Brookline Booksmith, the independent and family-owned bookstore located on Harvard Street in Brookline, took its relationship with Boston’s bookworms to a new level in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. Brookline Booksmith expanded its previous storefront into a 4,000-square-foot space by taking over the adjacent shop in early November. A part of the addition is The Novel Kitchen, a project completed with the cheese store Curds & Co. It provides an animated dining experience despite the many restrictions currently curtailing the restaurant industry.
The new bookstore is adorned with twinkling string lights, suspended over an expanse of bestselling books and a plethora of other trinkets. Vivid puzzles cascade across gift tables, cluttered with calendars, planners and greeting cards. Added space allows for more flexibility for customers to browse.
This development emerged as a victory for Brookline Booksmith. The business signed the lease for its neighboring Verizon store back in February of 2020, blind to the challenges ahead. The pandemic prevented the immediate transformation of the dim attachment into a lively book haven. Instead, Brookline Booksmith was forced to close for three months, similar to many of the drastic yet necessary actions taken by other local businesses. Still, Brookline Booksmith persevered and the project was ultimately successful.
Most exciting, Curds & Co.’s cheesy expertise and Brookline’s hunger for new additions combined smoothly in The Novel Kitchen. Alongside its store in Brookline Village, Curds & Co. provides a box subscription service titledCurdbox which surprises customers with artisanal cheese and gourmet pairings each month.
Owner and co-founder of Curds & Co. Jenn Mason further detailed the process behind the construction of the restaurant and how her experience of adapting the other parts of her business to the pandemic contributed to the unique emergence of The Novel Kitchen.
“It was a funny thing," Mason said. "[Curds & Co.] just sort fell into our relationship [with Brookline Booksmith].”
This opportunity came as a surprise to Curds & Co. “Booksmith had been planning on putting in a restaurant," Mason said. "[It] started the process last fall with the urging of the town [of Brookline] ... The town suggested that Lisa [Gozashti], one of the owners and manager at Booksmith, reach out to me, and maybe I could help her navigate what they needed to do next to open up."
Mason cited her commitment to Brookline as a determining factor. Her children were raised in Brookline and attended its schools; thus, her family was deeply aware of the grandeur surrounding the well-established bookstore.
As Mason summed it up, “To be part of something at the Brookline Booksmith seemed like a really good experiment.”
In response to the problems her new restaurant would face, Mason offered a unique perspective: “The interesting thing is that I think it’s easier for us to plan around [COVID-19] because it's always been there for the birth of [The Novel Kitchen]," Mason said. "If you would have said, in January, build a restaurant — and by the way, make it capable of opening during a pandemic — I wouldn’t have known what to do. But if you asked me in July after the pandemic's been around for six months, I’ve got some ideas.”
Mason’s experience illustrates how businesses are adapting to the stresses of COVID-19. The pandemic is now an unavoidable part of life; thus, the efforts that must be taken to ensure safety coalesce easily with satiating service.
Ingenious ideas designed by creative business owners like Mason have driven the success of the food service in this new era. Specifically, Mason framed her advancements within the common sentiment of our time.
“I feel like during this whole pandemic we were struggling for things to do. Our store immediately did a nationwide cheese tasting in April ... because you know, people wanted stuff to do,” she said.
Alongside her business, Mason attempted to support other restaurants, as she sympathized with the challenges they were facing.
“My family tried to support restaurants to keep them afloat, so at least twice a week we would order from a different restaurant,” she said. “The experience is interesting because it doesn't matter if it was an expensive restaurant or a cheap little diner. Every single meal came in those little black rectangular containers."
Mason expressed that she missed the experience of eating in a restaurant, so she set out to make The Novel Kitchen eating experience as authentic as possible — even from home.
"I wanted to create an experience when you were eating with us that was the same whether you ate in or did take out,” she said. "We know some people are still nervous about eating in, so we're trying to go above and beyond to make it super safe. We're meeting all of the standards and then some. But also, if you want to take it home, you're essentially getting the same experience. Our cheese plates are all served in these cute little compostable bento boxes. It just feels fun."
Mason's ongoing ideas to maintain the lively experience well-known to customers before the pandemic prove worthy of praise. She discussed meeting and even going beyond pre-pandemic standards even if you're taking the food to-go.
"[There is] a little QR code that will take you to our behind-the-menu website," Mason said. "On that website — and you can use it if you are in store, eating at your own table, or at home — it will tell you what the pairings are. It will have a link to the cheese maker."
Mason said that the QR code development, spurred by the pandemic, led to an experience that makes it more than just sitting down and eating.
"It's more than you would get on a menu because you can’t fit all that information on a menu. It’s just like this little bonus extra,” she said.
These modern adaptations are more than maneuvers to avoid the consequences of a pandemic. They are revolutionizing the business.
Mason aptly summarized a visitor’s experience at The Novel Kitchen as “storytelling experiential dining." The expansion of Brookline Booksmith provides people with a bookish adventure so wonderful that it makes up for other lost experiences this year.
