The Viridian Bookshop ‘more than a bookshop’ in Downtown Willoughby - The News-Herald
Published by: The News-Herald
By Marah Morrison
Original article found here
Chanel Bush is now fulfilling her lifelong dream of owning a bookshop as co-owner of The Viridian Bookshop in Downtown Willoughby.
Located at 4081 Erie St., Bush and her husband, Joseph, opened the bookshop on Oct. 4.
“We had a grand opening celebration weekend and over 2,000 people come,” Bush said. “It was insane in the best way. I’ve been hearing a lot from the community and there was a hole people didn’t realize they had for a space like this — communal space where you can meet people with similar interests. It’s not just the books. I think it’s the communal aspect of what this industry brings.”
Ever since she was little, Bush wanted to be surrounded by books. A memory that sparked her dream of owning a bookshop was watching “Notting Hill” when she was a young teenager.
“You can actually own a little bookstore, run it and be happy,” Bush said. “I’ve moved a ton in my life and this is one of the best historic downtowns. I love it so much. This reminds me a lot of where I grew up in Washington. We had a historic downtown we used in a similar way.”
While Bush and her husband were working in the film industry, they were looking for other opportunities. When she saw the space on Erie Street available, she turned to her husband.
“I’ve loved reading my whole life and it was one of those dreams you never really tell anyone about because if you tell someone, then it’ll never come true,” Bush said. “I was like there’s this thing I’ve always wanted to do. It’s funny because we’ve been married for 15 years and he’s like, ‘How do I not know something about you?’ ”
As they live nearby, Bush said she frequents Downtown Willoughby. She recalls first seeing the space available last September.
“That’s when it all started,” Bush said. “What historic downtown doesn’t have a bookstore? This fueled the dream when I saw that this was available, but I was like there’s no way we would be able to afford the rent. We looked at it in December because I spent September through December working on my business plan — getting that solid before even approaching this place and keeping the hope that it would be available, and that we’d be able to afford it.”
Bush and her husband toured the space back in January. While it was still available, Bush said it was way out of the price range.
“I was like well, I’ve already done all this work on the business plan and this is now what I want to do with my life, so we did look at other places,” she said. “We put a deposit down on a place, but I came down here for the Rib Burn-Off and had this gut feeling I needed to approach the landlords again to see if they’d be willing to work with us at all. They had held this place for us. I didn’t come back to them until April or May, so they had held it from January when we first looked at it. They had turned away other people because they were hoping we would come back.”
From the mayor, the city and to people in the community, Bush said strangers she had never met before were rooting for the new bookshop.
“We negotiated a little bit, but they were fully supportive of having something new in Downtown Willoughby, but supporting and fulfilling my dream,” she said. “It was a completely empty space. Everything is brand new except for the original terrazzo floors we had refinished because we wanted to keep that old-world charm.”
The bookshop is fiction focused, holding all sub genres of fiction including classics, children’s, thrillers, mystery, young adult, sci-fi, manga, comics, graphic novels and historical fiction.
“Our tagline is more than a bookstore because we have spaces within the bookshop,” Bush said. “We want it to be a place where people can come away from their home and their work — the third place or space as people call it.”
Bush plans to be able to sustain the business so it can stay open, but also making the business a safe, peaceful place for people, which she has been seeing since opening.
“This is the place people come now in the evenings to get away from the craziness in the world,” she said. “I’ve been spearheading this, but my husband has been the most solid foundation anyone could ever dream of. I could not have done this without his support. Thinking about everything he’s done — it’s been amazing.”
Bush plans to host more bookshop events also going forward.
“We have three events this week — a Dungeons and Dragons 101, writing meetup for sci-fi and fantasy authors or aspiring authors and yoga on Saturday with an activity afterward,” she said. “There are so many things in the works. I wan tot have our own festival and during Valentine’s Day, some sort of masquerade ball or something along those lines.”
The bookstore, present on social media and on viridianbookshop.com, is open Monday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. and closed on Sunday.