It’s here! It’s finally here! Our GRAND OPENING is happening this Saturday, April 11, from 10am to 8pm. You can get a summary of the day’s events here, but here’s a little more detail for you…

All day art and drinks

We’re piloting a mocktail menu! During this soft opening, we’ve had tons of requests for non-caffeinated options, and we hear you. In addition to the lemonade, herbal tea, and caffeine-free sodas we already stock, these mocktails will be the perfect refreshing evening drink for chill time in the bookstore. (Brought to you by our expert barista, bartender, painter, and all-around Renaissance woman Ellie!)

But don’t worry, we have something for our coffee lovers, too, with a few super-special signature coffee drinks.

And you might have noticed we’re kind of lacking in our art department right now. Just keeping books on shelves and coffee in cups has been enough to occupy me so far, but art is a core part of our identity, and Studio Ours will help us fill in the gap during our grand opening. They’ll fill up most of the front room with tons (tons!) of awesome local art, all for sale.

10am: Story time!

Some of you might remember our one-day “sneak peek” for MAINx24 in 2025. The biggest lesson from that day, for us, was that kiddos and their parents love a bookstore. We have a pretty good kid’s section (if I do say so myself) and plans to expand it — and we have plans for a weekly story time — so to highlight this part of our identity, we’re jazzed to offer a story time during the grand opening!

(I even stocked juice boxes for the occasion.)

I used to be a kids’ librarian, so I’m very excited to lead this story time. It’ll be condensed, just two or three stories (with dance breaks in between, of course), but I hope it gives you a taste of what’s to come.

(We’ll open the doors a little early for this, and don’t forget that the stroller-accessible entrance is through the double doors on Main, close to Washington.)

11am: Oui Oui Pastries

You probably already know Oui Oui Boulangerie, so I’ll skip my fanboying and get right to it: They’re making a special batch of delicious pastries just for us. We’ll pick them up at 11 and start selling them as soon as we can!

If you already know Oui Oui, our wonderful neighbors, I don’t need to tell you: they’ll be gone in a flash. Get them while you can!

2pm: Happy Hour (or two…)

Between 2 and 4pm, enjoy 25% off all of our drinks, including mocktails and coffee specials! But be warned — we’re new at this, and despite our best planning, we might run out of ingredients, so don’t wait!

5pm: Cash bar opens

Read on to see why a bar just feels so right for our grand opening. Every good reading needs a bar…

We’ll have beer, wine, and cocktails available to purchase and sip while you peruse the shelves or enjoy the reading! We’ll be featuring three signature drinks for the evening, plus a few spiked coffee drinks.

And here’s an inside tip for you, the dedicated email readers that you are: the bar will actually open at 4. I accidentally listed 5 on a piece of marketing I sent out a while ago and can’t change, so I figured I’d be consistent, and the extra hour will just be a little surprise.

6pm: Featured author reading

It feels wrong to say this, because I’m so excited about every part of this day, but this is what I’m most excited about: Starting at 6, I have three local authors lined up to share some writing, talk about their books, and just kick it with us for a while. As if this (plus killer drinks) isn’t enough, my buddy Nathan Brooks will give us some musical interludes between readers.

It’s not a typical reading in that there’s no obligation at all to sit and listen, though I hope you’ll want to. Feel free to browse, hang out, read, whatever moves you!

And if you like what you hear, grab a book! I’ll have books from all three authors stocked (though in limited quantities) and if you ask nicely, I bet they’ll sign a copy for you…

7pm: Writerly kind-of-open mic

Right after the featured author reading I’ll invite even more local authors, writers, and poets to take the stage! I’m calling it a kind-of-open mic because all the readers have been invited, but consider this a test run for the *actual* open mics I plan to host soon.

That’s it! And probably way more than you wanted to know. But, hey, I’m a words guy, and I appreciate you reading.

Hope to see you Saturday!

-Spencer