I have not yet reviewed a bookstore on this blog, despite a decade of writing. Today, that will change, because I want to tell you about one of my favorite bookstores in Washington DC: Bold Fork Books.
Bold Fork Books is in the Mount Pleasant neighborhood in northern Washington DC. It is an unusual bookstore in that it pretty much only sells cookbooks and food writing.
Of course, I love it. The store is small and has a tall wall shelf of cookbooks, which is quite frankly an ideal number of cookbooks. You can find cookbooks from all six continents, and food writing and history on many topics – as well as plenty of food-themed books for children. I rarely go in and leave without buying anything. It is, shall we say, dangerous for my wallet.
Bold Fork sells – and prioritizes – books that often do not get “airtime” at larger bookstores. The store features books about cuisines from many, many more countries than one would find in a typical cookbook selection: Sierra Leone, Georgia, Barbados, Myanmar, Kenya, and Romania among them (including Irina Georgescu’s excellent Tava). I especially appreciate the hefty and growing selection of indigenous cookbooks on offer – including one of my favorites, Sean Sherman’s Sioux Chef. And while you can find your more “traditional” cuisines on the shelves as well, many of the cookbooks and other books are those that are perhaps not as renowned – and, incidentally, often easier for a cook new to a culinary tradition to follow. I first encountered Vietnamese Vegetarian – Uyen Luu’s wonderful book that I reviewed earlier this year – at Bold Fork.
The store also features many cookbooks that straddle the boundaries of cuisines and audiences. Many bookshops jettison the cookbooks that straddle cuisines or that do not have the right “authentic” sheen. I can also often tell a bookstore’s political leaning by the cookbooks on the shelf: a left-leaning shops will often have a focus on whatever cuisines are most popular at the time, and right-leaning shops often focus their cookbook selections on entertaining and baking. Bold Fork eschews this segregation and offers it all.
Bold Fork is worth a visit, and a wonderful way to support a local business that is a beloved space for the community. And if you do visit, I should note that the bookstore often hosts wonderful food events. When I go, I often see a cheese tasting or another event happening in the back of the store. I was fortunate enough to attend one such event last year – a talk on the links between opera history and food by Rita Monastero, who can best be described as the doyenne of Italian food television. (The talk included the memorable line, “Nelly Melba was very fond of the ice cream.”) Do try to attend an event – it is very cozy and you often get a lovely treat. In my case, it was Monastero’s wonderful artichoke and Parmesan pinwheel pastry.
Let me know what you think of Bold Fork and I hope to see you there.
Bold Fork Books, 3064 Mount Pleasant Street NW, Washington DC
