Book + Bottle seeks to revive ‘human element’ of shopping local

By Decker Lavely

A St. Petersburg native will soon be serving the city a glass of wine with a side of literary fiction. 

Book + Bottle is a bookstore and wine bar projected to open its doors in March at 17 Sixth St. N. 

“I’m hoping to be a place where people can share joy around things that they love, that I personally think make people better people: wine and books,” said owner Terra Dunham. 

Book + Bottle plans to hosts events like wine tastings, author talks, children’s readings and book clubs. 

Dunham, 34, recalls falling in love with books at a young age. Her father would take her to Haslam’s Book Store, where she would buy used copies of the Nancy Drew series. 

“(Growing up), my parents were big on education, and my aunt actually worked at a children’s bookstore up in Wisconsin… so every year for Christmas, all the kids would get books and I just couldn’t get enough,” Dunham said. 

She graduated from Florida State University with a bachelor’s degree in anthropology and earned a master’s degree in theological studies from Harvard Divinity School. Dunham later moved to Colorado and worked for multiple publishing companies and a tech startup.

While living in Denver, she would frequent a bookshop and bar called BookBar. Inspired by the business, Dunham had the idea to bring the concept back to St. Petersburg.

“I’m from (St. Petersburg), and it feels very much like my town, and that’s why I wanted to come back and do this here,” she said.

The books will be selected by Dunham with a variety of genres from literary fiction and classics to environmental issues, children’s stories and more. She also hopes to include a section with southern books for readers to explore. 

“Diversity is really important to me…I feel like the last thing we need is books that look like one person,” Dunham said. “I want to make sure there is a diversity of thought and represent a broad swath of topics, people and ideas.”

The owner said she is excited to join others in the St. Petersburg literary community like Haslam’s, Tombolo Books, Cultured Books, Keep St. Pete Lit, Wordier Than Thou and Mirror Lake Library. 

While any book is virtually accessible through a tap on your smartphone, Dunham hopes visitors will treasure what she calls the “human element” of shopping local.

“What I offer and what independent bookstores offer is that instead of you having to go on Amazon and sort through tens of thousands of books and figure out what you want to read next, I’m going to have vetted them,” Dunham said. “I’m going to have people who have suggested them. I’m going to read them. I’m getting books based on the reviews, and I’m going to put them in your hand because I know who you are and I know what you liked the last time you came in.”

The wine will also be specially selected with a rotating menu, and guests will be able to drink by the glass or bottle. Book + Bottle hopes to provide guests with a different experience by serving wines they won’t find at a regular grocery store. 

Dunham is level-three certified with the Wine & Spirit Education Trust and has been studying wine for the past few years. She is currently working toward becoming certified with The Court of Master Sommeliers. 

“(The certifications) give you standards to talk about wine the same way everybody else is. So you have a shared vocabulary, knowledge and service standards that can be communicated to the guests,” Dunham said. 

The business also does a monthly Book + Bottle pairing through its blog. For the month of December, comedian Jenny Slate’s “Little Weirds” was paired with a Gewurztraminer, a natural and semi-sweet wine. 

Book + Bottle aspires to become a community space by sharing knowledge through books and wine.

“You could spend your life and you’d never read every book, and you could spend your life and never try all the different types of wine,” Dunham said. “There’s so much out there.” 

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Written by: Decker Lavely on January 20, 2020.
Last revised by: Kat PiccoloJanuary 19, 2020.