Read It and Eat Bookshop
In an increasingly digital world, those of us who love in-person experiences and tactile things, like Edible Western NY magazine, are finding ways to adapt. Often, it’s with the help of businesses like Read It & Eat Bookshop, a culinary bookstore that recently opened its new location on Main Street in North Buffalo.
Twenty years ago, Read It & Eat may have seemed like a novel idea. Today, it’s a revelation that scratches an itch we didn’t know we had. Owner Kim Behzadi has taken the classic bookstore and created an emporium of gastronomical experiences. In addition to cookbooks, there are all kinds of tomes about food, including cocktail books, chef memoirs, food history books, romance novels, graphic novels and kids’ books. Read It & Eat also encourages people to act on the inspiration they find in the pages they buy, offering everything from spices to pickling equipment to kitchen tools.
Read It & Eat started as a subscription box service during COVID. Behzadi sold culinary-themed boxes based on a particular cookbook or food-themed book. In addition to the book itself, boxes included spices and supplies you could use to make dishes in that book. The boxes were so popular, Behzadi launched the Read It & Eat pop-up, and eventually rented a stall in the new West Side Bazaar on Niagara Street in Buffalo. She then jumped at the chance to operate a full shop on Main Street, where the culinary boxes are still available, either through a subscription or as standalone purchases. A small percentage of each sale goes toward a charity fighting hunger in Western New York.
Behzadi's background in the food retail industry informs the business side of the bookstore. But her love of food gives the store transcendent communal and romantic qualities. Read It & Eat is a passion project that is about much more than linking aspiring cooks to knowledge and supplies. For Behzadi, her store is about connecting to other people, even those we may have lost.
“My dad was from Iran,” she said. “He immigrated to the States and there’s a lot of political turmoil between the U.S. and Iran. So, I was not raised in his tongue, and I can’t read or write his native language, Farsi. I lost my dad to pancreatic cancer three years ago, but I can still connect to him through food. I’m sure there are others who experience that type of connection, too.”
Like a craft beer store or cocktail bar, a culinary bookstore might be a bit intimidating to the uninitiated.
A lot of us love to cook, but many of us haven’t had the time to learn cooking techniques or explore various cuisines. That can translate to a bit of insecurity when surrounded by so much culinary knowledge.
Behzadi says she learned very quickly that it’s important to cater to aspiring cooks of every level, not just food obsessives who are hungry for obscure dishes and complex techniques.
“I love to cook at home and grew up eating Persian food,” she said. “I came into this business thinking about big, ambitious culinary journeys and amazing spices. But then I had a lot of people coming in and saying they wanted to know how to use their Instant Pot. I learned you gotta give people what they want.”
Regardless of your skill level, learning to cook takes more than a couple of cookbooks and some supplies. You need to do it. You need to knead pizza dough to feel how it changes. You need to turn a few steaks into shoe leather before you learn how to get that perfect medium-rare result.
Read It & Eat supports culinary journeys by helping people get hands-on experience. The Cooks x Books cooking class series brings together aspiring cooks and different local chefs. In one class, Diego Castillo of Breva Kitchen demonstrated how to make arepas. In another, Zach Rosenbloom from Bloom & Rose showed students how to make soft pretzels.
The events programming goes beyond just the cooking classes. The Talk and Taste series exposes people to unique foods and drinks. A cookbook swap lets people trade cookbooks they’ve outgrown or don’t use. There’s also a book club and regular book signing events. Behzadi says all of the different events have been popular, and she thinks that comes down to a shared love of food, but also of communing with others.
“There’s this real desire for ‘the third space’,” she said. “People go to work and go home, but they also want to do things in Buffalo.”
No doubt, Read It & Eat is creating a community by being more than just a niche bookstore. Behzadi says it’s incredibly rewarding to see the growth of that community and of her business. She notes that running the bookstore is a lot of work, but it’s work that she’s happy to put in to continue creating something special.
“There’s so much work that goes into event planning and getting chefs with a new book to come to Buffalo for signing,” she says. “But I’m very honored and grateful for the growth, and I’m excited to see what the next chapter will be!”
