Creekside Books Fills Bookstore Void in New York's Finger Lakes

Creekside Books & Coffee, a 6,500-square-foot coffeehouse and bookstore, is owned by Erika Davis in the lovely, but tough to pronounce, village of Skaneateles, New York. "Try to pronounce it as 'skinny atlas,'" Davis advises the uninitiated. The town is a scenic place on the north side of the Finger Lakes, 25 miles outside Syracuse, with a population of 7,000. Despite its charm, a few years ago, the town was left with a void when its independent bookstore closed. Fortunately for Skaneateles residents, Creekside filled that gap almost two years ago, and, on December 3, the store will be celebrating its second anniversary.

"We lost our independent on Main Street, which had turned into a toy store. I felt the need for a bookstore and a gathering place," Davis said. "We built out a 2,000-square-foot house in a semi-residential area and expanded into two areas separated by an indoor vestibule -- 2,000-square-feet for the coffee house and 3,000-square-feet of retail space for the bookstore." The store has parking for 10 cars but "fortunately, we're right across the street from the grocery store and pharmacy. Both let us use their parking spaces."

Davis explained that, although the store's location is quite desirable, it would likely get a lot better during the coming decade. "The village's master plan calls for increased retail development in town. The plan is to build a bridge over our creek, which would put us right in the main shopping area."

Creekside serves a light-fare menu in its coffee house and has many wholesale accounts for its in-house roasted coffees. It offers meeting space for organizations and book clubs, and presents events, lots of them, said Davis. "We've had about 50 author events since we started," she said, "October is huge -- we have three nationally-known authors: Laura Lippman, John Berendt, and Lou Holtz - [who will be appearing] offsite for space considerations." That's not counting October visits from Betsy Burton of The King's English in Salt Lake City, author of The King's English: Adventures of an Independent Bookseller (Gibbs Smith), who will speak on "Why Buy Locally," and a number of local authors.

"It sure has become a gathering place," Davis said happily, describing weekly music events, open mics, story times, and creative writing workshops. "People say it's the best thing that has happened here in a long time."

A former marketing director, among other positions, Davis returned to her hometown of Skaneateles a few years ago, filled with ideas for a bookstore and caf. She began her bookselling education at a BEA in Los Angeles, and then attended a full week session of Booksellers School, given by Paz & Associates. The group has served as consultants for many aspects of the store's construction and design. "They've been invaluable," she said. "I can't imagine doing it in a vacuum."

Davis also credits ABA and the Book Sense Program with many of the store's ideas. "Every time I go to an ABA/NAIBA Shoptalk, I learn things I would never have known about. That's how I found out about Above the Treeline. Having the Book Sense Bestseller List puts us in another category. We have an affluent, educated, and demanding clientele -- we can offer them more than just the New York Times list. The Book Sense Gift Cards have been amazing. The numbers are huge. We doubled [card] sales from August 2005 to August 2006. People adore them, and for the holidays they don't have to worry about a lot of different gifts."

Creekside also has a BookSense.com site, but Davis admitted that, initially, she had avoided setting up the website for about a year: "Once I sat down to do it, I realized that, if I had only known how easy it was going to be, I would have done it right away." --Nomi Schwartz