Common Good Books
38 Snelling Avenue South
Saint Paul
Opens April 9th
While the rest of the staff opens a newly arrived shipment from Random House, David Enyeart, Assistant Manger of Common Good Books and former events coordinator at Magers & Quinn, points to the street outside. “What was the estimate? Thirty, thirty-five thousand cars each day?”
“That’s about right.” You can tell Martin Schmutterer, the store manager, is pleased when he says this. “It’s a busy street.”
Until recently, Garrison Keillor’s bookstore lived below Nina’s Café on Selby and Western, not far from Moscow on the Hill. As reported in the Star Tribune late last year, they’d outgrown their space. All jokes about Saint Paul aside, Selby and Western is a great location for a literary enterprise, especially with Nina’s just upstairs, where any hour of any day you’re guaranteed to see at least two writers at work. The new location, however, on Snelling and Grand Avenues, goes beyond that. After an interview with Enyeart and Schmutterer on a Thursday evening, four days before the store’s opening, MCB can vouch for that. In forty-five minutes, MCB lost count of the curious passers-by. Even those not brave enough to step into the store and ask if it was closed for the evening felt no shame in cupping their hands around their eyes to peek through the windows. With those tens of thousands of cars, not to mention Macalester College directly across the street, as well as five other major colleges or universities within walking distance, 38 Snelling Avenue South promises to be a superb location.
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