New Delano business — part bookstore, part coffee/cocktail bar — about to open
She almost sounds like a character out of a movie: Young book lover opens book store on charming street and includes a coffee bar, wine and cocktail service, and a private room perfect for book club meetups.
She’s Natalie Macy, and on Saturday, June 27, she’ll start a soft-opening period for her new bookstore called Final Draft. The shop is taking over a 2,000-square-foot space at 1029 W. Douglas that was once home to Lola Candle Co.
Earlier this week, Macy — who co-owns the shop with her husband, Josh — offered a tour of the nearly-completed space. She was busy unpacking boxes of books and putting finishing touches on the coffee and bar menus.
.jpeg "IMG_5322 (2).jpeg")
Tour the bookstore and bar
Like most Delano businesses, Final Draft occupies a long, narrow space with brick walls. Macy has filled the front part of the store with custom-made shelving that will hold around 4,500 new books in genres including fiction, nonfiction, young adult, children’s, graphic novels and Spanish language.
Toward the back of the shop, across from the bar, is a massive floor-to-ceiling shelf that holds classics by authors such as Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, George Orwell, Mark Twain, John Steinbeck and Willa Cather. Nearby are shelves full of Final Draft merchandise such as tote bags, T-shirts and coffee mugs, and the shop also will sell puzzles, candles and other gift items.
The bar, which is in the back of the space on the west wall, is lined with five bar stools and faces a decorative backbar with arches and glass shelves. Also in the back of the store are several seating areas filled with cozy thrifted furniture as well as some heirloom pieces from her own family, some made by her father or grandfather. There’s also some padded church pew banquette seating along the back wall.
The space is made more cozy with massive rugs covering the concrete floors. The ceiling has exposed wood beams in some sections and decorative tiles in others. The bookstore is flooded with light from its two north-facing front windows, and there’s even a small seating ledge set up in one of the windows, where customers can hang out and watch life happening on Douglas.
In the very back is a separate room that Macy is calling the Editors Room. It’s fitted with a couch and several tables and chairs and will be available most of the time for overflow seating. It also will be available for private gatherings and book club meetups. Macy plans to eventually participate in the First Friday gallery crawl and will hang artwork in the Editors Room.
The bar’s menu is almost complete, she said. The coffee will be provided by Adelitas Coffee Co, and the menu will include espresso drinks such as cappuccino, latte and matcha, and customers will be able to add flavored syrups or cold foam. The coffee bar will stock whole and fat-free milk as well as oat milk and coconut milk. Pastries made by Reverie Roasters will be displayed in a bakery case at the counter.
The cocktail menu, designed by Bryce Lob of Una Vida Tequila, is filled with drinks that have clever literary-themed names like "Are You There God? It’s Me, Margarita” and “In Cold Bloody Mary.” The bar will also offer a few mocktails plus red, white, rose and brut wines, and beer from Wichita Brewing Company, Central Standard Brewing, Nortons Brewing Company and Free State Brewing Company out of Lawrence.
Soft-opening, permanent hours
The soft-opening period will last through July 10 and will feature limited hours: Final Draft will be open from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. June 27 and from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on June 28. Hours will be 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. July 1-3 and July 6-8. A ribbon cutting and grand-opening celebration will happen on July 10, when the shop will open at 2 p.m.
“We’ll work on the flow of things,” Macy said. “We’ll spend two weeks really dialing in the coffee and finding out how to work together as a team.”
Then, on July 11, the normal hours will begin. They will be 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays; 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays; and 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sundays.
The Macys both grew up in Wichita but moved away in 2014 for Josh’s job in the aerospace industry. They were able to return to Wichita last year with their two school-aged children, and Macy decided it was time to pursue her long-head dream of opening a bookstore.
She wants the vibe of the shop, she said, to be more cozy library than bright-and-airy bookstore.
For months, paper has covered the windows of the shop as it underwent construction, but that’s been taken down, and several times a day, people pop in to see if the shop is open.
“I feel like it kind of gives me an opportunity to say, ‘We’re not open yet, but come back,’ ” Macy said.
.jpg)