While a number of bookstores closed during COVID-19, Bonnie Slotnick Cookbooks, a bookstore that specializes in vintage cookbooks, is one of the few that survived.
Situated along the 28 East Second Street, Bonnie Slotnick Cookbooks, which has been open since 1997, houses antiquarian cookbooks that attract students studying culinary arts, food writers, chefs, regular grown-ups, artists who love hand-drawn illustrations in old cookbooks, and before COVID-19, travelers from the world or from many different states.
The store, which smells like an old public library, proves that print is not dead. Well-organized bookshelves in front of a cash counter where Bonnie Slotnick, the owner of the bookstore, stands, show who she was, as she was a librarian before she became a bookseller. Despite its small space, the store has everything so neatly organized: aprons hanging in a wall, vintage kitchen wares and books displayed on a long white shelf above aprons, a white enameled vintage stove stacked with a collection of various recipes. In a room profuse in cookbooks that cover a variety of topics, and old recipes that are hard to find nowadays are alive and well.
A rare survivor of the pandemic, Slotnick always made sure her old cookbooks reach her recipients’ hands in one piece, soldiering on with operating her bookstore business.
During COVID-19, Slotnick, who said the sales of her store went down by 60%, has faced many challenges such as losing a lot of customers or having to close her physical store for 18 months. Besides, the general challenge of running a business in New York City is the high cost of the rent that bars many small businesses from opening their stores in the city.
Despite many difficulties, Slotnick never stopped helping her customers find out-of-print cookbooks during COVID-19.
“I talked to customers on the phone, and if I didn’t know them, I asked them questions about the kinds of food they cook and their favorite cookbooks. I’ve put together a surprise package with extra little things, and people absolutely loved it,” Slotnick said.
Slotnick, who chose to sit in a kids’ chair all throughout the interview, said her love for cookbooks traces back to the one cookbook that her mother had, that she read as a kid. Holding an old copy of “The Settlement Cook Book: The Way to a Man’s Heart” that her mom gave her when she was a child, Slotnick said seeing old cook books makes “her heart beat faster.”
“People think that the statement “The Way to a Man’s Heart” is funny. But if you really think about it, the way to anybody’s heart can be through their stomach. There’s probably an expression in every language that says, you know, if you want somebody to like you, give them a cookie,” Slotnick said.
Slotnick’s love of cookbooks, which started early in her life, has been filling the hearts of those who frequent the store.
One of her regular customers, who gave Slotnick her used cookbooks for free, told me, “I found her store years ago when I needed this cookbook because my mother had one and everyone wanted it. And I emailed her and she said I will let you know. After eight years, she got it.”
Slotnick said she purchases her books individually and organizes them by subject. Topics of cookbooks encompass food history, cuisines from around the world, memoirs of influential chefs, desserts and more. When customers come to her store to buy a specific book, she can easily pick it out from thousands of books.
Although Slotnick purchases a variety of old or recent cookbooks for her customers, she loves filling her bookshelves at her home with books from the 1800s to 1940 that provide readers with recipes that their parents had. Even in a digital era where millions of recipes are online, her store is flourishing.
“When you find recipes online, you will find a million recipes and there is no way of knowing what might be a good one. People want old cookbooks to be handed down to their children,” Slotnick said.
Without a storefront sign that reads “Cook Books” with an illustration of a woman holding a pie in a white apron, it is difficult to notice Slotnick’s bookstore that is kind of hidden and looks like a cozy home. To get into her shop, customers have to walk down the steps.
As difficult as it is to find her store, most people will find it rewarding to visit her book shop that offers a variety of recipes and tools to fill their hearts and souls. To visit her store will cause a lot of people to revisit the memory of eating a hearty meal at their great grandparents’ homes to where they might never have had a chance to pay a visit.