Bonnie Slotnick Cookbooks

VANISHING

Bonnie Slotnick Cookbooks is being forced out of its Greenwich Village shop. Once again, it's not due to a lack of customers or changing styles of shopping. It's the landlord.


New York Times

Bonnie writes in: "I can't believe I'm turning into one of your sad stories, but I've just lost my lease. I have to be out by the end of January. I'm absolutely determined to find a place and move the shop (probably in the East Village, since nobody can afford the West Village anymore)."

Bonnie has had the popular and beloved bookshop on West 10th Street for 15 years. She was just profiled this past spring in the New York Times: "Whether you are looking for Sam Choy’s 'The Choy of Cooking' or 'The Secrets of Jesuit Breadmaking,' by Brother Rick Curry, Ms. Slotnick either has a copy or will find a way to get one for you."


New York Times

Bonnie has prepared this announcement:

Dear customers, friends, neighbors, and supporters,

I'm still here! But my landlord has refused to renew the lease on my shop. After 15 years on West Tenth Street, I'm going to have to find a new home. My lease expires on January 31, 2015. I plan to stay open through Christmas and maybe longer, and then I will be open by appointment only while I pack ALL these books.

I'm looking for a small storefront in the East Village, the West Village being totally out of my price range, but would also be open to other (marginally affordable) neighborhoods.

It's also possible that if I find the right person, I would consider sharing space--with another bookseller, an antiques dealer, a kitchenware shop. Maybe you'd be interested, or know someone who might?

I don't see any point in a petition to keep me here, because my landlord will not relent. But some media coverage of this increasingly common and sad New York story would be welcome. Since I'm not social-media-savvy, feel free to mention my situation on Facebook, Twitter, or What Have You. And when I do reopen (presumably in early February), front-page headlines would help a lot!

Rest assured that I will find a space, you will find your way there, and I will make it as cozy and welcoming as the old shop. And if you've never been here, it will be even more exciting for you to make your first visit to my new, improved place.

Please watch my website, Bonnie Slotnick Cookbooks, for updates. And feel free to contact me by email or phone.

I thank you for your friendship, your patronage, your loyalty, your interest, your love.

Most sincerely,
Bonnie


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

8th St. Hyper-gentrified

Image
For some time, 8th Street has been a ghost town . The once-plentiful shoe stores and other small businesses that lined it have dropped like flies in recent years. Trendy restaurants have tried to get a foothold and failed. It's ripe for "revival" and now the big guns are being rolled in to force the street into hyper-gentrification mode . The Daily News files a startling report on 8th Street's upcoming upgrade--it's going from "under-retailed" to an "artisanal center." Marlton House, Jeff Bachner, Daily News Stumptown Coffee is coming first--they're a foodie favorite in the uber-hipster Ace Hotel (formerly the Breslin, a tragic story there). After that, BD Hotels , of the Bowery and Jane Street Hotels (more controversy there), will open a new boutique hotel in the former SRO Marlton House. The neighborhood flippers have arrived. Says BD Hotels' Richard Born, "We’ve had the experience of changing neighborhoods like wit
Read more

Carmelita's Reception House

Image
Some years ago, on the southwest corner of 14th St. and 3rd Ave. , above Disco Donut, there was a place called Carmelita's Reception House. Walter Grutchfield at 14to42 writes, "I'm not sure what it was, but Carmelita's Reception House dates from the late 1970s and derived from Carmelita for Bridal, Corp., (bridal gowns and such?) from the mid-1960s." Lori Horvitz recalls in her non-fiction story " The Last Days of Disco Donut ," "I thought Carmelita's was a massage parlor that doubled as a house of prostitution. Only years later did I find out it was a legitimate bar that frequently held parties for gay women ." Filling out the mystery, reader Yvonne B. sent in the above ad for "Girl + Girl" at Carmelita's, and we got an informative comment to my post on 14th and 3rd from "SF," who writes: "If anyone cares to read more about Lite Lounge at Carmelita's contact me. I rented Carmelita's
Read more

*Everyday Chatter

Image
Finding her beloved theater turned into a Sephora , Leslie Nipkow writes, "I want to sit in a theater seat and lose myself in somebody else’s imagination for a few hours. I want to be reminded that my world does not stop at the front of my face." [ Times ] The Stuyvesant Polyclinic is to be a "think-tank sort of thing" and not a private mansion , as previously marketed. I guess Lenny Kravitz wasn't interested after all. [ Times ] via [ EVG ] On Grand St., a developer's condo plans go up in smoke for a homeless shelter . He claims the locals were "jealous." [ NYP ] A look at one of the Bowery's last flophouses --and Sam Chang's (so far thwarted) efforts to turn it luxury. [ Metro ] “This might be the beginning of the end of the American empire .” [ Times ] The Cooper Union "hive" gets glass between the metal sheets: New blog in town : Check out "No New York." See Richard Sandler's films at the 6B Garden August 22-
Read more