"Main Street Appreciation Night:" Downtown Is Open, Battered Enough To Appreciate Business

Go eat in downtown Ellicott City -- echoing an off-the-cuff campaign that Tom suggested this morning on the HoCo Rising blog.

The train derailment is a tragedy, and Tom is right that it seems to be keeping people from Main Street, which hurts the restaurants and shops there.

The fact is that places are open -- places like Portalli's, Pure Wine, Bean Hollow Cafe, Rumor Mill, Diamondback Tavern, Sweet Cascades, Scoop-Ah-Dee-Doo, etc.  I hear that custemers have dropped, maybe because people think that businesses are closed.  But Main Street is open, and you can get around.

Go tonight.  Go this weekend.  Eating out is a pleasure, not a sacrifice.  But your pleasure -- and Tom's idea -- can help out some people who have had a year of floods, blackouts, and now train disasters.

If you haven't been to Main Street recently, you should check it out.  Restaurants worth a drive.  Ice cream and candy shops to browse.  A bunch of "antique" stores to nose around -- with some modern, fresher places like Sweet Elizabeth Jane and Little Sunshine Trading.

What do you recommend to eat on Main Street in Ellicott City?  Give me a restaurant or store and something that you order there.  You can make a point and eat way better than a fried chicken sandwich and those waffle fries.

Update:  I was on the end of an email string, but it appears that people can donate in memory of one of the women killed in the derailment.  Her family is creating a scholarship fund for Mount Hebron High School graduates attending James Madison University.

Elizabeth Nass Scholarship Fund/mthptsa
c/o M &T Bank St. Johns Lane
9125 Baltimore National Pike
Ellicott City, MD 21042