Books and Pickles are on the menu at this NYC Bookstore

NEW YORK — “Folks love pickles,” says Leigh Altshuler, proprietor of Sweet Pickle Books. “And books are the identical factor; the mix of these two exceeded my wildest dream for folks exhibiting up for issues,” she explains.

Candy Pickle Books opened in 2020 and is the brainchild of Altshuler, an avid reader and former worker of the landmark Strand E book Retailer. “I’ve all the time liked books and I grew up studying books, loving books, loving bookstores, and libraries, and I knew someday it was a dream of mine to open my very own bookstore,” she says, “but it surely felt unattainable in New York Metropolis to have this place.”

When Altshuler misplaced her job through the pandemic, she was impressed to comply with her dream regardless of the chances and challenges. “I might go on walks round my neighborhood across the Decrease East Aspect and I might have a look at all of the empty storefronts,” says Altshuler, “and earlier than I knew it, I used to be signing a lease, doing all this stuff I had no thought the right way to do, designing a retailer.” A couple of months later, Candy Pickle Books opened.

“I promote used books as a result of I really like them,” says Altshuler. “There are such a lot of writers which might be virtually like endangered species, liable to being forgotten, and used guide outlets are form of like their final warriors,” she explains of her want to forgo promoting new books.

Altshuler’s dream had all the time been to promote books along with one thing else; she settled on pickles as a approach of paying homage to her Jewish heritage and the Decrease East Aspect location of her store, which used to deal with the pickle district of NYC. The bookstore presently affords three kinds of craft pickles, all made uniquely for Candy Pickle Books utilizing Altshuler’s personal recipes. Guests can carry their outdated books and commerce them for a jar of pickles of their selecting.

In accordance with Altshuler, making this dream of hers come true has been extra rewarding than she ever anticipated. “Being a small enterprise proprietor is so significant to me for thus many causes and it is so rewarding, greater than something I might have ever imagined,” she says. “Every single day as a small enterprise proprietor you get the prospect to make anyone really feel seen and heard, simply to note anyone,” she explains. “It is so essential.”

Take a look at Candy Pickle Books on Instagram or go to in-person at 47 Orchard St. in NYC.