Photograph by Mark Gilliland
Downtown loftniks are excited about the Schnucks scheduled to open next spring near Ninth and Olive. But man does not live on Wonder Bread alone. Left Bank Books has been feeding souls for 40 years, and the bookstore's anniversary celebration happens to coincide with a major development: the opening of a new, bigger LBB that marks downtown's first full-service bookstore in ages.
"We had been courted over the last several years by a number of developers to open a second store," explains LBB co-owner Kris Kleindienst, "but we never thought it was a workable idea for us financially. Then Craig Heller of LoftWorks approached us last year, and his proposal was very attractive."
Heller, the developer absorbing some of the venture's financial risk, says, "We just felt that a bookstore was a critical type of retailer for the area. This helps transform downtown into a vibrant mixed-use neighborhood. Left Bank will really add to the street life, to the walkable environment."
The 5,500-square-foot bookshop at 321 N. 10th Street (near Locust) will host the same sort of author readings for which the Central West End flagship store is known, says Kleindienst. She adds that they're considering brown-bag book discussions at lunch for the downtown workforce and that Dave Bailey of Rooster and the Chocolate Bar will be opening a wine bar that will share a door with the bookstore. "That will lend itself to some fun collaborations," she says.
But this is the question on everyone's mind, really: Will the new location have a bookstore cat like Spike, the black cat who patrols the CWE shop? "The cat world tells us whether we get a cat or not," says Kleindienst. "They come to us. Everyone else we hire, but the cat is governed by a higher spiritual force."
