Read, drink and eat: 5 places in Lima for lovers of good books and good food

What better ‘pairing’ than a good book with a coffee? Or, to get out of the traditional image, why not try combining “Dracula” by Bram Stoker with a tequila sunrise or read “Animal Concert “ from Blanca Varela devouring a dark chocolate brownie and espresso. The coffee bookstores offer this possibility, although there are still few, in Lima this concept is reappearing, macerating the incomparable smell of a new book with the aroma of coffee.

“Books have a voice and speak saving times and lives. The bookstores are those magical territories where, in an act of inspiration, we listen to the soft and sizzling echoes of the unknown memory ”, said the Spanish philologist Irene Vallejo, author of The infinity in a reed. And it is that bookstores, like libraries, are the spaces that protect all the knowledge in the world and are made available to readers. For this reason, we toured some of these “magical territories” to explore the new proposals and changes in the bookstores that share their spaces with good food.

Casatomada Library Café

On the corner of Petit Thouars and Juan de Arona is a huge red house from the 30s, with two floors, with thousands of books distributed in its six rooms. Terror, history, esotericism, youth and children’s literature, feminism and a lot of Peruvian and international literature have shaped Casatomada since 2018, a café bookstore that bears his name in allusion to the famous story of the Argentine Julio Cortázar. On the first floor it has reading areas and tables to taste drinks and food, it also has a wide and assorted space dedicated to children’s books with illustrated classics and novelties. The second floor is dedicated to independent editorial production.

The owner, Roberto De Olazábal, tells us that Casatomada’s menu was prepared by themselves and they took the time to adjust the recipes to their liking, such as the chocolate cake (moist and soft), the tiramisu and the cheescake made by its chef Máximo Rivera. Thus we will find up to 13 variations of coffee such as Irish coffee, vanilla latte, mocha, affogato, frappuccino, pepper mint and others with the original Junín bean but mixed with a touch of Casatomada. This ground coffee is also for sale.

Among its main sandwiches we will find a tasty mixed focaccia and capresse, also the ham special, super triple and a classic chicken sandwiches. Another characteristic of Casatomada is its drinks. A refreshing accompaniment to the reading could be a tequila sunrise, a piña colada or a mojito, or other options such as a glass of wine, chilcano or a shot of tequila. You can enjoy a sandwich and reading surrounded by books or in the exclusive space for the cafeteria.

Data

• Casatomada is located at Av. Petit Thouars 3506, San Isidro. It has artistic pieces on display for sale, including Javier Ramos Cucho, Antonio García, E. Llona, ​​among others.
• Book presentations are made respecting the capacity. In December the clay and creative drawing workshops will begin for children from 6 to 9 years old. For the little ones (from 3 to 5 years old) they will have movement and clay workshops.
• Casatomada has his YouTube channel, Open Book, with interviews with new writers
• Instagram: @casatomadalibreria / Facebook: @casatomadalibreriacafe

Vallejo Bookstore Cafe

A spacious and beautiful house that bears the name of our most universal poet, Vallejo, opened its doors as a café bookstore in March of this year. It is part of the Heraldos Negros group, a distributor that gets excellent titles from Spain, Mexico, Argentina, Colombia or Chile, so the bookstore’s offer is quite varied, eye-catching and interesting. You will find essays, universal and Peruvian history, children and youth, art, literature, esotericism and many other genres.

The cafeteria has large tables bathed in natural light that invite you to sit down, have a book and a coffee or just enjoy its original menu with the sanguches that bear the names of writers, such as a Benedetti, Varguitas, Dante, Vallejo or 3 Musketeers. . As drinks they offer the classic American, cappuccino, mocaccino, chocolate and an extravagant option such as the golden latte, an infusion with turmeric and cinnamon with milk. Among other drinks they have varieties of juices and 82 types of Quinta Esencia teas, among them fruit (orange, pineapple, dehydrated tangerine), green tea, herbal and black tea with strawberry. In Vallejo Librería Café you cannot miss desserts, for this reason they offer red fruit and apple tartlets, choco delicacy, carrot cake, chocolate passion, cookies and brownies.

Currently, the cafeteria area is surrounded by the exhibition of artistic pieces by André Granados. For next year it is planned to set the second floor for talks or art workshops.

Data

• Vallejo Librería Café is located at Av. Camino Real 1119, San Isidro
• This November 19, at 7 pm, the book will be presented Viticulture in Colonial Peru (Editorial Costas del Levante), by Carlos Buller. The author, Scarlett O’Phelan Godoy and Ernesto Ramirez Castillo participate. Free entry with limited capacity.
• Instagram: @vallejo_libreriacafe / Facebook: @vallejolibreriacafe

Counterculture Bookstore Café

Contracultura de Benjamín Corzo is a renowned publisher specialized in alternative books and comics by Peruvian authors. “We have the books that your parents will never buy,” was the slogan that was read on the facade of the bookstore at Av. Larco 986 some years ago, before the terrible pandemic. “Shortly before the pandemic we were a café bookstore, but coffee was gaining weight and space. Consequently, the award for economic stimuli came from the Ministry of Culture and with this we set up a web page to support internet sales with an efficient payment gateway, ”says Benjamín Corzo, owner of the Contracultura bookstore and cafeteria.

Currently, its sales force for books specialized in comics, graphic novels, essays, rock history and alternative literature is online and by delivery, which has allowed it to host an Arequipa food outlet in its Av. Larco store where They offer desserts such as tocino de cielo, corn cake, ice cream cheese or the typical and juicy salteñas to main dishes such as a chupe with shrimp and stuffed red pepper. Also, the inevitable Energina and Kola Escocesa, typical drinks from the south of Arequipa, can accompany your reading.

If you are in search of Peruvian comics, in the Contracultura cafeteria bookstore you will find interesting specialized bibliography such as the collections of books by Juan Acevedo among them El Cuy Aventura, The City of Kings, The Cholin neighborhood; Lito the dog by David Galliquio, Venus Attacks with 10 Peruvian cartoonists or the most recent of Miguel Det: The fall of Lima. Plague.

Data

• Librería Contracultura has a booth at the Bicentennial Book Fair. As publisher has just presented Dyou were going in a rage. Underground rock in retrospect scored by Pedro Cornejo.
• Its editorial offer can be purchased at its premises at Av. Larco 986, Miraflores or on its website www.contracultura.pe
• Instagram: @libreriacontracultura / Facebook: @Libreriacontracultura

BONUS

La Rebelde Librería, specialized in books written by women, bears that name as a tribute to the poet Magda Portal from Barranquilla. This pleasant environment in the heart of the ravine also has a space for the Ana Avellana patisserie with countless homemade desserts of blueberries, pineapple, marbling, banana and red velvet, and more. In La Rebelde Librería you will find news such as Huaco Portrait by Gabriela Wiener, The year of the wind by Karina Pacheco or the commemorative edition of A world for Julius by Alfredo Bryce Echenique, how to stop enjoying your reading in the company of a coffee. It also has a children’s and youth book room.

The mythical El Virrey de Miraflores bookstore, in the Bolognesi oval, houses a well-known cafeteria where visitors and readers come to enjoy their new books or with their laptops to work or study. In addition to good books and always up-to-date news, at El Virrey, seeing Tilsa again, the bookstore’s emblem cat walking among the books, is a satisfaction in itself.