Jasmine Norton has spent the past few months preparing to open The Urban Oyster, her sit-down restaurant, in Hampden in late summer.
Norton has relocated, scaled her business and adjusted concepts about a half-dozen times since beginning the Urban Oyster concept almost seven years ago.
Believed to be the only Black woman in the state to own a brick-and-mortar, oyster-themed restaurant, Norton cited living in Maryland as one of the reasons she has been able to pivot and succeed.
“I don’t think that I would still have a business, especially with what we had to deal with in terms of a global pandemic, without our city and the people that believe in us,” said the 35-year-old Canton resident. “If I’m being honest, when the pandemic surfaced, we were making more money during the pandemic because people wanted us to stay afloat. Every pivotal moment, our supporters have shown up so that we can be successful.”
A new study by Lendio has ranked Maryland as the second-best state in the country for minority entrepreneurs to succeed. (Hawaii was first and Montana was last.
