Bonnie just wrote to me in an email:
"Bonnie Slotnick Cookbooks will soon reopen in an 1830s brick rowhouse at 28 East Second Street.
Margo and Garth Johnston, siblings who own the house, called and invited me to be their tenant in the ground-floor commercial space. Read that again, jaded New Yorkers! These wonderful people read of my plight and reached out to me because, in their eyes, a bookstore is the ideal tenant.
Their late mother, Eden Ross Lipson, was the longtime children's book editor at the New York Times Book Review, and it's a book-loving family. It's also a family that prizes the history and traditions of their neighborhood and appreciates the plight of the small-business owner.
The words 'thank you' are hardly adequate for what I want to say to Margo and Garth, but if every New Yorker joined me in saying them, that would be about right.
I'm sad to leave my friends on West Tenth Street, but I look forward to reopening my shop--in a bigger space with a back garden, no less--on East Second Street. I hope to do that right around February 1, even if the place is not yet picture-perfect. I know my loyal customers will only have eyes for the books!"
Bonnie's shop will be located in the basement space on 2nd Street between 2nd Avenue and Bowery, where she'll have plenty of room to stretch out. The East Village will be gaining another bookstore, thanks to the Johnstons.
10 comments:
That is wonderful news! Very heartening.
A friend of mine worked for Eden Ross Lipson many years ago and has great stories. How fabulous that her children carry on her book-loving legacy.
Hooray for Margo and Garth Johnston. Miracles are real and they are made by just plain good people.
Fantastic news! This will be a wonderful addition to the East Village. For anyone who hasn't been to the store at its old location, please go and visit Bonnie at Second Street. Bookstore heaven!
I only wish there were more great people like them left in New York. What a wonderful, heartwarming story.
Let's hope it's contagious, folks.
Win.
I am happy to hear this good news. A garden out back..cool.
This is a wonderful story, and Bonnie is the best. But...renew my faith in New York City? Not even close, my friend! Do you want me to draw you a list of what that would take?
Wow! This is fantastic. Thank you Margo and Garth -- this is so uplifting at a time where the bottom line seems the only consideration. Puts Bonnie's former creepy landlord to shame.
Where do I submit my resume for Live-In Backyard Patrol Officer? :+)
Good for you and yours Bonnie.....
Keep on chooglin'!
THANK YOU, THANK YOU a million times over, Margo and Garth, on behalf of all of us in NYC who value living in a real neighborhood!
And welcome to the neighborhood, Bonnie!
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