BookBed Open House will take place November 6th at 12pm.

 

For more information or reservations, please contact Stephanie March at stephanie@bookbeddenver.com or 303-284-0194.

 

About BookBar

Celebrating its 3rd year, BookBar is a bookshop for wine lovers. A wine bar for book shoppers and a fabulous cafe, too. BookBar is an independent bookstore in the Tennyson Street arts district of Denver, Colorado. BookBar has also recently expanded to include larger childrens' areas, a reading room, and a beautiful new patio space

The BookBar is becoming a book bed and breakfast, too. The Berkeley bookstore and cafe is opening a guest suite upstairs from its store at 4280 Tennyson St. on Nov. 6.

Owner Nicole Sullivan is hoping to entice more touring writers to visit the store for readings.

"When we have authors that come from out of town, there's no decent hotel for them to stay nearby," Sullivan said. "It's the independent bookstores that help up-and-coming authors."

Plus, as much as she loves books, starting a bed and breakfast sounded even better than installing more shelves upstairs.

"It was more exciting to me," Sullivan said. "And potentially, we could make more money."

Sullivan started BookBar in May 2013 after purchasing the two-story house, built in 1896, the previous fall for $685,000.

She had always thought a book and wine store would be a hit, so she added a bar counter on one end of the shop, decorating it with pages from old books. Today, the bar menu is full of finger foods designed for eating with a book in one hand.

"Book clubs love wine and author events that are so much more fun with wine," she said.

Sullivan is still figuring out the amenities for her bed and breakfast, but she's planning to include a morning meal prepared and delivered by Denver Biscuit Co. across the street, as well as a neighborhood guidebook with discounts for guests in the store and at nearby businesses.

The one-bedroom, one-bath apartment upstairs includes a full kitchen, a private deck and washing and drying machines. The price is set at $150 a night on Airbnb. The room is open to anyone, but visiting authors can reserve it on a sliding scale.

These days, about half of the sales come from the bar and half from selling books, Sullivan said.

"I wouldn't have opened a bar if it weren't for books," she said.

-Business Den, November 2, 2015

"Education and the local movement. When we opened the King's English back in 1977, bookselling was easy: Local stores each had their own niche, the only chains were B. Dalton and Walden, and making payroll just wasn't that hard.

 

Then the big chains came to town and those two things--the education, which made us competitive against stores that carried everything, discounted everything, and got preferential treatment from the government, the public and publishers alike (which, of course, made it possible to discount everything), along with the local message, which educated the public and government (and, finally, publishers as the movement took hold) about the importance of local business to our economy and our community--became the twin strategies of our survival.

 

I'm happy to say they've worked--which is why our survival has turned into our revival. Our Indie Renaissance."

 

--Betsy Burton, co-founder of the King's English Bookshop in Salt Lake City and ABA president, answering Bookselling This Week's question: "What do you think are some of the most important changes in bookselling since you opened your store?"

 

-Shelf Awareness, Quotation of the Day, November 4, 2015