The Boothbay Harbor planning board unanimously approved two new businesses March 11 in a meeting member John Hochstein said was nearly record short. Florin Iuga and Garry Stewart will open a coffee, wine and dessert bar at 41 Commercial St. and Brittany Tilton will open a hair and nail salon at 66 Townsend Ave.

Stewart said he and Iuga will do much of the work themselves, but foresee the need to hire four to five employees during the height of the season. The business will have enough room to seat about two dozen with a couple tables downstairs and the rest upstairs.

“We hope to be open early in the morning for people wanting coffee and (be open til) 9:30 at night to serve desserts, coffee and wine,” said Stewart. “The space has no kitchen so our plan is that we'd like to do some business-to-business with other people in town to purchase our desserts … We'd have our espresso machines, our coffee and probably do smoothies and stuff like that.”

Because the space is not heated, Stewart said the business would only operate seasonally – from about mid-April to Nov. 1 – but he hopes to work with landlords in the future on possibly expanding the season.

Tilton’s introduction to her hair and nail salon business was short and to the point: The downstairs portion of 66 Townsend Ave. will be for her business and the upstairs will continue as apartments. The business will employ four beauticians, Tilton said. The property has eight parking spots – more than enough to accommodate customers according to Tilton. Business hours will be 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday and 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturday.