New chapter for Boise-area book lovers? 2 new stores have more than fun reads
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Four co-owners plan a 21+ fiction book-bar in downtown Meridian, target 2026 opening
- Owners will renovate 1,600 sq ft, invest $144,000 and host community events
- Cooks & Books opened in 2025, pairing cookbook sales with cooking classes
A pop-up bookseller in Meridian is getting ready for a new chapter.
The Book Lounge, created by two sisters and two friends, plans to open its first brick-and-mortar bookstore in downtown Meridian in early 2026. The twist? It’ll serve up local wine, craft beer and “light snacks” in a lounge setting — in addition to fun fiction reads.
“We had talks of like, gosh, we wish there was a place like this that was in Meridian, that’s a little more central,” said Kaeleigh McCreery, whose role will involve book-buying, events and heading the lounge’s “front-of-house.”
McCreery and her friends Kelsey Stech, Amelia Gale, and Stetch’s sister Emily McClung, who live between Boise and Nampa, love to read but felt there wasn’t a place nearby where they could both “escape” into a book and socialize without the high energy of a traditional bar.
“And then we realized … well, why don’t we just do this ourselves?” McCreery, 28, said.
Now, after five months of pop-up events at locales like the South Meridian Market and local wineries including Cinder in Garden City, the group has signed a lease and is preparing to open on the ground floor of the Old Town Loft apartments at the corner of Meridian Road and Broadway Avenue across from Meridian City Hall.
Small bites, mocktails, more: New book-bar in works in Meridian
The book-bar is expected to feature local beer, wine and small bites like charcuterie, pastries and popcorn — but not a “full kitchen,” according to The Book Lounge’s website. The food will be sourced from a local business rather than prepared in house, McCreery told the Idaho Statesman in an interview.
Coffee, wine, beer and mocktails will also be served, said McCreery, who works as a bartender as well as in finance for a law firm. The store will be for ages 21+.
For books, readers can expect “all the genres of fiction you could imagine” in the fiction-only store, McCreery said.
The space will include a separate room for book clubs and author signings, and the co-owners plan to hold community events, according to Gale, who will head The Book Lounge’s digital and data analytics. Her ideas include trivia, puzzle and craft nights.
“That’s been something really important to us is building that sense of community with this venture,” said Gale, a 39-year-old who works in consumer packaged goods. She noted that the store will have locally sourced inventory like socks and bookmarks.
Added McCreery, “We want this to be a really good hub for anybody to come in, whether that’s reading, whether that’s listening to their audiobook ... . We just want that cozy, intimate space (where) people can just come and hang.”
Renovations, pop-ups precede 2026 opening
The co-owners plan to renovate a roughly 1,600-square-foot space, according to permit materials filed with the city of Meridian. The site, near the Idaho Live Wire tattoo parlor in local business owner Josh Evarts’ landmark downtown development, is unoccupied and consists of a dirt floor, Gale said. The renovation work is valued at $144,000, permit filings showed.
The group’s idea was “always to do brick-and-mortar,” McCreery said.
But the co-owners, who each hold other jobs and had no prior book-selling experience, first wanted to build name recognition and find out if there was an appetite for a store like theirs.
As they worked to secure a lease, they also spent months setting up shop at local markets and putting on events. What they repeatedly heard from residents, according to Gale: “Meridian needs a place like this.”
“Especially when you tell them where we’re going to be in Downtown Meridian, I feel like their eyes light up,” Gale said
Gale said she anticipates construction to take roughly eight to 10 weeks, with the business opening expected in March.
‘Every recipe has a story’: Another Meridian bookstore opens with food focus
Further south on Overland Road, west of Eagle Road, another new business is also putting a spin on the traditional bookstore model. Its focus: cooking.
“Cooking and reading may seem like different worlds, but they both invite us to slow down, learn something new, and share in something meaningful,” reads the website for Cooks & Books, the bookstore-and-cooking-studio combo founded by former home economics teacher Alicia Mattera. “Every recipe has a story, and stories bring people together.”
Mattera told the Statesman in a phone interview that she came up with the idea for the store after she began looking for spaces to teach cooking beyond the classroom.
“I had that mindset of an entrepreneur,” said Mattera, who owned her own businesses in the Las Vegas area before moving to Meridian five years ago.
First she looked at restaurant spaces with commercial kitchens, but none felt right — she wanted a “home kitchen,” she said. Then Mattera, an avid cookbook reader, noticed a growing market for specialized bookstores and realized she could combine passions and create a new niche in the Treasure Valley.
She found the space at 2951 E. Overland Road where she had the ability to design the kitchen herself. She secured the domain name for her website.
“Everything started lining up so perfectly that it made it really hard to say ‘no,’” she said. She quit her job in June and opened the store on Aug. 12.
The bookstore offers cooking and baking classes for all ages, including gluten-free ones, plus cookbook clubs where groups can cook recipes from a cookbook together then share a meal. Mattera said the store has been busier than she expected since opening, and she has held 34 classes so far.
Some customers have already come back for seconds and thirds, she said.
This story was originally published November 27, 2025 at 4:00 AM.
