One store owner's opening day was on March 8 - just before the world went crazy. Another, who had a comfortable job as a hotel chef found himself in the middle of two industries suffering the most -- tourism and restaurants. The pandemic offered the worst of timing but, for some, the best opportunity to start fresh. These are the stories of several small businesses that started up either right before or during the pandemic, one from each Hampton Roads city.

 Read more in this Sunday's Main News section.

Read more in this Sunday's Main News section.

• Detroit was the birthplace of the American car. It is the city that gave us Motown, and techno, and the first recorded licks of John Lee Hooker. And it is also the homeland of one of the country’s most distinctive and long-overlooked pizzas — a square-cut, cheese-bordered, hearteningly thick and often-sauce-slathered slab that can invoke enough comfort to smother a heart attack.

  And now, finally, as long as you’re fast enough to snag one each day, you can get those four-corner pies from a food truck in Hampton Roads.

   Read more in the Sunday Break section.

• As is customary for the new year, many people will vow to change their ways and pledge to improve their health. Chief among their concerns will be wine and other alcoholic beverages. Dry Januarys have become fashionable, as has what has come to be called the new sobriety.

  I don’t know whether the emotional cost of enduring a pandemic for almost a year will diminish the appeal of a drinking hiatus. It could be that a dry January this year will go the way of dressing for work and regular haircuts.

   Read more in The Sunday Break section.

• The leader of Virginia Beach public schools is calling for some of the division’s students to start returning for in-person classes on Jan. 19 despite Hampton Roads’ number of new coronavirus cases and positive rate continuing to climb. Read more in The Sunday Break section.