I always thought that Paris has the best bookstores until I started the this regular feature in DART, more than 10 years ago. Year after year the evidence that Our Fair City loves books—and the people who put them on our shelves—becomes even more evident. So if it’s August, it’s time for the latest good news!

Yu & Me Books is NYC's first Asian American female-owned bookstore, operating as a cozy literary haven and community hub in Manhattan's historic Chinatown. Founded in 2021 by Lucy Yu, a former chemical engineer who left her corporate track to elevate marginalized voices, the narrow, warm storefront specializes in immigrant narratives, AAPI diaspora literature, and stories by authors of color. Top: Lucy Yu, Photo by Caroline Xia @carolinexia_

Beyond its role as a retail shop/classy dive bar, Yu & Me Books serves as a vital neighborhood sanctuary—a status cemented when the community raised over $369,000 to rebuild and reopen the storefront after a catastrophic fire in 2023. Now in a 26-minute a documentary film by directors Esther Chan and Claudine Cho, you can witness the resurrection of this sanctuary from the charred, smoke-ruined remains of ink and paper to the vibrant energy of a neighborhood determined to rebuild its cultural anchor. Click to find out more. Located at 44 Mulberry Street, Yu & Me opens at 11 am, sven days a week. Info  Events  Book Club

Kitchen Arts and Letters may be the oldest food and drink bookstore in the country, but it’s also the newest food and drink bookstore in Lower Manhattan [left]. How? Through the Downtown Alliance’s RE:Store program, the Upper East Side institution opened a satellite location at 111 Broadway with a special selection of books and ephemera focused on New York City food stories.

Kitchen Arts and Letters’ Lower Manhattan location will be open Tuesdays through Saturdays, 12 p.m.–8 p.m.through Labor Day, hosting weekly events with authors, chefs and food historians. Click for more info

Following is a sample of DARTs list of 150 + NYC Indie Bookseller. Click for the entire list to date.

Manhattan

Codex, 1 Bleecker Street, NY, NY [above]. Used books bought and sold, specializing in literary fiction and art books; live music, and poetry readings.

McNally Jackson 4 Fulton Street. The South Street Seaport location is a standout for its historic charm and ground-floor bar and café. The SoHo original, at 54 Prince Street,  remains a classic, featuring a lively café where people congregate amid floating books,

Bibliotheque, 54 Mercer Street [above]. This modern, design-forward hybrid functions as a café and bookstore by day and transforms into a sophisticated wine bar after 5 p.m.. [1, 2]

Book Club Bar, 197 3^rd Street. This East Village shop feels like a cozy living room, serving locally roasted coffee by day and New York State beers and wine by night and hosts six different book clubs, with a packed readings and events calendar.

Housing Works Bookstore, 126 Crosby Street. Now in its third decade, this neighborhood stalwart offers a spacious café and a massive selection of used books, with all proceeds supporting advocacy for people living with HIV/AIDS

Brooklyn

BEM | books & more, 373 Lewis Avenue, Brooklyn, NY Map & Hours [above] is the nation’s first Black food bookstore, café, and culinary hub, existing at the intersection of all things Black, culinary & literary. This month, BEM hosts a festival in honor of the 50th anniversary reissue of Edna Lewis' seminal cookbook The Taste Of Country Cooking, with a new foreword by author, editor, and culinary journalist Toni Tipton-Martin.

Liz's Book Bar , 315 Smith Street, Brooklyn. A relatively new addition in Brookyn, it features an inviting mahogany bar serving Black Acres Roastery coffee and charcuterie boards alongside a leather-couch-filled reading area.—and hosts two in-store book clubs. 

Cafe con Libros, 724 Prospect Place, Brooklyn. An intersectional feminist bookstore and coffee shop that centers women and girls of color in its curation while serving excellent lattes in a wood-clad, intimate space

Hive Mind Books & Coffee Shop, 219 Irving Avenue, Brooklyn. This independent queer bookstore  is laptop-friendly and pairs a curated selection of new and used titles with a full coffee shop and a full menu of co-writing workshops and book readings.

Queens

Topos Bookstore Café [above], 788 Woodward Avenue, Queens. A neighborhood staple on  known for its well-curated used book selection and quality coffee, complete with outdoor sidewalk seating. You can also sell your gently used books at Topos.

Bronx

The Lit.Bar [above], 131 Alexander Avenue, Mott Haven, The Bronx, is the first and still the only brick and mortar bookstore serving the 1.4 million people and 10 colleges and universities of the Bronx