Fifteen years ago when owner Andy Pinkham was searching for a home for his recording studios, he admits he was a little desperate. He had run Mortal Music as his full-time job for five years and he needed to move his studios from their original location in Reading quickly. He called other studios for leads, but it wasn't until he found the Terminal Street buildings that he felt like he'd landed on right for his business, and, as he says, “Mortal Music on Terminal Street sounded like a fit.” Since then he's been the man in Charlestown behind countless demo tapes and favorite CDs, the guy who …

Since the day they moved to Boston in 1983, Amit Mitra and his wife, Chiara Lucia, have been on the hunt for savory and appetizing food throughout the city. But they never imagined that they would be the purveyors of some of the freshest flavors and wholesome ingredients around the country. Originally from India and Italy, the two have never been strangers to exotic food. After traveling to 45 different states in the U.S. and 35 countries around the world, they have developed very sophisticated palettes. Their friends and family refer to them as “gourmands,” which literally means that they …

Attention Yogis: The view during your downward dog just got a lot more interesting, thanks to cheeky Charlestown business, Plank. You may not think the words "designer" and "yoga" belong in the same sentence, but leave all stereotypes about granola and tree-hugging at the door. Plank's originality breathes a refreshing understated chic and irony to the world of yoga and beyond. The designer yoga and lifestyle company creates luxe yoga mats and accessories. A Maven’s Mantra Former shoe designer Doreen Hing founded Plank in 2004 with the vision to combine great design with health and fitness. …

Charlestown’s Christiane Wolff caught the travel bug when she was young, and has yet to shake it.   The self-proclaimed gypsy settled in Boston after finishing college in the late 1960s, but jetted out of town every chance she got. A former German teacher and a 23-year Army, Navy and US Coast Guard veteran, Wolff says, “I worked most of my life to travel.”   European Inspiration   Charmed and inspired by stays in guesthouses and bed and breakfasts across Europe, Wolff always dreamed of owning one of her own. “I remember climbing six flights of stairs to stay in the attic of a guest house in …

Editor's Note: This story marks the second in a series on Charlestown's hidden businesses. There's a lot that goes on in our one square mile. We're trying to highlight the creative work that happens every day -- often under the radar -- in the neighborhood. If you'd like to recommend a business for this feature, email the editor, kristi.ceccarossi@patch.com. (To read last week's feature on Charlestown Rehearsal Studios, click here.) Kate Saliba and Deb Bastien began their search for office space in the South End, but it wasn't until they got to a building on Terminal Street in Charlestown …

Editor's Note: This story marks the first in a series on Charlestown's hidden businesses. There's a lot that goes on in our one square mile. We're trying to highlight the creative work that happens every day -- often under the radar -- in the neighborhood. If you'd like to recommend a business for this feature, email the editor, kristi.ceccarossi@patch.com. After the streetlights turn on, and Charlestown residents settle in for the night, one would never guess that just down the street hundreds of musicians will be making music late into the night.   Over the course of a week as many as 700 …

High Street resident Bill Creelman is a healthy guy. He prefers to eat, and feed his family, natural, organic and fresh food. These days enough people are thinking just like him that it's relatively easy to avoid the processed junk from who knows where. But around the time that his children -- now aged six, four and two -- started taking an interest in soda, it occured to him that there was a real gap in the health food world. And that he, with his background in beverage production, was in a good position to fill it.And the idea for Spindrift Soda, a new company based in Charlestown, was born…