Flip through the latest issue of Gulf Weekly.
When I get a little money, I buy books. And if there is any left over, I buy food’, classical scholar Desiderius Erasmus once said. At the wordsbookstore.cafe you can indulge in both.
It is a unique concept in which coffee, cake and a slice of culture is readily available in a cool, chic and comfortable environment.
Located at the increasingly popular Palm Square shopping and eating out destination on Budaiya Highway, the word is spreading about this meeting place of minds and brainchild of entrepreneur mums, Rana Aljalahma and Eileen Abuhamad.
“We’ve been overwhelmed by the positive response,” said Eileen. “There are so many people who love books and enjoy a good cup of quality coffee.”
Both women share a passion for reading, live close to each other in Janabiyah and have children who attend Riffa Views International School. Eileen is married to mechanical contracting company owner Issam Abuhamad and has two children, Yousif, 12, and Yasmin, 10. Rana is married to Saudi businessman Raad Abduljawad and has three children, Laya, 12, Zaid, 10, and Lena, nine.
Over a few coffee mornings the words flowed, the ideas developed and the business concept evolved. Eileen, 46, who runs the Studio Collection designer store in A’Aali Mall, already had extensive retail experience and Rana, 38, embarked on an intensive ‘running a bookshop’ workshop in the US.
“It was an amazing course offering advice from how to source books, obtain finance and even suggestions on the design of a store,” explained Rana.
Despite some doubters trying to put them off from their plans by suggesting books were ‘a thing of the past’ in a new-media age, the duo was determined to press ahead even as unrest erupted around the kingdom.
They received ‘invaluable’ help from Tamkeen, which offers support programmes for Bahrainis and enterprises in the private sector, and when a unit suddenly became available they signed on the dotted line. The wordsbookstore.cafe opened its doors in February.
Inside, the crisp white tables and comfortable chairs have a clear view of uncluttered book shelves containing the latest releases and, although there is a section dedicated to cookbooks you’ll be unlikely to find the recipe for the carrot cakes on the counter, as it’s a secret handed down through the generations of Eileen’s family.
Home-baked and soft and moist on the tongue, the taste is sensational. The crumbs simply melt away in the mouth accompanied by a delicious cream-cheese icing.
The cupcakes, costing BD1.200, come in a range of flavours including chocolate beetroot, coconut and almond. Lemon cheesecake, cookies and warm, flaky breakfast croissants are also available.
Store manager Elmer Layson and his team were on hand to brew up cups of Italian Illy coffee in all its forms – cappuccino or latte (BD1.500), Americano (BD1.100) or espresso (900 fils). For tea lovers, the variety of loose leaf teas are served in a pot (900 fils – BD1.100) as well as herbal and floral infusions, and the gourmet hot chocolate shots served in an espresso cup (900 fils) are a firm favourite with regulars.
A more extensive menu is still ‘a work in progress’ but sandwiches and a selection of healthy salads may follow shortly.
There are ‘more words’ upstairs with fiction, non-fiction, memoirs and biographies, Arab world titles, as well as business and travel book sections. There are ornate coffee table-style books on display and an impressive array of body, mind and spirit (self-help) titles for all ages, tackling a vast array of subjects.
There’s a special section for children aged nine to 12 and young adults and study-guides and its children’s section was alive on Saturday morning on the ‘story-time carpet’ where Lamia Alajaji, 25, a kindergarten teacher at the British School of Bahrain, had little-ones enthralled with a story about the adventures of Homer, the library cat.
A couple of weeks ago, words’ customers were treated to a signing visit by Canadian novelist David Szalay, whose parents Liz and Peter are residents in Bahrain. Every copy available in store of his latest offering entitled Spring, highlighting a complex portrait of a couple’s relationship in contemporary England, was snapped up.
Selma Dabbagh, whose book Out Of It, telling the tale of a family living in Gaza, has received international critical acclaim, and she will be signing and giving a reading at words this coming Friday at 7pm.
Later on in the month Bahrain-based novelist Winifred Peppinck will be appearing to sign his latest work, an emotional story of love and betrayal entitled What The Eye Cannot See.
In the meantime, to ensure this writer’s flow of literary genius remains fully-fuelled, he will be calling in again for an Americano and to test if the chocolate beetroot cupcake is in the same class as the carrot version.
