If entertaining is your superpower, and you tend to cook for friends no matter where you travel, you’ll love Friends Food Family, by Sasha Wilkins, former journalist and the blogger behind Liberty London Girl. Among all the treats and treasures in Sasha’s new book, we were psyched to discover a few foodie-centric bookstores mentioned – in all our favorite cities.
From Los Angeles to New York, San Francisco to London, Sasha has a few perfect spots to head for great new reads. If you’re prepping a dinner for eight at a friend’s flat in Notting Hill and need a little inspiration, we know just the spot…
Books for Cooks
London -This Notting-Hill-based shop is legendary amongst UK food lovers. Their café tests recipes from the cookbooks and cookery classes take place in the demonstration kitchen upstairs. I also highly recommend curling up in their delightfully squashy sofa to test-read the books.
Books for Cooks
4 Blenheim Crescent
Notting Hill, London W11 1NN
Omnivore Books on Food
San Francisco – This small but perfectly formed shop is always on my must-visit list when I am in town for its excellently curated mix of both cookbooks and books about food. I particularly love that it doesn’t just stock the shiny and the new: There are second-hand and antiquarian volumes too.
Omnivore Books on Food
3885a Cesar Chavez Street
(at Church Street)
San Francisco, CA 94131
Joanne Hendricks
New York – Not far from my old Manhattan apartment, this wonderful bookshop also sells all manner of culinary ephemera, including menus, prints, photographs, cookware and etiquette guides, in addition to a glorious assortment of rare food books. If you are looking for a particular first edition, this is the place to ask.
Joanne Hendricks
488 Greenwich Street
New York, NY 10013
Strand Bookstore
New York – Because the Strand buys thousands of books every day, including secondhand, and has the largest rare books collection in New York City, they have a phenomenal cookbook department with plenty of treasures by long-forgotten cookbook writers to be unearthed. They also have great discounts on list prices (often cheaper than Amazon).
Strand Bookstore
828 Broadway
New York, NY 10003–4805
Kitchen Arts & Letters
New York – With over 13,000 titles in stock (domestic and imported, contemporary and out of print), this not-very-big shop in the upper reaches of the Upper East Side has an influence far beyond its size. Do sign up for its brilliant newsletters.
Kitchen Arts & Letters
1435 Lexington Avenue
New York, NY 10128
Cookbooks by Janet Jarvits
Los Angeles – One of the only specialist cookbook shops in the Greater Los Angeles area, this bookshop feels like the outward expression of its owner’s passion for books about food. With more than 30,000 used and rare titles, it’s a food bibliophile’s dream store.
Cookbooks by Janet Jarvits
1388 E. Washington Blvd.,
Pasadena, CA 91104
(Closed Sundays & Mondays)
