After an Indiegogo fundraiser, which between onsite donations and donations made directly to the store netted New York City children’s bookstore Books of Wonder the $100,000 it needed to pay off its rent and to replenish inventory and refurbish the store, owner Peter Glassman announced some more good news. It is leasing its kitchen and bakery space to longtime neighbor City Bakery, which will open a pop-up store inside Books of Wonder possibly as early as this weekend.
“We’re pretty thrilled,” says Glassman. “I’ve known [owner] Maury Rubin for 16 years. His staff is the way I always want my staff to be: friendly and courteous. We’re really excited about having them here. They’ll be a great partner.” With the addition of City Bakery, Glassman looks forward to holding birthday parties and publishing parties at the store. In the past, the bakery has provided goodies for kids attending the store’s Harry Potter parties. For its part, City Bakery will use the store’s big kitchen to prepare food for its other venture, Birdbath Neighborhood Green Bakeries. The bakeries, which are constructed from recycled materials, take eco-consciousness very seriously. Food is delivered to them via cargo bikes, and the bakery offers discounts for customers who come by bike or skateboard.
The pop-up bakery in Books of Wonder will be converted to a Birdbath bakery early next year. In addition to the new bakery, which will offer an indoor bike rack, Glassman is planning to replace the store’s carpeting and repaint the storefront after the landlord completes repairing the sidewalk this spring. As for the donations that have poured in over the past four weeks and made all this possible, he says, “I was dehydrated for a month, because I kept getting teary-eyed over the support. It was very touching to see how our humble efforts have touched people.”
