January 23, 2015 |
Short Order
Bonnie Slotnick Cookbooks Turns the Page
Bonnie Slotnick, the mythic vendor of food books and culinary collectibles, got the traumatic news in fall. Her landlord would not be renewing the lease on the hobbit-like cubby on West 10th Street that she’d nested in for 15 years. As she telegraphed her despair, it was a shock for cooks and writers and chefs and those who counted on Bonnie’s guidance to indulge their foodie loved ones.
“Come shop,” she cried, posting a sign in the window that she would close January 31st and have to start packing up soon, while she looked for a new home.
Boxing up the 4000 books that lined the walls – organized by subject – with tempting treasures everywhere, along with the aprons, vintage mixing bowls and old egg beaters, seemed daunting, especially since she could only have one helper at a time. “I’m such a control freak.”
She knew she couldn’t afford any place in the West Village. She offered to share a space – with another bookseller, an antiques dealer, a kitchenware shop. But she didn’t have to look long or far. She got a call from Garth and Margo Johnston, a brother and sister who own the 1830s row house they grew up in on East Second Street. "They 'invited' me to be their commercial tenant," she marvels with a Cinderella edge in her voice.“It’s three times the size -- 900 sq.ft. -- with a little garden in the back, “ she crows.
She’ll be out of the Tenth Street shop at the end of the month and hopes to be settled in 28 East Second Street in early February. “The shop will be a work in progress at that point,” she warns. “I hope to do some major restocking soon after I open.”
Bonnie Slotnick Cookbooks. 28 East Second Street. 212 989 8962.
Photos by Liza Schoenfein
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