The Next Chapters Bookhouse & Café opens in Unionville
By John Fitts
Editor
As they visited quaint shops around the valley, the shoreline and elsewhere, Farmington residents Lana Van Valkenburgh and Paul Stepka began thinking that their hometown needed such a place.
For Lana, especially, a bookshop became the dream and asking, “why don’t we have anything like that in Farmington?” turned into, “So, let’s just do it.”
A little more than six months ago, the couple moved their business, Vision Real Estate, from New Britain Avenue to the 1887 mill building at 218 River Road in the Unionville section of town. The views of the Farmington River and naturally aged wood in approximate 1,800 square-foot space solidified the idea of a Victorian inspired bookshop.
“It was kind of part of the process,” Lana said. “We were already somewhat thinking of it when we were looking for a space for the real estate office and then when we found this space in this building we were like ‘well this is the perfect building for something like this.’”
Paul said it’s just a reality that agents and others don’t come to an office as much as they used to.
“So, we had empty office space, and we decided to open the bookstore because it was a good use of the space,” Paul added.
Their real estate space took about a month and the next five months involved building out the rooms for what is now The Next Chapters Bookhouse & Cafe, combining Lana’s love of reading with Paul’s passion for coffee.
The shop has several rooms and nooks, allowing for some flexibility with the business, such as regular customer seating, book club gatherings and even room rentals. The main Café seats about 18 people and The Lounge – complete with a chessboard – about 10. There are also a few other couches and nooks throughout. There are also several other features throughout, like hidden gem book offerings, gifts for the avid reader and spotlights on local authors – their new titles standing in contrast to mostly used offerings.
While Lana said her experience as a consumer and business owner is that shops do best when they offer more than one thing, the couple emphasized that the shop is a “booktique” that also has a café and will be Lana’s focus as the real estate business will be Paul’s.
It also represents the latest venture in life for the two. Paul, who is from Unionville and Lana, a Farmington native, first met some 35 years ago and reconnected years later.
“Life took us down separate roads, as it sometimes does, before crossing our paths again many years later through the world of real estate—and eventually reconnecting us during a season of new chapters for us both,” the couple wrote in a social media post. “And now, here we are.”
And, so far, the “booktique” has been quite the hit. The two sold 176 books on their first day and within a very short time they had nearly 2,000 followers on Facebook and more than 1,000 on Instagram.
“I was very skeptical, but we started our Facebook page and well before we opened, we had several people join the book club; we had new followers,” Paul said.
“I think it’s wonderful I am a firm believer in paper copies, real books,” Collinsville based author Dory Dzinski. I personally am not a person whose real comfortable in reading online. It doesn’t hold my attention for some reason. ... There’s a smell to books; there’s a feel to books. I love it. I love books.”
“I’m super excited for this Next Chapters Bookhouse Café,” said Sara Costa of Farmington “I love that it’s on the water and I look forward to coming in the future to relax and read my books. It’s nice to have something especially something where you could actually come, sit down and relax.”
Lana knows it’s hard to make a small business work but knows that people do love books and the shop is planning numerous special events and future surprises.
“I think books are a trend right now,” said Lana. “There’s even there’s like book talks and bookstagrams. Everybody’s talking about books again.” VL
218 River Road Unionville
860-470-6221
(Please note that stairs are required to access the space but visitors can call up from the lobby and have food brought down. There is some outdoor seating as well. The owners are also working on ways to make their offerings more accessible).
