An independent bookstore, game shop and cafe all in one opened in downtown Lexington on Saturday — and it’s already a hit. Dozens turned out for the grand opening Saturday to grab a hot drink and browse the stacks of fiction, nonfiction, children’s books and games. Some even got to the 316 W. Main St. spot early to wait outside before the open.
For owners Andy and Jamie Hand, the buzz around Emerald & Amethyst — the store’s name and a nod to their two sons via birthstone — started long before the launch.
“People have been coming up to us and being like, ‘You guys are the ones opening the bookstore,’” Jamie said.
Now that things are official, Jamie Hand said it’s she and her husband’s daydream come true. Illinois State University English graduates with a passion for literature, Jamie said the two had been considering the venture for years before they decided to pursue it more seriously around seven months ago.
“There was a night last spring when I was literally laying my head on my pillow to go to sleep, and Andy said ‘We were talking earlier today about opening a bookstore for real. Were we just kind of daydreaming, or do you want to do it?’” Jamie Hand said in a conversation before the opening. “And I was like, ‘I want to do it.’ And I just kind of closed my eyes and went to sleep, and at that moment I realized we were going to do it.”
According to Jamie, she and her husband are “stubborn and persistent.” Once they decided to open the store, it was a done deal. The couple wasn’t willing to compromise on their vision, either. They wouldn’t just be opening a bookstore; it had to have games, and if it was going to have games, they might as well have drinks and food too.
‘A community space for curious people’
It’s a somewhat tight space now that it’s been built out — with only two walls of shelves for games and books and nine seats for patrons to sit — but it’s exactly what Andy Hand said they were looking for.
“We're excited about creating a community space for curious people,” Andy Hand said in a conversation before the opening. “That's sort of been our driving theme as we've been doing this, and we're just trying to take our passions and share them with our community here in Lexington.”
It was happenstance that a real estate agent found them a location so quickly and the Health Department steered them in the right direction for coffee and food vendors: Gobena Coffee in El Paso and Common Grounds Cafe & Pie Shop in Gridley.
Reminiscent of — and to an extent, inspired by — indie bookstores and cafes like The Literary in Champaign, which encourages people to have full meals and maybe even a cocktail while they read, patrons at Emerald & Amethyst are invited to grab a slice of pie or a hot latte to drink as they read the book they just bought, or browse the offerings.
Jamie Hand said she expects Lexington's up-and-coming downtown scene with well-loved restaurants and craft beer spots will also lend a hand to the bookshop’s success.
“What we hope is people will come here and have dinner and walk down and extend their date night, or extend their girls' night out at our place, and maybe get a coffee or a sweet treat for dessert and buy a book and hang out,” she said.
And the Hands are also interested in making their own success. The gamer of the family and a game developer himself, Andy Hand said soon enough, there should be a small seating area in the back, where he’s excited to invite fellow Role-Playing Game [RPG] fans to convene for both formally organized and informal game nights.
Nothing has been finalized yet, though, as Andy and Jamie Hand stressed they’re relying on customers to provide insights into what they want, rather than make assumptions about people’s interests.
Opening day
Now that the store’s officially opened, feedback on books, games and vibes is expected to start coming in. Many of the visitors — from Saturday from in and around Lexington — are already planning their next trips. That includes Bloomington residents Lauren Sheffey and Dayna Schlenker, who arrived early to be some of the first people inside. Sheffey said Emerald & Amethyst was “just checking all the boxes that we would love.”
“We love a coffee shop, we love books,” Sheffey said. “We love Lexington in general, even though we're from Bloomington.”
Schlenker picked up a copy of Abby Jimenez’s Just for the Summer and Sheffey was eyeing a game for herself.
Jonathan M. Quellhorst drove down from the Pontiac area to show Andy Hand some support. Quellhorst said he’d taken a Heartland Community College class Hand taught.
“I've been keeping up with him ever since,” he said. “Been a big fan of the man's work ever since he destroyed me at Magic over 30 times in a row… He’s genuinely a cool dude. I've been very happy to keep up with him and his forays from education to game design to opening up a book shop.”
Quellhorst said he finds the shops Lexington location convenient, since he’d normally have to drive into Bloomington and go to somewhere like Red Raccoon Games to find what he’s looking for — both in literature and gaming.
The Hands felt similarly about the location, as they live just down the street. Now, they can walk to work and greet customers with a smile.
“This is about as close [to] local celebrities as we’ll ever get,” Jamie Hand said.
