THURSDAY, JULY 11, 2019
Page 30
The Rockaway Times
Help Locals Start a New Chapter With A Permanent Bookstore By Kami-Leigh Agard
After two years of hosting pop-up Avoid The Day bookbars at various venues throughout the community, local husband and wife book-andwine-loving duo, Jianna and Jason Heuer, are ready to turn the page, and open up Rockaway’s first-ever brick-and-mortar bookstore bar and cafe. They recently launched an Indiegogo fundraising campaign, and are reaching out to the community for help to make their dream come true of offering not just a bookstore, but a communal experience they fervently believe will benefit Rockaway at large. According to Jason Heuer, hosting their recent June popup at a Beach 90th Street storefront was the game-changer that gave them the boost to start a new chapter with Avoid The Day. “We wanted to do a test to
see if people would actually respond to a storefront bookstore that sells not just books, but also gift items, apparel and other merchandise. The owner of the building on Beach 90th
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generously offered his space to us, where we also hosted local art shows, musicians, poets, and a large portion of our display table was dedicated to local authors and photographers.
We even got the liquor license to sell beer and wine. “So this pop-up was the full realization of what we envisioned Avoid The Day’s brickand-mortar bookbar was going to be like, and the response was overwhelming. People loved it! We were astounded by the number of books we sold,” Heuer ecstatically shared. When the Heuers' bookbar was recently featured in NY Magazine’s To Do List, the couple got a further boost. “After being featured in NY Magazine, we decided to extend our June pop-up to six weeks, and the reception just grew. From a financial perspective, it seemed like we could actually survive as a business. So based on this last test, we saw that we could move forward and open our very own storefront,” Heuer said. When asked if he felt an inContinued on page 31
