Old-world European style meets old-school Southern hospitality at Battery Park Book Exchange & Champagne Bar in Asheville. photograph by Stacey Van Berkel
In Asheville’s historic Grove Arcade, Thomas and Donna Wright combined his love of literature with her love of champagne to create a café of literary decadence. Browse two-and-a-half stories of books with a beverage in hand, strolling over Persian rugs to “Middle Earth,” the not-quite-upstairs, not-quite-downstairs level that houses a collection of art books. With its red walls adorned with oil paintings, velvet curtains, and jazz musicians playing several nights a week, guests can step into a genteel time, half-hoping to bump shoulders with F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald.
1 Page Avenue, Suite 101
Asheville, NC 28801
(828) 252-0020
batteryparkbookexchange.com
Casting light on leather-bound books, a taxidermy pheasant, sheep skins, and hand-hewn ceiling beams, a wood fire burns faithfully year-round, the heartbeat of Highlander Mountain House. Flanked by well-worn leather chairs and facing a kilim-covered couch, the stone fireplace warms the “living room” of this storybook boutique hotel, offering a toasty respite for guests to pick up a tome or swap tales with fellow travelers. “I want it to feel like a warm hug — a place where you can hole up by the fire, read a book, and escape your everyday life,” says owner Jason Reeves. Follow the narrative thread woven into the decor — artifacts of the Cherokee, the art of Southern Highlanders, and the legacy of Black Mountain College artists — and let their stories come alive.
270 Main Street
Highlands, NC 28741
(828) 526-2590
highlandermountainhouse.com
Lying at the feet of Ms. Virginia, Wall Street Books’ signature green couch, naps Pippin, the curly-coated bookstore dog. There’s a good chance his tail is pointing to the Harry Potter reading nook. Here, fans can don the Sorting Hat before venturing among the underground bookshop’s shelves while wrought-iron sconces on posts light the way like subterranean streetlamps. “I always dreamed about having a bookstore,” says owner Greg Owens, who acquired the 30-year-old business a decade ago, expanding it with book clubs and community events. Chess and checkers await under glowing paper lanterns, and antique chairs — floral for romance, leather for westerns — encourage thumbing and skimming. Well-behaved dogs, naturally, are welcomed.
163 Wall Street
Waynesville, NC 28786
(828) 456-5000
wallstreetbooksnc.com
Relax with a good book and an after-dinner cocktail in this downtown restaurant’s welcoming reading room. photograph by Alex Boerner
Tucked in the back corner of Queeny’s bar and restaurant, Rubyfruit — part bookshop, part reading room — holds co-owner Michelle Vanderwalker’s carefully curated selection of titles, which mingle with childhood mementos and comforting curios. “I love the idea of a casual space to get together,” says Vanderwalker, whose vision for Queeny’s was born from the community spirit she felt while hosting potlucks at her home. Translating this to the restaurant, she kept books and toys on hand for those moments of needing to slip away from the gathering. Curl up on the window seat under the watchful eye of Vanderwalker’s grandfather’s stuffed lion on the shelf above, or snag a book to read at the bar, burger in hand. If you can’t put it down, just add it to your tab.
321 East Chapel Hill Street, Suite 100
Durham, NC 27701
(910) 275-4908
queenysdurham.com
Town Hardware’s Book Nook helps to carry on the general store’s near-century-long legacy as a community gathering place. photograph by Stacey Van Berkel
Overlooking rows of housewares and tubs of timeless candy, the Town Hardware & General Store’s Book Nook offers a literary hideaway for the homesteader, regional history-seeker, and curious child. While the hardware store has been a community fixture since 1928, owners Beth and Peter Ballhaussen saw potential for the unused loft after purchasing the business in 2013. “There was a little gem just waiting to be unearthed,” Beth says. Visitors can sit in the rocker underneath the warmth of a sunburst window and flip through books on everything from North Carolina history to outdoor living. “You want children to be unplugged,” says Beth, who dedicates much of the nook to children’s books. After reading, sneak downstairs for a soda or nostalgic knickknack — and maybe grab a ball-peen hammer while you’re at it.
103 West State Street
Black Mountain, NC 28711
(828) 669-7723
townhardwaregeneralstore.com
Emerging from a community’s desire to save its town’s epicenter from development, the Banner Elk Book Exchange has been the hub of the Cultural Arts Center at the Historic Banner Elk School since its opening in 2015. Operating with a “bring a book, take a book” policy, the exchange honors the scholastic tradition of the 1939 WPA-built stone building it resides in. “It’s like a gathering place, a spot for people to come and check on their neighbors,” says Donna Dicks, committee member and former librarian at the school. Beyond books, the Explorer’s Room houses maps, microscopes, and natural treasures for young learners to tinker with, while a jigsaw puzzle is under construction at all times.
185 Azalea Circle
Banner Elk, NC 28604
bannerelkbookexchange.com
Gwenyfar Rohler remembers her parents bringing flashlights to Mr. Daughtry’s bookstore — which lacked electricity and remained open only during daylight — when she was a child. “He wasn’t a reader, he was there for people,” says Rohler, recalling how Mr. Daughtry shelved A Confederacy of Dunces in the store’s Civil War section. Chosen to be his successor, Rohler now manages the store’s two miles of shelving — much of it made from recycled movie sets. Like Mr. Daughtry, Rohler shows up every day for whomever might walk through the door (the store has seen five engagements, two funerals, a baptism, and a baby shower). In the shop’s many nooks and crannies live a piano named Estelle, a “vend-a-poem” machine, and plenty of places to hunker down with a comforting classic.
249 North Front Street
Wilmington, NC 28401
(910) 762-6657
oldbooksonfrontstreet.com
In addition to books, visitors to the Robert Turnage Monk Library can also peruse magazines on boatbuilding and North Carolina wildlife, among other subjects. photograph by Baxter Miller
Perched on the shelves of the Robert Turnage Monk Library, decoys stand guard over books anchored in the culture of eastern North Carolina, sentries of Core Sound’s waterfowl heritage. In a room fashioned after old hunting clubs, dark wood and comfy upholstered chairs are a refuge for diving into the area’s natural and maritime history. Literature here is strictly regional: birds, boatbuilding, fishing, and shipwrecks. “We educate people now in lots of different ways,” says Executive Director Karen Willis Amspacher, “but there’s still no substitute for an old-fashioned book with real paper pages.” She often finds visitors dozing with the ducks as they explore the sound’s storied past — reading themselves to sleep, adrift in seafaring dreams.
1785 Island Road
Harkers Island, NC 28531
(252) 728-1500
coresound.com
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A long-forgotten series of recordings from 1925 puts a new spin on the beginnings of one of our most enduring music genres.
In tight-knit Southern circles, recipes get around. The ones that impress find their place in community cookbooks, local encyclopedias of care and feeding.
