February 9, 2006

By Diane Chiddister

Gail Lichtenfels has opened the Mermaid Café inside Epic Books. The coffee shop will host a grand opening celebration on Feb. 11 from 6 to 9 p.m.

Gail Lichtenfels loves mermaids. She also loves coffee, pottery and the color purple. But most of all Lichentfels, the owner of Epic Book Shop, loves books.

A year ago she decided to combine her loves into one business, and she recently expanded her bookstore to include the Mermaid Cafe.

This Saturday, Feb. 11, Lichtenfels will celebrate the grand opening of the Mermaid Cafe from 6 to 9 p.m. at 118 Dayton Street, inside Epic. The event will feature free refreshments, including smoothies, coffee drinks and sweets from Mama’s Midnight Bakery.

The expanded business also now offers expanded hours, and will be open from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m., Mondays through Wednesdays, 7 a.m. to 9 p.m., Thursdays through Saturdays, and 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Sundays.

Presiding over the grand opening will be the shop’s large mural of a turquoise mermaid against a blue sky, painted by local artist Pierre Nagley. Those who attend will also see mermaid paintings by Dione Greenberg and mermaid quilts by Sharri Phillips.

Lichtenfels wanted to name her new business after mermaids, she said, because she finds the mermaid image to be a compelling one.

“The mermaid represents depth, entering the depths, going where many wouldn’t venture,” she said. “It’s the power of the feminine.”

Lichtenfels hopes that the Epic Book Shop/Mermaid Cafe fills a niche of a quiet, peaceful place in Yellow Springs where people can read books, sip coffee and visit with others as classical music plays softly in the background. A part-time philosophy teacher at Wright State, Lichtenfels said she is especially drawn to spirituality, and Epic offers a large selection of books on yoga, psychology, philosophy and religion.

Epic Books, Yellow Springs’ oldest book store, opened more than 30 years ago, in 1974. Lichtenfels said she opened the store for a simple reason: she loved being around books.

“Books are my passion,” she said. “I love ordering books, picking out books, handling books. And after all this time, I still do.”

In three decades, the store has undergone changes. In 1996, Lichtenfels moved Epic from Xenia Avenue, where Sam and Eddie’s Open Books now operates, to its Dayton Street spot. She had fallen in love with the Dayton Street location, with its high ceilings and light-filled space, years before, Lichtenfels said, and she and her husband, Eric McClellan, purchased the Dayton Street building. McClellan and Lichtenfels live above the store with their 9-year-old daughter, Hypatia, and two furry white dogs.

Over the years, Lichtenfels has also increased her store’s Internet business, and her goal is to handle Internet work in her office as her staff serves customers in the front of the store, she said.

But the biggest change by far is opening the Mermaid Cafe, a project nine months in the making.

She began thinking about providing “creature comforts” along with books last June, Lichtenfels said, and collaborated with interior designer Monica Hasek to plan the space. Opening a cafe inside Epic involved moving many books and shelves, painting the walls (lavender), the painting of Nagley’s mural, the building of a new handmade wooden counter by Paul DeLaVergne, purchasing an espresso machine, and bringing the store up to code for plumbing and electricity. It also involved Lichtenfels scouring stores and secondhand shops for purple cups and plates, along with comfortable tables and chairs.

Finally, the health department gave the OK a few weeks ago, and Lichtenfels and her staff — Eve Sturm, Hallie Cranos and Rick Van Meter — began serving coffee drinks, including the Mermaid Tale, Lichtenfels’s original concoction of a double shot of espresso, half-and-half and chocolate syrup, along with baked goods.

She’s having a very good time in her new book shop/cafe, Lichtenfels said, and is also using the space for a variety of spirituality-based activities. Once a month on Thursdays, the shop sponsors a study group of the Bhagavad-Gita, and on the first Friday of the month it sponsors a study group on Carl Jung. She will show a spiritual film once a month, and on Thursday, Feb. 16, a new event, “Writing at the Mermaid,” with Fran Simon, will take place. People interested in the writing group should contact Simon at 767-7889.

After years of ordering fiction, cookbooks and an assortment of other books for her store, Lichtenfels said, she has decided to focus once again on her love of spirituality. And as a mother of a young child, she also offers in the store wooden toys and dolls, along with story time for children on Saturday mornings at 11.

She’s pleased that the Epic Book Shop/Mermaid Cafe reflects who she is, Lichtenfels said.

“I’m pursuing all of my interests,” she said. “At this point in my life, I’m only interested in what I’m interested in. I like reading and spiritual work. I want the way I make my living to reflect that.”

Contact: dchiddister@ysnews.com