Before the fire, Lucy's Place would come alive in the morning. Gardeners and day laborers would come by for a morning pastry or breakfast burrito and coffee served up by owner Juan Orozco, who arrived at 5 a.m. to prepare. If he had to step out, his regulars would take over and serve coffee to customers, he said.
Darneille opened Smokecraft Modern Barbecue in 2020 - directly following the year in which his team won over 70 awards on the festival circuit. While he didn't know it then, the timing could not have been worse. Between finding the perfect spot in Clarendon, a neighborhood in northern Arlington County, and fitting it out with all of the telltale signs of a great BBQ restaurant for the grand opening, COVID-19 struck.
In the early days of December 2024, Michelle Pierce, the owner of the recently opened indie bookstore Malibu Village Books, was finally starting to feel like her little shop was finding its footing. Opened the year before, the store had just launched a big book fair at a Malibu school, and was well into making inroads with other local institutions to collaborate on events.