Bibliotheque NYC

By Anthony Paradiso

Cafe by day, wine bar in the evening, and books all the time, New Yorkers and tourists hang out and read at Bibliotheque in SoHo, which boasts a collection of over 10,000 titles, including old and rare books available for perusal and purchase. Photo by Bob Cooley.

Bibliotheque NYC is a wine bar, café, and bookstore all rolled into one. It was started by Dr. Andrew Jacono and his son, A.J. in 2022. The Jaconos have created a beautiful space that houses over 10,000 books and 3,000 bottles of wine. Bibliotheque hosts author readings, wine tastings, art classes and musical acts in addition to serving food, pastries, snacks and wine. I had the pleasure of speaking with A.J. about the origins and operations of Bibliotheque.

What inspired you to start Bibliotheque?
Around the time I was living in the East Village I would go to bookstores and cafes to do writing or to work-from-home. I found a lot of different places including one in the East Village called ‘Book Club’ which serves wine and beer and is always packed. Then, I made the move to SoHo and I felt like I had lost a community space. Soho is primarily a storefront place. There’s not a lot of cafes and the cafes that do exist are mostly populated by people who were just there to have some coffee—not to sit down for a long time and enjoy a space that engages with art and literature. So, my dad and I were speaking and I said, “you know there’s kind of a gap in the market in the SoHo area for a place that combines wine, literature and coffee and that during the day is a place where people can congregate and read a book, and at night come to this social space that serves food, but also offers an incredible wine list.”

Do you and your father still run the place together?
I’m pretty much there five days a week. He’s here less than that but still he comes at least weekly to check up on everything, I’m always asking him for advice and he’s very involved in the process.

Have any recent events connected with the local community?
The ones that we’ve hosted most frequently are our author events. We’ll offer within the ticket price a flight of three wines, three-ounce pours that pair with the themes of the book in question. One that’s coming up is a book called A Northern Light in Provence by Elizabeth Birkelund and it’s about a translator who travels the world, so we’re pairing it with some French wines from Provence. It reaches out and grabs people who are [here to do] a bit more than just some normal reading. At a normal reading what you usually do is you’ll come into the space, listen to the person talk for a little bit, and then grab a book and leave. In contrast, at our readings the people who are coming to not only engage with the book but to engage with the wine and it kind of activates this new sense—this sense of taste, of smell, of visions of the wine. It’s just a fascinating way for people to engage with the book a bit more.

You run a literary and art journal called Spotlong Review. Have you featured any authors from your literary journal at the space?
We are working on it because it would be fantastic to have some of these people who have actually written books and published them to read at the space. It’s just a question of timing. I also want to start hosting launch events for each issue that we release as well as other quarterlies. It’s been a fun process to kind of balance the two. I’m not going to say it’s been easy because I have a lot of stuff going on with the store but I’m keeping up—I’m pulling my own weight, I’m still the managing editor. I communicate with my editors routinely and we’re still releasing issues and people have been responding very nicely.

What’s the next step for Bibliotheque?
We want to have more events and different varieties. We’ve been toying with the idea of having board game nights. Those sorts of lower key gatherings tend to be pretty popular and draw a pretty large crowd. I want to expand the place and I’d like to see a Bibliotheque on the Upper West Side or Upper East Side in a few years. It’s just a question of how sustainable it is and so far, it’s been very sustainable. I mean, we’re pretty much packed every day. Our ambitions don’t stop there, maybe down the line we might want to go to different states and maybe even different countries. One of my dreams is to have one of these in Paris—who knows if it’ll happen but at least it’s something to keep in mind. Broader goals include getting as many people as possible to engage with not only books, in a more traditional brick-and-mortar bookstore way, but with an extra accoutrement which is a glass of wine that can enhance the experience of reading. I think they go really well together. It’s just fun to see something I’ve liked to do for a few years and see other people who have dinner here love to do as well.

Bibliotheque NYC, 54 Mercer Street
bibliothequenyc.com