Visible Voice Books recently moved from Tremont to Ohio City. The move is a major upgrade from the 1,500-square-foot space on Professor Avenue to a 6,000-square-foot space on Lorain Avenue.
Owner Dave Ferrante opened Visible Voice Books in 2007. He’s been ruminating about the perfect bookstore and space ever since. Ferrante says, “This new space is the cumulative effort of two other locations and nearly 20 years of experience in owning and operating a bookstore.” It took an entire year to move the store, and Visible Voice was closed for two months before reopening on November 12.
The new location has a much larger cafe than the Professor Avenue store, with sandwiches, bowls and snacks as well as coffee drinks and adult beverages in the evening. Customers are encouraged to join the “Mug Club” by purchasing a $25 Visible Voice mug to get a $1 discount on all drinks for life when they bring in their mug.
The new Lorain Avenue location also has a unique stage. Ferrante and his architects knew that the space had previously held the Lorain Theatre, but they didn’t know the stage was hiding behind drywall when they started planning. A music enthusiast, Ferrante was thrilled when the stage was uncovered. The old store often hosted small musical performances, but did not have much room to accommodate the musicians.
The hardwood floor of the stage was refinished by Cleveland Hardwood Restoration. Audience seating can hold 150 people. Murals around the stage were restored by the Cleveland Mural Company, making the original paintings more colorful while also embracing their age. Ferrante hopes to attract both local and national bands to perform on the renovated stage as well as host poetry readings, speakers and author events.
Ferrante says that although they do have a new cafe with expanded offerings and the historic stage, the store, of course, still pivots around the books. Visible Voice Books tripled its inventory with the new location. The bookstore sells new, used and rare books, with a warehouse of 40,000 books available for purchase online. The bookstore focuses on modern fiction, counterculture writing, insightful journalism, poetry, politics and collectible art and music books. Customers are encouraged to bring in gently used books to sell, and will receive an offer within a few days.
The new location offers cozy leather chairs upstairs in the Mezzanine area to sit and read or talk, as well as tables to spread out and work or study while eating a snack. The space is airy and open with lots of plants. The drop ceiling in the space was taken out and new skylights make the entire bookstore bright with its 25-foot ceilings.
Staff members noted that the new location has been very busy since it opened and is getting even more customers daily with the holiday shopping season.
The new location offers meeting or event space, beyond the stage, for up to 20 people. Ferrante says he hopes to host book club events in the new year.
One longstanding book club already meets at Visible Voice and was meeting at the former location. The Movie vs. Book Club meets on the first Wednesday of every month at the bookstore to discuss books that were made into movies.
Limited parking is available in the lot next door, metered spots on the street, or at the Urban Community School down the road. Visible Voice Books is open Wednesday through Sunday and closed on Mondays and Tuesdays.
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