BELFAST - One business was open.

Inside Rollie’s Bar and Grill, a half-dozen patrons leaned into their tables. They talked, occasionally glancing up at television screens that outnumbered them two-to-one. Sports events in sunnier locales. The daily special had been temporarily rebranded to match the name given by The Weather Channel to the blizzard blowing silently beyond the plate glass windows at the front of the restaurant.

You could see it right there, piling snow in the doorways of shuttered seasonal businesses, mocking their cheerful, handwritten farewell messages.

“Thanks for a great season!”

Otherwise, it could have been any other Taco Tuesday.

Rollie’s was pretty much alone among downtown businesses. The four cars parked in front might have been dinghies tied up at some remote dock. The only other vehicles on the road were plows, and once in a while an SUV large enough to suggest there might be a governor or foreign dignitary inside.

On Washington Street, a front end loader heaved drifts of snow into great piles. Another tank-like deployment from the city’s public works department — a grader, maybe — was visible further up the hill at Post Office Square. When they disappeared in moments behind buildings, Main Street was all but empty. The photos and video here were taken in downtown Belfast at around 3 p.m. Jan 27.

Ethan Andrews can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com