Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Maria And Kate. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Maria and Kate, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Let’s kick things off with your mission – what is it and what’s the story behind why it’s your mission?

Bookish Cafe Orlando came to life in March 2024 as a unique independent bookstore and soon-to-be coffee shop where the love for fantasy and thrillers creates a magical community. Our goal is to craft an experience from beginning to end that celebrates nerdiness, where you can shamelessly enjoy what you love and create bookish friendships. Our growth is fueled by partnerships with indie authors, small businesses and support from the bookish community.

Maria and Kate, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

Bookish Cafe Orlando came to life in March 2024 at our book club “Main Street Book Club”, as a unique independent bookstore and soon-to-be coffee shop where the love for fantasy and thrillers creates a magical community. Our vision is to be the hub of our community’s literary and coffee scene, inspiring creativity, conversation, and connection.

We focus on selling books and experiences that fit into the Fantasy genre or the Thriller genre, with a small sample of other genres included. What we are the most proud of is the relationships we’ve been able to create in the bookish community, with vendors, authors, cosplayers, creators, and passionate readers the like.

We want to transform how people experience the mix of coffee and storytelling, creating a space where diverse voices and ideas thrive. By supporting indie authors and artists, we aim to nurture their creativity and help them grow. Through our love for books and great service, we hope to enrich our visitors’ lives, making lasting memories and friendships that go beyond our space.

We’d love to hear about how you met your business partner.

Separately, Maria was creating The Bookish Cafe brand while Kate was creating the Main Street Book Club experiences. When Maria joined Main Street Book Club, a friendship blossomed and opportunity arose. They both felt that each business venture would greatly benefit if a partnership was created and thus Main Street became the official Book Club for The Bookish Cafe. From there, both Maria and Kate were determined to create an environment for their fast growing community to call a home and with determination, they’re working on opening a bookstore/cafe in Fall of 2025!

We’d love to hear about how you keep in touch with clients.

Our vision is to be the hub of our community’s literary and coffee scene, inspiring creativity, conversation, and connection.
We pride ourselves in creating partnerships with local authors, vendors, and small businesses like us which allows us to continue to grow the bookish community. The Bookish community has changed the way we thought Bookish Cafe would grow, the support we receive daily from our followers has changed the game for us and the way we see the brand. Bookish is not just ours anymore and our followers aren’t just followers, they have become the bookish family that we treasure and learn from.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.bookishcafeorlando.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bookish.cafe.orlando/

Image Credits

For credit, the photographer prefers to be shown from her Instagram as @oricat.photo