Yoga classes, consignment fashions, and a cafe we’ll miss.
Some of the losses during this pandemic have been touchstones around town. Here are a few we’ve been missing.
Suncrest Yoga
Suncrest Yoga extended all-level yoga and barre classes to the Morgantown community until, in March, an expired lease and an uncertain future led owner Nicole Yost Ross to let the business end in savasana.
Ross opened the studio in 2012 after moving to Morgantown from northeast Ohio, where she practiced heated vinyasa yoga seven days a week. “It was such a vital part of my mental and physical health, and it simply wasn’t available here,” she says. “I wanted to share that practice and how it changed my life with my new community.”
Ross, too, is taking a savasana. After teaching yoga at least six days a week for the past eight years, she’s finding her new flow. She’s spending her extra time at home with her family, writing, cooking, gardening, and babysitting her two-year-old granddaughter.
You can find former Suncrest Yoga instructors at studios throughout Morgantown and online.
Contemporary Consignment
In March, Hallie Andrew put a pin in her business of 16 years. Contemporary Consignment offered designer clothing and accessories for any occasion and in every size at 50 to 70 percent off retail. While Andrew will miss the fantastic finds at a fraction of the cost, she’ll most miss the friendships that developed at Contemporary Consignment over the years. She says it felt like family.
But with her own two children home from school and retirement only a year away, Andrew saw permanent closure as the right decision.
“God blessed me for 16 years to be able to provide for my kids, and for that, I am grateful,” she says. “It’s a new chapter in my life and I couldn’t be happier.”
Farmhouse Cafe
For four and a half years, Farmhouse Cafe served up coffee, pastries, and lunch on Coombs Farm Drive. Owner Michelle Rowan says the cafe felt like home when you walked through the door. “It was a place where people could work, catch up with an old friend, or dash in for coffee and breakfast before work,” Rowan says.
But in mid-March, the cafe closed due to the statewide shutdown, and startup costs were too much to re-open. “I always said I had a five year plan,” Rowan says, “and November is five years.” She’s taking the closure in stride. “I saw all of these factors as signs to sell. I can enjoy my kids and still do a job that I love,” she says. She now operates Farmhouse Sweets, offering custom cakes, cookies, and pastries. While Rowan says baking has always been her passion, she’ll miss the sense of community she and her customers felt at the Farmhouse.
posted on August 5, 2020
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