Bunch of Grapes
Oh, no … fire has destroyed Cafe Moxie and severely damaged the Bunch of Grapes bookstore on Martha’s Vineyard. I’m so sorry to hear about the cafe, but am crushed for the poor bookstore–even if it didn’t completely burn, how could a business whose stock was paper survive the amounts of water the fire department had to use to put out the flames? For obvious reasons, it’s closed for the foreseeable future. I just hope it HAS a foreseeable future!
NOT happy news on a holiday. But then, you folks know how I feel about books … and Martha’s Vineyard. At least no one was hurt–that counts for a lot…. (sniffle)
Edited to add: Here’s another article. This is just so terrible. The owners of the cafe only bought it in May, and now it’s a total loss. And the bookstore? Pretty much a total loss, too. It’s one of the anchors of downtown Vineyard Haven, too–impossible to imagine it without it. I’m feeling terrible that we didn’t get a chance to go into the bookstore in April, because I’m going to miss it so much….
Another addition: Another article–the cafe has been razed to possibly prevent further smoke damage to the bookstore which, I don’t know, might be salvageable? They mention that this isn’t how they’d hoped to be spending the Fourth of July (no kidding!), and also how much this is hurting all the other businesses on Main Street because it’s such a big money-making day for them. Which, sure, is absolutely true but, um, at least they still HAVE businesses….
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Tannenbaum.
House Calls
Oh, dear! I just got the news about the Bunch of Grapes from your site and we are all devastated. We had just been talking about it and my human mom said that she might like to take a part time job there after Labor Day when the kids go back to college. That’s how much she loves the bookstore. One of her favorite things to do is attend the author readings (Ward Just was TERRIFIC!!!). She—and a lot of other people—thought BOG was/is one of the finest independent bookstores in America.
We are so sad, too for Cafe Moxie. It was a fine restaurant and helped bring some needed foot traffic to Vineyard Haven at night. A young couple just bought it, right?
Oh dear. And to think we just made our ferry reservations an hour ago online!!!
I hope you got some tasty floor bits from Mom’s day in the kitchen. But please pass along our dismay for the Vineyard. boo hoo.
Fenway’s last blog post..It’s A Happy Fourth O’ July
Oh my goodness! How horrible. I love Bunch of Grapes — I was just there last week, even. Thank you for posting this — I likely wouldn’t have heard about it otherwise!
Sarah’s last blog post..Island time
I’ve never been to MV, but I’m sad about the bookstore and cafe - the bookstore particularly.
Chris’s last blog post..An announcement and a plea