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Avid Reader launches ‘Avid Kitchen + Garden’

Brisbane bookstore Avid Reader is relaunching its café and courtyard space under the new name Avid Kitchen + Garden.

The West End bookstore has hired new management to take over the running of the café, which was previously run in-house.

The revamped café will feature a new menu and an event program that the managers hope will eventually include children’s parties, food workshops and meditation workshops.

Avid Reader closed its café in June this year citing the area’s competitive café and food business. At the time, Avid Reader owner Fiona Stager told the Brisbane Times she was ‘looking for expressions of interest’ for someone to take over the space.

Stager told Books+Publishing the new managers will be better placed to respond to changing food trends. ‘We knew the café was a good business, but we weren’t managing it as well as it could have been,’ she said. ‘Emily, Renee and Mia came through a mutual friend. They live here and know the community and understand how small business works in West End.’

Stager said she hopes the space will entice people to see the store as a destination for ‘more than just browsing’. ‘We are responding to the changing retail market. The fact is Amazon is coming into Australia and I want visits to Avid to be even more experiential than they already are.’

Avid Kitchen + Garden will launch in September. For more information on the project, click here.

 

Category: Local news