Monday, July 15, 2019

Book Club — an independent bookstore with cafe — coming to 3rd Street



Two East Village residents are opening Book Club, an independent bookstore featuring a cafe at 197 E. Third St. between Avenue A and Avenue B.

Erin Neary, who's operating the space with her fiance, Nat Esten, said that the book portion of the storefront will carry a broad selection of adult fiction, non-fiction and a children's section ... they'll also offer a variety of greeting cards and gifts. As for the cafe section, they'll be serving MUD coffee, among other items.

"Our vision for the space is a cozy, living-room vibe: a place where you can enjoy a nice glass of wine or coffee while reading a book, but also a place for the community to come together for various events, such as author readings and signings, and literary trivia," Neary said.

They'll appear before CB3's SLA committee tonight for a beer-wine license for the address, which was previously No Malice Palace as well as the Christmas pop-up Donner and Blitzen's Reindeer Lounge.

"As East Village residents for the last decade, we're committed to having Book Club be a celebration of the spirit and diversity of the neighborhood," Neary said.

The shop has a website with a sign up for a mailing list ... as well as an Instagram account...

21 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yay! More bookstores always!

Anonymous said...

Agreed. Any bookstore opening is a positive development. Look forward to patronizing it.

Emily said...

Agreed, the more bookstores, the better! So glad this won't be yet another bank, duane reade or GNC.

Anonymous said...

What a quaint idea. Books.
We still have dreamers in the world....thankfully.
Sounds like a great place and I will surely take some moments there to calm my mind.

Dave on 7th said...

Remember, the only meaningful way to support a bookstore is to actually buy books.

Mykola Mick Dementiuk said...

Didn't the 8th Street Bookshop tried to make a last stand on 3rd Street only to miserably lose money from no one coming in? Our future is already here.

Anonymous said...

I'll stop in for a coffee and a book just to show support.

marjorie said...

I'm reading this in my RSS feed and it tells me how many people have viewed this post...and it is a LOT. We clearly crave a bookstore in our nabe. (Yes, I know we have a couple of mini-bookstores and pretentious semi-bookstores. But we want a real neighborhood bookstore!)

Eden Bee said...

This is good news!

Anonymous said...

All the bar owners should look at this and realize this is the way to serve the commmunity in which you operate (if greed isn't your main motivation in life, that is).

Anonymous said...

Awesome! Looking forward to supporting them

Choresh Wald said...

Such great news !

@Mykola Mick Dementiuk: I hope the beer / wine addition will make this store do better then St Marks bookshop

Anonymous said...

I hope we can bring our dog friends? Congratulations!

Anonymous said...

Why not Book-A-Con where everyone does an East Village bookstore crawl?

Someone list all the bookstores in the East Village (to me including and bounded by the south side of 14th Street, the north side of Houston Street, and the east side of Broadway) and make this happen!


Anonymous said...

wonderful! let us support this venture.

(reminds me of seeing laurie anderson several years ago - before lou reed's passing; he came out and played a blistering solo at the end of hre set. anyway, one of her lines was, "since moved to new york there have been a lot of changes. sadly, there are a lot fewer bookstores now...but, there are more cupcake stores, so that's good!")

Jeff G. said...

Thrilled. The neighborhood is with you.

Anonymous said...

I can only applaud the initiative of people who are willing to undertake the uphill fight to open, and make a success of a small business. From what I see, in Book-Bar the books are a disguise for yet another coffee shop / bar. Many book stores (McNally-Jackson for one) have hitched their wagons to a cafe in their stores. I hope we are not being tricked into yet one more bar.

lhumphreys7855 said...

I am so proud of my best friend and her fiancé (who met in a book club, hence the name) for following their true passions in life. For anybody who mentioned this might be a disguise please follow their Instagram page to see everything they are currently reading- they are truly passionate about books. I am just so devastated that I no longer live in NYC to see their sweat, tears, and dreams become a reality and to claim a seat every evening. Good luck to two beautiful humans- East Village, you are in for a treat.

Anonymous said...

Having lived in this building for nearly thirty years, I have my reservations about how the noise will be handled- esp in the back area, and on our front steps.I've been gone for 2 weeks and nothing was announced to tenants. That I know of they never came to the residents and let us know they understand we live here too. Other businesses proposing to come in had done that.. due to the history and what we all lived through for 15 plus years with No Malice Palace. However, at this point, perhaps no one let them know about the history. That said, if it's a nice place - best of luck to them.

Anonymous said...

Yes. I am concerned about the "bar" part of this title. It is very suspect that tenants of this building had no knowledge of this business as late as 7th. Leaving us no chance to attend the meeting to hear their proposal. Sounds more like wine, music, people gathering and talking, possibly music,... how will that effect us neighbors?

bjs said...

Here's the bookstore list (includes the Village as well as the EV). I've been handing out copies of this in my shop for 20 years.

BOOKSTORES OF THE VILLAGE AND VICINITY

Alabaster Books (o.p.)
122 Fourth Ave. (12th St.)
212-982-3550
The only bookstore on the old
“Book Row”

Bluestockings (new books, café)
172 Allen St. (Stanton St.)
A feminist bookstore and much more
212-777-6028

Bonnie Slotnick Cookbooks (o.p)
28 E. Second St. (Bowery/2 Ave)
212-989-8962

Codex Books
1 Bleecker St. (Bowery)
codexbooks.info
Art. literary fiction, new and old

Dashwood Books (photography)
33 Bond St. (Lafayette St.)
212-387-8520

East Village Books (o.p., scholarly)
99 St. Marks Place (Ave. A)
212-477-8647
Real old-school East Village

Housing Works (o.p., new, café)
126 Crosby St. (Houston)
212-334-3324
All for a charitable cause

Karma Bookstore (art books)
136 E 3rd St. (Ave. A)
212-390-9279

Left Bank Books (o.p., rare)
41 Perry St. (Bleecker)
877-212-6778
info@leftbankbooksny.com

Mast Books (new, o.p.; art and design)
66 Avenue A (Fifth St.)
646-370-1114
Beautiful books in a beautiful space

McNally Jackson (new books, café)
52 Prince St. (Mulberry St.)
212-274-1160

Mercer Street Books (o.p.)
206 Mercer Street (Bleecker)
212-505-8615
Lit, art, scholarly, eclectic + vinyl

Pageant Print Shop (prints, maps)
69 East 4th St. (Bowery)
212-674-5296
Third-generation EV bookseller

Printed Matter (artists’ books, zines, etc.)
38 St. Marks Place
646-590-3247

Strand Books (o.p., new)
Broadway and 12th St.
212-473-1452 open til 10:30!
Enormous family-owned indie

Three Lives & Company (new)
154 West 10th St. (Waverly Pl.)
212-741-2069
Since 1968, wonderful as ever

Unoppressive Non-Imperialist Bargain Books (new)
34 Carmine St. (Bleecker)
212-229-0079
A Village bookstore as they used to be.

o.p. = out-of-print books (used, rare, and/or antiquarian)