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There is always room for a new bookstore or coffee shop in New York …specially if the effort comes courtesy of an already beloved local business.
Casa Magazines, a beacon of the downtown cultural scene since the mid-1980s, debuted Casa Next Door on the other side of the building that the magazine shop calls home last week. The new destination features a bookstore in the front and a coffee counter in the back—a real downtown New York combination, if you ask us.
Managed by the same folks who handle the original business at 22 Eighth Avenue in the West Village, Casa Next Door boasts two separate entrances: one directly into the coffee shop portion of the destination and the other into the bookstore. The downtown building, in fact, is pizza shaped, and the tip of the structure is where the magazines are sold.
"We intentionally set up the coffee area in the back of the store because we wanted the front to be where people gather for eventual community events," says Happy David, Casa universe's lead for brand, strategy and community, on a phone call with Time Out. "We named it Casa Next Door because Casa Magazines is such a special place and we were adamant about keeping the spirit."
Without going into too many details, David explains that the new space has gone through a variety of owners, each one setting up a different type of business by the magazine shop—including an illegal weed shop, a repair store, a toy shop, a Himalayan gift shop and more. "
“In-between ownerships, the landlord would give us the keys and we would work from there,” explains David. When the space was once again available, the current owner of Casa Magazines, Hemal Sheth, quickly took it on and settled on the same moniker that they had used to identify the destination when using it as a side office for years … next door.
The books on offer are "a natural extension of our magazine section," reveals David. Expect fashion title, travel tomes and art-focused coffee table books, for example. Casa Magazines' merch program, which originally kicked off during the pandemic, has also grown exponentially and themed products are now being sold at the new store as well, alongside a variety of very New York paper goods.
As for the coffee on deck, the menu is still in development but you can expect traditional espresso-based drinks in addition to Casa-specific offerings: the Casa latte, made with espresso, honey and warm cinnamon, and the Casa cold brew, topped with sweet cold foam.
A rotating selection of pastries like croissants and tarts is also available and patrons can opt to grab to-go drinks from an on-site fridge when in a rush.
But the Casa Next Door hopes to be much more than a bookstore or a coffee shop: the team wants the space to become a meeting point cherished by locals. Paradoxically, that is exactly what the magazine shop already is. Here's to hoping the mom-and-pop business will continue to grow.