Oldspeak Bar, a bookstore and taproom, will open in Garden City, Idaho, next year, Boise Dev reported. Co-owners Chelsea Major, Shelley Searle, and Adam Fleck have launched a crowdfunding campaign to help open Oldspeak that has so far raised more than $12,500.
 |
|
| Oldspeak owners Chelsea Major, Shelley Searle, and Adam Fleck | |
Located at 3640 W. Chinden Blvd., Oldspeak is the combination of two local businesses: craft brewery Alliteration Ales and independent bookstore the Lit Room. Oldspeak will become the new home for the Lit Room, which previously had its own bricks-and-mortar location.
Oldspeak's book inventory will include new and used titles with a focus on small presses and global literature. The bar will serve beer brewed by Alliteration Ales and other craft breweries, as well as wine, kombucha, switchels, and tea and coffee. Food options are being considered.
Major, Searle, and Fleck plan for the bookstore and bar to be open late, and events will include author talks, book clubs, live music, educational discussions, yoga classes, tea tastings, and more.
Major founded the Lit Room as a mobile bookstore, hosting pop-ups at local breweries, markets, and other businesses. Last year, she and Searle teamed up to create a banned book vending machine in response to efforts to ban or restrict around 50 titles in the local library. Major also created a banned book club and night market before opening a bricks-and-mortar location in Garden City in fall 2023. The additional space at Oldspeak will allow Major to stock a larger assortment of titles and host bigger events.
"I really imagine us doing more conversations, and I honestly want to see education or curiosity-forward events," Major told Boise Dev.
Searle and Major met at a networking event in 2021 and hit it off, giving each other advice and helping each other with their respective businesses. In 2022, Searle and Fleck created Alliteration Ales. Searle noted that they did not have the ability to create a taproom in their brewery building due to permitting, and they've been "chomping at the bit" to have a storefront and taproom.
The owners hope to have Oldspeak Bar open in early 2025.