Thursday, September 13, 2012
The popular cake and candy supply store celebrates 35 years later this month.
Moving back into Fullerton was something of a homecoming for Cake & Wedding Cottage and its owner Tammy Mansberger. The shop has only been at 7076 Belair Road in Belair Beltway Plaza for about 6 months; before the 22-year-long run in Perry Hall near Silver Spring Road, though, they had a home in the same shopping center near the present location of Betty Brite Cleaners, Mansberger said. In fact Mansberger, a Perry Hall native, worked there as a teenager when her cousins Donna and Charlie Parrish ran the family business. “Our business began in a little house in Kingsville, at the corner of Belair and Sunshine Avenue … it looks like a cottage, it’s still there,” Mansberger said. “We’ve always been on the Belair Road corridor. This is a …
Tuesday, July 10, 2012
Meet the men behind Parkville's new record store.
If you're looking for Overlea Hobbies where a sign outside says the store should be, you're in for quite a shock. The former location of the Harford Road hobby shop has been Parkville's newest (and only) record store, Shock Dr., for almost a month. The new store, which specializes in vinyl records and serves as the office of the rock magazine Shockwave, is operated by Vince Anderson and Parkville resident Rick Harper. Anderson, 50, has been publishing a music "fanzine" since the late 1980's, when he said that he and friend-slash-current-Shockwave-magazine-managing-editor Steve Higgs decided they wanted to start a music magazine to "hang out, meet bands, go to concerts and get free CD's." That magazine, originally called the East Coast Rock…
Thursday, June 14, 2012
After a few week hiatus, Parkville-Overlea Patch is looking to bring back the series that focuses on local entrepreneurs with your help.
Back in February of this year, Parkville-Overlea Patch launched a feature called Behind the Counter that profiled local businesses and business owners. In the months since, we've talked to entrepreneurs who do everything from selling hot sauce to tattooing and piercing and everything in between. Now we're asking you to nominate the next business to be featured in the weekly column as we prepare to relaunch by answering these questions: Where do you shop in Parkville-Overlea? Is there a local business you've always meant to, but never explored? Which entrepreneurs are doing great things for the community? Previous Behind the Counter features have focused on: So, readers—which Parkville-Overlea area businesses should we feature next?
Thursday, May 17, 2012
George's has been a mainstay in Parkville since the market opened its doors back in 1974.
George Burton has been making the five-mile commute from his family's 200-acres of farmland in Glen Arm to Parkville's Main Street since 1974 when George's Farm Market opened its garage-style doors for the first time. Now it's a much anticipated event when George's opens for the growing season each April. Over 38 seasons in business, Burton said he's seen a lot change: families and businesses have come and gone from the neighborhood but, he said, he still sees people he remembers from that first spring. "You get a lot of repeat business," Burton said. "We have a good clientele; they know good quality and good prices." Burton stood outside George's Thursday morning, watering fresh flowers he brought to the store earlier from greenhouses at …
Tuesday, May 15, 2012
At just 29, Jason Brager manages 16 Big Screen Stores. Six weeks ago, he added the new Sofa Store on Luskin's hill to his list.
Believe it or not, business at The Big Screen Store isn't declining. In fact, with a new concept that recently opened, it's reclining. The Sofa Store opened atop Luskin's Hill, just across from the Big Screen Store, in a 50,000-square foot space last month. The new store offers furniture in all shapes and sizes, and shoppers can work with designers to build customized furniture for any living room. The store is owned by Kevin and Cary Luskin, owners of the Big Screen Store and, yes, of those Luskins. We spoke to Jason Brager, who at just 29 is the general manager for the new Sofa Store and all 16 Big Screen Store locations in Maryland and Virginia. Tell me in a nutshell what you guys do. Obviously, we sell seating, and then stuff to go …
Thursday, April 19, 2012
This locally-owned and operated electronics repair shop has been going strong since 2009.
In our increasingly technology-heavy world, the difference between your computer or smartphone working and not working is like the difference between life and death. Sam Palm, a lifelong Parkville resident, keeps machines happily buzzing away from Restore Computer Repair of Baltimore. Palm and his wife, Tammy, have been maintaining and repairing computers at their Harford Road store since 2009. And he doesn't just fix your laptop or your desktop—pretty much, if it has a circuit board, Palm said he can fix it. "People bring in cell phones all the time, mostly because of cracked screens," he said. "One time, I had a guy bring in a machine that measures the speed of a golfball as it leaves the tee. It just needed a part resoldered—that's sort…
Tuesday, April 10, 2012
A look at a Carney carryout that strives for community involvement.
It's been about a year since 49-year-old Paul Mettee took over Maria's of Carney on Ridgely Road and in that time he said he's seen the business start a turnaround that he hopes to see continue. "It was pretty hard to get this store from buried to where we’re at today. First year we sold over 13,000 pizzas—for being in a recession, for all the competition, that's pretty good," Mettee said. Mettee, who used to run LaPore's sub shop in the Belair-Edison neighborhood where he grew up, used his expertise after 18 years in the carryout business to build the business back up. "When I walked in here in August 2010, I just couldn't believe the conditions in the store," Mettee said. "The hardest part was getting back our reputation." Maria's is a …
39.393401
-76.515442
Maria's of Carney
9528 Ridgely Ave, Parkville, MD
/articles/behind-the-counter-maria-s-of-carney
2067092
/locations/6771519
Thursday, March 22, 2012
Waterman Anthony Vicari is living out his dream, selling the crabs he catches at his Fullerton storefront.
Rarely does the name of a business fit the character of the place so well as Waterman's Pride suits the seafood shop in Belair Beltway Plaza shopping center. For the last seven years the store's owner, Anthony Vicari, has provided his customers with fresh, locally-caught Maryland crabs during crab season. Vicari will spend most days during the crabbing season—April 1 until Thanksgiving—pulling in bushels of Maryland's favorite seafood from the Chesapeake. Crabs are something that Vicari takes very seriously—he's been catching them since he was 13 years old and learned from his father who was also a waterman, crabbing off Miller Island. Aside from a stint working in management "in corrugated cardboard," he's been on the Bay his whole life…
Tuesday, March 13, 2012
This Harford Road shop has been training divers, selling, servicing and repairing diving equipment since 1958.
Back in the 1970s, Chaz Kafer was just a guy with a dream — inspired by TV adventure series Sea Hunt, Kafer decided he wanted to learn to scuba dive. "I'm an adventure kind of guy," Kafer said. "I was in industry, upper-level management and I decided I wanted to get out there and do something for myself." The journey that brought Kafer to own and operate Diver's Den on Harford Road in Parkville begins, interestingly enough, at Diver's Den. Kafer, who grew up in Dundalk, got certified in scuba diving after taking lessons at the shop he owns today during the early part of the '70s and by 1975 he was teaching others how to dive at the shop. Standing behind the counter, surrounded by scuba equipment Kafer explains that at the time, the shop …
Tuesday, March 6, 2012
Local couple points to faith, family and good old fashioned customer service as the reasons for their success.
John and Monica Panzer have come a long way since they started their business in a 700-square-foot basement space under Dino's in Perry Hall. Just Audio, the Panzer's audio repair shop, has since moved into a storefront on Harford Road in Parkville and the couple are enjoying a growing number of customers—but back in September '05 when they launched, they were only authorized to do repairs for one manufacturer. As time went on and the business grew, John knew that the space the business occupied needed to grow too. "There was no way we could stay where we were," John said. The Panzers found their opportunity to move to Parkville in June of 2007 and haven't looked back since. "Originally I didn't want to move over here," John said of the …
David Korczyk
11:12 pm on Wednesday, September 12, 2012
This store needs to get store hours posted somewhere, or a phone number or something! I liked the booth at North Point Flea market before they got an actual store, great people and awesome vibe. I plan on coming by the store if I can find out when they're open! more ›