The Wicked Press, a bookstore and coffee shop, will open by the end of the month at 948 Sullivan Ave. in South Windsor, Conn. The Journal Inquirer reported that for the past year and a half, owner Alyssa Smith "would pack her small SUV with a tent, tables, books, and 'bookish merch' and travel miles to some 40 farmers markets and vendor fairs where she'd set up her pop-up bookshop.... Now she has found a stationary home."
The Wicked Press will offer its own branded coffee, which comes from California wholesale roaster Temecula Coffee Roasters, along with fresh pastries from New York's Rockland Bakery. The shop will also serve teas, dirty sodas and lemonade.
"We'll have some really fun drinks that will be related to loving books," said Smith, a Suffield resident who added that she isn't daunted by small independent and big chain bookstores closing in recent years: "We're not just a bookstore, and we're not just a coffee shop, we're both, but we're also a place for community. That is really a big drive there, is to have a place that feels like you want to come here and be here."
Although she plans to continue doing pop-ups, having the bricks-and-mortar book and coffee shop was always the ultimate goal. She said her traveling bookstore was a challenge: "We'd haul all the merch--books and candles and bookmarks, all those things. We'd haul it in the car and unload and reload every time."
All that driving was ultimately worth it, however, because meeting customers was a learning experience, and she discovered what resonated with readers.
Smith said the idea of a coffee shop-bookstore has long been a dream of hers, "because I have always been a big coffee drinker and lover, and I'm a big reader, and I wanted a space that could come together, and include tea in that as well, because there's a lot of tea lovers in my life."
She added that she wants to create a community space "that feels very cozy in here--there's a lot of dark colors, kind of like a dark academia set-up.... We want people to stay, want people to curl up and read a book while they're here, meet their friends here."