"I thought I was done," said Brian Lampkin, co-owner of the soon-to-open Scuppernong Books in Greensboro, N.C. Lampkin has worked at one bookstore or another for most of his adult life, and owned Rust Belt Books in Buffalo, N.Y. After selling the store and deciding to move to North Carolina, he didn't think he'd open another. "But suddenly you find a space, and you're completely invested in the madness again."
Lampkin and his business partner, Greg Grieve, found a charming old building in Greensboro's downtown that has been the home of many businesses, including a record store and used appliance store. The problem, though, was that the building, which was built in 1898, had been vacant for years and was dilapidated. After renting the building from a Greensboro city council member, Grieve and Lampkin hired contractors to bring the building up to code; floor-to-ceiling renovations, including all new electrical, plumbing, heating and ventilation systems, along with reinforcing the roof and many beams, were required.
When construction is complete, Scuppernong Books will be a 3,200-square-foot general interest bookstore with some 10,000 titles and particularly strong poetry, fiction and religion sections. Roughly 80% of the store's inventory will be new books. Scuppernong will also have a combination cafe and wine bar.
"At first, we just wanted to open a bookstore," explained Lampkin. "But we all knew the economic realities, so we were always trying to think what might work alongside it. Once we got this space, which is long and really remarkably beautiful, the space invited it."
Although they "certainly have drunk a lot of it," neither Lampkin nor Grieve are familiar enough with wine (or the logistics of food service) to operate the wine bar and cafe on their own. To that end they've brought in Steve Mitchell, a novelist and Greensboro resident, to manage that part of the store. The plan is to supplement local North Carolina wine with wine from around the country.
"We want good wines, but we're not here to impress anyone," stressed Lampkin. "You want to make sure you're not presenting some sort of snobbish wine bar; we want this to be a comfortable place with lots of different kinds of people."
The store's name, in fact, pertains to both wine and North Carolina. The scuppernong, a species of grape native to the South, is North Carolina's state fruit, and growing on Roanoke Island is the "Mother Vine," a 400-year-old scuppernong vine that may be the oldest cultivated grapevine in existence.
"We were looking for a name with local resonance but without baggage, and that gets a little tricky," recounted Lampkin. "But scuppernong is great. And even if you don't know what a scuppernong is, it's a nice word."
Lampkin has pulled references to the scuppernong from throughout literature, and placed the quotes around the shop. Among the most notable is a mention in Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird.
Despite having a wine bar and naming the store after a grape, Lampkin is adamant that the shop is a bookstore first and foremost. "We want to be known as a great bookstore with a great little extra feature," said Lampkin. "We always try to keep that in mind; we can't let the wine bar overrun what we're really doing."
Scuppernong Books will open soon, and on December 13 will host its inaugural event. Alex Albright, the author of The Forgotten First: B-1 and the Integration of the Modern Navy, will read at the store. The book tells the story of the first African-American navy band--musicians from North Carolina, including the first African Americans to serve in the Navy at ranks higher than messman. One of the surviving servicemen, who lives in Greensboro, will be at the reading.
After that, authors Lee Smith and Michael Parker are lined up for the not-too-distant future, and the store's official grand opening celebration will likely take place during the first weekend of February. Given the anniversary of the beginning of the 1960 Greensboro civil rights sit-ins on February 1 and Groundhog Day on February 2, it seems a good time for local celebration.
The response from the Greensboro community, which has not had a new indie bookstore for a long time, has been overwhelmingly positive, Lampkin said. "It was a book town. I'm told there used to be five indies around here at one time. If you could measure your success by community enthusiasm, we'd do just fine." --Alex Mutter
