Thursday, July 13, 2017

Books to Bean

After four years of leaving the former St. Mark's Bookshop space vacant, Cooper Union has finally filled the spot. The Bean coffee shop is coming soon, according to new signage in the windows.



A local mini-chain, it's certainly better than a Starbucks. (And with much better coffee.) But it's not that great bookshop, which should still be here, enriching the lives of East Villagers as it did for decades.

I still miss it. Every day.

1 comment:

Robert Cook said...

I was a frequent visitor to the St. Marks Bookshop at each of its first three locations, and an occasional visitor to their fourth and final location. They were: 13 St. Marks Place, on the north side of the street; 12 St. Marks Place, on the south side of the street, (opposite their former location); at its Stuyvesant Street location in the NYU dorm building; and at its final resting place on E. 3rd Street. It was a glorious place to visit in each of its first three locations; the few times I visited them on E. 3rd, I was struck by its lack of inventory. It was a ghost of its former self and I thought it probably would not survive long.

The many bookstores that have shuttered since I've lived in NYC (arrived May 16, 1981) is dismaying, especially as I know their former ubiquity will never be regained. Heck, at this point, I'm even bummed when a Barnes and Noble closes!