in 2018, after a low of 1,651 in 2009.

“I think what we’ve understood,” Mitchell Kaplan, founder of South Florida-based Books & Books, told Publishers Weekly in 2022, “with all the shocks to the literary system, that it has never been stronger. Books are not going away. People wanting stories is not going away.” 

“Certainly Towson has a lot of the factors that might make it a desirable place for a bookstore,” says Emma Snyder, who owns Baltimore’s Ivy Bookshop and Bird in Hand Café & Books. “It’s dense, well educated. There’s precedent of demand. Is there somebody in Towson who would like to own an indie bookstore? And then do they have the wherewithal, and do they have the inclination? It is a lot of work. There’s just such a constellation of factors and variables.”

It helps, says Pam Price, former co-owner of The Book Shop, in Beverly Farms, Mass., to have a famous author affiliated with your bookstore. The writer John Updike had a house in Beverly Farms, and was a generous regular at The Book Shop. Ernest Hemingway’s legacy in Key West, Florida, has been a boon to that town’s many bookstores. It hasn’t hurt bookstores in Oxford, Mississippi, that the town is known for being the home of William Faulkner. Yet famous author or no famous author, Price, whose husband grew up in Towson, is a staunch advocate of bookstores as places to buy books, and is dismayed by the dearth of Towson bookshops. “There’s something about seeing books in person,” she says.

So, back to the question posed at the outset: Why no bookstores in Towson? The best answer might be that at present, no potential bookshop owner feels that Towson has the combination of community demographics and affordable space to make a bookstore viable. Or, following Snyder’s line of thinking, no potential owner has the inclination to start one. It could be that the answer is simply timing — there have been bookstores in the past, and there will be bookstores at some point in the future, but there aren’t any now.

Towson finds itself with no bookstores at the same time the world is coming out of an era-defining pandemic, which may have made it less than the best time to launch a bookstore.

Gordy even says a move back to Towson for the chain is not out of the question for Barnes & Noble. “It’s just a matter of making sure they find the right spot,” he says.

For now, lovers of books and those who want to support local businesses in Towson will have to wait.

534 Park Avenue | Towson, Maryland 21204

Live authentically. Nestled on the most sought-after block in West Towson lies this quintessential charmer with surprise party barn out back. A true ‘feel good’ house. Light, bright and exuding soul, circa 1923. A fabulous blend of old and new with nothing left to do but move in. Step in and instantly feel at home. Inviting interiors. Clean and crisp palette. Stylish gathering spaces with maximum connectivity. A living room made for living that opens to dining room and airy sunroom. Fresh white eat-in kitchen with bay window overlooking lush professionally landscaped backyard. Oversized screened in porch perfect for crab feasts or a shaded afternoon snooze. Craving more space? Possibly an incredible spot to entertain. A gym with the ability to be open-air. A destination office. Perhaps all three. The stunningly renovated two-level party barn with half bath on second floor offers a rarely available flex space for anything your heart desires. Take pride in loving where you live. A joy-filled block that celebrates being together. Incredible walkability to playgrounds, restaurants, shopping and YMCA to name a few. Just some of the recent updates include: barn renovation (2012), kitchen (2018), windows (2021), roof (2019), siding (2021), hardscape/landscaping (2012 & 2019). Showings begin at Open House Wednesday, May 31 at 12:00pm. The art of uniting human and home.

Ridership of the Towson Loop’s free-to-ride circulator buses is still well short of the quarter million annual passengers projected by a 2020 feasibility study. But growing usage of the bus system has heartened Baltimore County officials to explore expanding the service to other parts of the county.

Towson Loop buses have logged more than 80,000 riders since the program launched a year and a half ago, said Baltimore County officials.

The number of riders has risen by 550 percent over the past 18 months, with the buses currently transporting about 6,500 riders monthly. That’s up from 1,000 riders per month when the program launched in October 2021, said Marchel Simmons, general manager for the Towson Loop.

“After the first year, folks in Towson realized how to use the Loop … especially since last August with a new influx of Towson University students and Goucher College students,” Simmons said. “It just started clicking so that folks (understood) how to use the Loop.”

County officials are looking at Owings Mills and Catonsville to potentially get Loop buses of their own, Simmons said.

“It takes a lot of planning and we work with the MTA,” she said. “We’re looking at a feasibility study.”

Part of the expansion will involve determining stops where residents need and want to visit.

“Some of these other areas like Owings Mills and Catonsville, they’re (more spread out),” said Anthony Russell, Baltimore County’s deputy director of transportation. “What we can use is an anchor – hospitals, schools. We haven’t got that far yet. You want to catch the right ridership and go to the right places … so (that) we’re actually doing something the citizens of Baltimore County want.”

In Towson, those anchors include destinations like Towson University, the Towson Town Center mall, the Towson Place shopping center, K-12 schools, apartments, hospitals, libraries, and other commonly used places.

The Towson Loop takes riders to a total of 42 bus stops in the Towson area free of charge on two different bus routes: the east-to-west orange route with 25 stops, and the north-to-south purple route with 17 stops. The Loop uses existing MTA stops, but with added signage for the Loop.

Each of the 25-passenger, combustion-engine buses includes a wheelchair lift for passengers, as well as a bike rack for commuting cyclists. Groceries and baggage can be carried on board, along with pets as long as they can be kept under control on the rider’s lap or in a small carrier. Service animals are also allowed.

The manager said there has been a lot of positive feedback from riders on the friendliness of the drivers, the cleanliness of the buses, and ease in understanding the routes.

Towson Loop riders can monitor bus routes in real time through the PassioGo app, or by texting the Stop ID number (located in the middle of the bus stop sign) to 443-489-4524 for real-time, estimated arrival information.

The Loop is also going to use QR codes to help users track the buses, Simmons said.

“We’re going to put QR codes on the bus (stop) signs, and we are going to put the QR codes on the buses themselves,” she said.

The Loop’s fleet of 12 buses are operated by Coach USA and are funded this year with a $3.6 million grant.

Simmons said the Towson Circulator Loop is always looking for drivers, safety managers, and customer service agents. She encourages all residents to maintain and increase their use of the Loop.

“It reaches all,” she said. “This is our little baby, and we are going to watch it grow.”