Bean Hollow on Main Street Displays Patrons' Art

Art created in the shadows of Ellicott City's Bean Hollow is now on display.

The coffee shop on Main Street doesn't have wireless internet as many others do, encouraging guests to unplug from their devices and connect with one another.

"They want people to talk and network and have relationships and that kind of thing, which I think is nice," one patron said in a documentary about the shop in 2010.

One way people have been connecting is through artwork and messages left in a drawer at the back of the coffee shop, where the Howard County Times reported 100 napkins and 11 notebooks have accumulated since the trend started in 2008.

Owner Gretchen Shuey put some of the art on display at Bean Hollow last month. It consists of "napkin drawings, writings and musings of our customers, left behind in our 'secret' drawer," according to the Bean Hollow Facebook page.

The art is presented on six boards, and Shuey plans to rotate out some of the contributions and possibly compile a coffee table book featuring the art, according to the Howard County Times.

"There is so much we were unable to exhibit because the writing was too small to see from a distance," Bean Hollow reported. "We are playing with ideas like menu board cases that could be hung by each table, or maybe putting some of them in the napkin holder display where the monthly specials are currently."

According to Bean Hollow, the boards will be changed every four to six weeks and will be up at least through the end of 2014.

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