A little bookstore across from Vasaparken...

All summer I've been scoping out various new enterprises in Vasastan and Birkastan. One of them is Xoco on Rörstrandsgatan, a luxury dessert café located in Dalpojken's former premises. I tried it out yesterday and enjoyed my caffè latte and dark chocolate brownie. Dunno if I agree with the owner re: France having the world's best chocolate desserts...I have had to-die-for chocolate desserts in Brussels but was very disappointed when I was in Paris. Well, I haven't been everywhere in France so maybe I will have to travel around that country more and try out more desserts (more F & S for you, Kim!) before I give a definitive answer.

The other venue I've spent the entire summer watching is New York Stories, an English-language bookshop on Odengatan, just across from Vasaparken--my neighborhood patch o' green. The bookstore finally opened today, and I dragged Tord there to check it out with me. I was so glad to find it was a real New Yorker who'd opened the store and not one of these trendoid types you often find here in Stockholm--you know the ones I mean: the namedropping, I've-been-to-New-York-twice-and-I-think-I-am-an-expert-on-all-things-American type, the look-at-me-as-I-curse-in-English-because-it's-so-much-cooler-than-cursing-in-Swedish type, the too-perfectly dressed to truly be Bohemian...enough of that rant--there are plenty of these trendoids in Stockholm and they drive me up a wall.

So when I walked into New York Stories and heard the dulcet tones of a New Yorker--my heart leapt with joy. I am not a New Yorker and would never claim to be an expert on the city (hell, I am a transplanted Philadelphian and proud of it) but it's always nice to meet another East Coaster--especially one who loves books just as much as (if not more so than) I do. I found a place where I can buy a cute journal, where I can buy the sort of short story anthologies I rarely find at other bookstores here in Stockholm unless I special order them--and I can walk there, pick up a book (as I did today) and then head to Robert E's further down Odengatan for a cup of hot chocolate, or head to Kharazmi for latte and baklava...mmmm!

Yes, I think I have found my new hangout for the long dark Swedish winter (besides my favorite café, Kharazmi where I'll be writing nearly every day).

Thank you for opening New York Stories--it reminded me so much of the independent bookstore I used to shop in when I lived in Philly!

I shall live on the euphoria of this for a while...