Books & Brew, which features new and used books, opened earlier this month at 4316 Lawrenceville Highway, Suite 110, in Tucker, Ga. Decaturish.com reported that co-owner Quinelle Bethelmie "was in law school when she realized she needed a social space with a lower volume."
"I was just getting a little maybe... old," Bethelmie said. "I don't know if that's the word, but maybe I was getting a little old for loud places, and I was waiting for a bar where you could hang out and spend time. And I also really like to spend a lot of time in bookstores, and a lot of them closed when I was younger."
That led to her launching Books & Brew with her partner and boyfriend, Nate Monga, another law school student, with financial backing from her mother, Irene Bethelmie. The cozy space is decorated with double-wide chairs, inviting couples to sit and chat. The beer selection is a rotating list of local and seasonal brews.
"We're trying to cover pretty much all the bases in terms of genres," Monga said of the book selection, adding that opening a bookstore "has always been a dream.... I was in law school because I didn't have money to open a bookstore. And then the opportunity came up where Irene had the funding and interest in opening a bookstore.... I could not pass that opportunity up."
Both Monga and Bethelmie took the bar exam over the summer but haven't gotten the results yet. "The hope is that this is very successful, and maybe we don't have to practice law," Monga said.
Books & Brew has limited food offerings, which will expand when the kitchen is running, The business will hold events and has already received interest from book clubs. Bethelmie wants to capture some of the business from poetry readings lost when the Java Monkey coffee shop in Decatur burned down, Decaturish.com noted.
"They used to do a lot of poetry readings and open mic competitions there, and I was hoping maybe we could reach out to that community," she said. "They could find a home here, too."