https://www.instagram.com/p/CEDYwmPAGV6/Welcome back to Bookspot of the Week! Our guests are Hannah and Clay, the owners of Bouquiniste Book Cafe! They are located in Kiama, NSW, Australia, and they are interested in offering a more curated and personal experience. Additionally, there is a cafe that serves coffee and wine! Their instagram is @bouquinistekiana
https://www.instagram.com/p/CEDYwmPAGV6/
How did your bookstore transition from concept to reality?
For many years, Clay and I dreamt about our hypothetical bookstore cafe winebar with black shelves, palm tree wallpaper, serving coffee and local wine before we decided to create a bricks and mortar store. It was our passion project that we joked about until one day we decided to sign the lease and just put everything we had into making it work. We both worked full-time and studied full-time right up until we signed the lease and even worked other jobs after hours once we had opened just to pay for it. It took 4 months to build because we just wouldn’t accept anything less than the exact image we had in our heads, complete with decorative books and trinkets that we brought back from the Bouquinistes of Paris.
What do you feel is unique to your bookstore?
Bouquiniste is an amalgamation of all the things that we love. The whole idea of our store was to create a place people could come and browse our curated shelves with personalised recommendations from our well-read and passionate staff. We’ve heard constantly from customers about feeling overwhelmed by large bookstores, and they appreciate the highly curated selection that they can enjoy over coffee and wine while listening to some good time rock ‘n’ roll.
If you had infinite space, what might you add to the store?
More books, more wine and more cake.
How do you feel your bookstore fits into your local community?
Clay and I both grew up in Kiama and we wanted to combine our love for the town with our backgrounds of writing, reading and hospitality to bring something fresh that we knew the community would respond well to. We constantly hear: “BOOKS, COFFEE AND WINE, they’re my 3 favourite things!”, and it makes our day every time.
What does your store offer that a chain or online retailer can’t?
We focus on a personalized experience. We love talking about books, and we find our customers do as well. We love to find out what customers are reading or have been enjoying and pick something we know they will love, or something that might push them outside their comfort zone.
When we built the shop we had a very particular image of what it would look like in our heads, and we spent a lot of time and money to make sure we got that image right and I think our customers can tell that we’ve put our blood, sweat and tears into the store, to make it as beautiful, welcoming and cosy as we possibly could. The store was also designed as a physical space to allow us to do all the things we love. We have hosted author events, writing workshops, private events, cocktail nights and live music events.
Do you hand-pick your staff to create a specific environment?
Definitely, because our store is small, we run on very few staff, there are only 4 of us including Clay and I, so we are very specific with our staff. Kayleigh, our manager, has been with us since day one, she is our glue, she’s practically family and never allowed to leave! Kayleigh has only been in Australia for 5 years, she reads in both English and Dutch, she was also my boss at the cafe we worked at before opening our store (and she is still pretty much our boss now too!).
Annika is the perfect combination of hospitality, books and rock ‘n’ roll enthusiast. She’s also currently completing a Master of Creative Writing at Sydney University. After hiring Annika, we found out her friend told her about the vacant position and that she was applying for, and so Annika excused herself and applied for the job in the bathroom to beat her friend to the chase. We commend dedication.
How else do you create a welcoming environment?
Being tucked away off the main street, our store is very much a “locals’ spot”. So, we’re very lucky that at least 80% of our customers we see on a daily basis, so we know their name, their coffee order and what type of books they enjoy. It is very common for the store to turn into one big conversation with the staff and customers, all in one. And this happens even more so on a Friday evening when we serve afterwork drinks with cheese platters. We call it our Bouquiniste Family, a combination of staff, regulars, old friends and new friends.
What about your store do you think appeals to your neighborhood?
Kiama has a huge reading community, full of people who love everything to do with books. I think part of the reason they come to us is for personalised recommendations and just talk and talk about books, mixed with friendly, approachable, knowledgeable staff, good ole rock ‘n’ roll and your choice of coffee and wine.
Do you have any staff picks or releases we should watch out for?
We’ve read advanced reading copies of both Trent Dalton and Jane Harper’s new books, both out in September, both firecrackers!
Do you tailor your inventory according to your community?
Yes, we run the store as one big recommendation for our customers. All books are carefully curated and hand picked by us, and we also take recommendations from our friends and regulars that we trust.
Is there anything else that you’d like our audience to know?
We currently have something exciting in the works! Very soon we will be introducing ‘Buddy The Book Truck’ to the world, a mint green 1961 Holden FB ute completely customed with a bookshelf and coffee machine in the tray. Keep an eye out for Buddy launching this spring! For more info, check out www.bouquiniste.com.au
What’s your favorite book?
Markus Zusak, The Book Thief. Carlos Ruis Zafon, The Shadow of the Wind. Trent Dalton, Boy Swallows Universe. Delia Owens, Where the Crawdads Sing. Bernardine Evaristo, Girl Woman Other. Clay also calls himself the president of the official unofficial Donna Tartt fan-club, complete with membership cards, so of course, The Secret History.
Not only do we absolutely love these books, The Book Thief and Boy Swallows Universe, but we love the authors too, who have both believed in our bookstore and helped us along the way.