Meet BookBar – the hybrid bookshop-wine bar working against the algorithm

If you were to ask someone what would pair well with a smooth peachy Albariño wine from Northern Spain, they may suggest moules marinière to allow the flavours to sing, or make the case for a creamy burrata to accompany the fresh wine. If you were to ask BookBar founder, Chrissy Ryan, the same question, the answer would be very different. The perfect pairing for a peachy Albariño wine, she would say, is the novel Small Pleasures by Clare Chambers. 

After graduating from Exeter University and receiving a Masters from King’s College London, Ryan went into bookselling and then on into export sales. “I travelled the world selling books to bookshops,” she says. Her travels took her all the way to the Maldives, where she worked in a pop-up bookshop in a resort as ‘a barefoot bookseller’, in partnership with Ultimate Library. 

Upon returning to London, Ryan noticed something. “People in their late 20s, early 30s were making a real effort to shop from smaller businesses. It was making a big comeback.” However, this wasn’t so much the case when it came to purchasing books. “Through conversations I learnt that sometimes bookshops feel a bit exclusive or customers didn’t know where to even start when they walk in,” Ryan says. Readers would stick to what they knew, purchasing the latest bestsellers from Waterstones or Amazon. With lockdown closing bookshops for most of the year, almost everyone was at the mercy of algorithms, suggesting novels based on keywords and previous purchases. “I thought that there has got to be a way to reach these people,” she says, with 2020 book sales surpassing 200 million for the first time in eight years. As it happens, she was right. How better to coax the British public into the world of independent bookshops than with the chance of a tipple? 

In June 2020, after many years of dreaming about it, Ryan founded BookBar, a hybrid bookshop-wine bar. Starting with a soft launch during lockdown, they began selling Ryan’s ‘Shelf Medicate’ prescription packages.The bundles vary from “The Armchair Traveller” collection, for those in need of a bit of escapism, to the “The Gin and Tonic for the Soul” collection, made up of pick me ups for readers in a literary funk. The bundles can either consist of three or six books, and are hand-selected by Ryan. Whether the reader wants “to feel edified, if they want to escape, need comfort or perhaps all of the above,” she is prepared for all requests. The way she chooses the books is individual; all customers need to do is select their prescription and the package size on the website and add in any special requests. Ryan will do the rest.

“I see it as an antithesis to the algorithm,” she says, explaining that algorithms lack an emotional understanding to match literature. “The algorithm would see a consumer purchased Gone Girl, for example, and would offer up a plethora of options using the key words of ‘dark’ ‘thriller’ and ‘suspense’,” she says, “but what it doesn’t ask is how the book made readers feel, did they like the imagery and what about the writing style?” These are all enquiries Ryan has up her sleeve when consulting with the customer. “It’s like having a literary matchmaker on speed dial,” she says.

In February, BookBar took it’s next step, opening it’s magenta doors to click and collect orders and they now have over 6,000 followers on Instagram. “Great for a bookshop, let alone a new bookshop,” Ryan says.

Photography by Chrissy Ryan

At last, 12 April rolled around and the wine could flow for loyal customers, finally stepping through BookBar’s doors. Customers are welcome to browse and purchase from the shelves, before ordering a glass of wine, or even bottle, to sit outside at one of BookBar’s tables. Come 17 May, tables inside will be ready and waiting, dotted in and around the shelves, complete with a larger room downstairs to host book events. But, for now, Ryan is in her element offering her bespoke advice to the community she has built online. “I want the shop to be this social space to bring out the emotional side of reading,” she says. “My favourite thing is when two customers are having a chat and then the next thing you know someone else has jumped in saying ‘oh I loved that!’ It’s exactly what I want BookBar to be.”

There are a few famous faces in her budding community of bookworms too. Critically acclaimed author David Nicholls is an avid supporter of Ryan’s initiative. “In the first week of doing click and collect he offered to come and sign books,” Ryan says. “He’s a lovely man and a champion of the Islington community.”

Photography by Chrissy Ryan

Over lockdown, Ryan created a virtual book club that now has over 150 subscribers, and often sells forty extra tickets as one off purchases. The book club tickets include the book in their cost, so publishers know they can guarantee at least 150 sales. As a result, she has been able to book impressive authors such as The Vanishing Half’s Britt Bennett. The virtual book club evenings will soon be able to take place in BookBar’s store, much to the excitement of Ryan. “I really want to do book and wine pairing evenings next,” Ryan says. But for now, they are working to launch a wine of the month, to accompany their book of the month. 

With industry monopolisation by Amazon and the rise of Kindle and other e-readers, book shops are having to adapt to the 21st century and BookBar is leading the way. So take note from Ryan, crack open a book and a bottle of wine, and try to find your perfect pairing.

You can find BookBar at 166 Blackstock Road in Islington or online here.