Journalist Ron Hayes on “Resurgence of Local Bookstore” and The Book Cellar in Downtown Lake Worth Beach.

The news by Mr. Hayes is about our local bookstore in “[T]he heart of Lake Worth’s bustling downtown.”

And a little later in this blog post learn more about Mr. Ned Racine, “Jumpin’ J Street”, the Cottages of Lake Worth hardcover book, and more about this very popular bookstore in the downtown in Lake Worth Beach (LWB).

Here is an excerpt from Correspondent Ron Hayes at Florida Weekly, “IN THE KNOW. IN THE NOW”:


Yes, the traditional neighborhood bookstore is deader than Monty Python’s parrot, felled by an online predator named amazon.com
     Everybody says so.
     Fortunately, Tami Ayraud hasn’t heard, or simply refuses to believe it.
     On Oct. 6 [2017], Ms. Ayraud and two co-owners opened The Book Cellar, an actual independent neighborhood bookstore at the corner Lake Avenue and J Street in the heart of Lake Worth’s bustling downtown. [emphasis added]
     “I was living in Miami and moved here two years ago because of the small-town, funky atmosphere,” Ms. Ayraud explained on a recent Wednesday morning as one customer arrived to collect a title he’d ordered and others browsed the shelves. “It had a good vibe.”

It’s because of all the new establishments like The Book Cellar in LWB our two main streets, Lake and Lucerne avenues are “Jumpin’ ” once again!

Have you been to our Downtown bookstore yet, located at the corner of Lake Ave. and ‘J’ St.?

Do you remember who “Mr. Racine” was?
He was a fixture around ‘J’ St. back in the day.

In the image below is Ned Racine having a conversation with Peter Lowenstein at Stella’s near City Hall in 1981. Often they frequented a bar/liquor store on ‘J’ St. too (there is another image of Racine later in this blog post).

Click on image to enlarge:

These two men are the actors William Hurt (on left, “Ned Racine”) and Ted Danson in the 1981
classic film “Body Heat”. Lake Worth City Hall is the backdrop in this classic scene.

October 2017 was the Grand Opening of The Book Cellar bookstore in the downtown, a short walk from where Stella’s was located. Some people think Stella’s was the former Junior’s on Lucerne Ave.

Now we have a restored building at a prominent corner and its tenant happens to be a bookstore which is a nice addition to the downtown located at 801 Lake Ave. Plenty of FREE Parking is nearby in this little walkable City.

This street in Lake Worth Beach — both north and south ‘J’ in downtown — was once one of our major hubs for business and entertainment and was even the focus of the classic film noir, “Body Heat”. This movie starred William Hurt, Kathleen Turner (this was the film that launched her career), Ted Danson, J.A. Preston and Mickey Rourke:

Does one building in particular look familiar?
That 2-story white structure is now The Book Cellar!

Click on image to enlarge.

“Ned” with a cigarette in hand walks down
‘J’ Street. He was rarely without
one in this movie.

The scene above is “Ned” walking north. For more about this famous street in our City use this link for a blog post from back in June 2013 about “Jumpin’ J Street!”

Back to the Grand Opening of The Book Cellar.

There were eight Cottages of Lake Worth books on display and all of them were sold. The proprietors requested more books the very next day. And keep on requesting more books to this day.

The hardcover book:

See more photos from the Grand Opening of
The Book Cellar below.

What’s truly amazing about this book is what publishing executives said: things like this are not supposed to happen; it’s just not possible for books like The Cottages of Lake Worth to sell so many books without the help of an online retailer. It just doesn’t happen. But it did. Now the advice from the experts is the price of the book (USD$32.95, CAD$34.95) was just too low.

But that’s not true either. The Cottages of Lake Worth book was and remains (sans the photographer and other professional help) an all-volunteer effort with very low overhead and money raised goes back to the organization for other things . . . like maybe ordering another delivery of books next year!

Hanging out at The Book Cellar:

Friendly residents of our City and smiles aplenty.

Everyone wishes The Book Cellar a bright
future here in our City! Use this link
for their Facebook page.