A Sad Day

It was a historic day. An end of an era. “A momentous event,” as Kathryn Szoka, one of the owners of Canio’s Books, put it as she addressed the crowd that had gathered to help her and her partner, Maryann Calendrille, remove the sign that hung over the shop they have run for the past 25 years.

Whatever euphemism one prefers, it was simply a sad day for Sag Harbor.

The shop’s owners have vowed to carry on the business and its cultural activities — perhaps as a pop-up for now, utilizing historic or public spaces in the village — as they continue to search for a new home for their beloved and iconic bookstore after losing their lease to the economics that are Sag Harbor in this day and age, when it seems more and more impossible to run a mom-and-pop business in the shadow of commercial enterprises feasting on the summer traffic in the once-provincial little village.

Canio’s didn’t lack from public support. The store did a brisk business catering to its niche market. And as the community well knows, was so much more than a bookstore — even though walking in the door, one’s senses went on overload with the pleasantly musty smell of old tomes as the treasures of the world were hinted at on the spines of the overflowing stacks of books on the shelves and in the aisles. It was a community hub, in the form of Canio’s Cultural Café, where like-minded people from the village and across the region could gather to celebrate and enlighten one another in the arts and current events.

The store’s closing came as no surprise. The building’s owner intends to renovate a deteriorated structure. You can’t fault her for that, an effort perhaps prompted by a desire to attract one of the businesses that have been descending on the village to cater to the seasonal visitors.

In a different age, it would have been an inconvenience for the bookshop’s owners but one that would have been easily remedied by finding a new location to set up shop.

But in the current climate, that was impossible. The partners searched for months — as they slashed prices on their stock in an effort to reduce inventory — to find a new home, to no avail.

The business will continue online, and in pop-ups, as Calendrille and Szoka continue their search for a brick-and-mortar home, with tremendous support from a community hoping that the “end of an era” wasn’t literal, that Canio’s will persevere.

With luck, the community treasure that is Canio’s — the bookshop and the cultural hub — will overcome the challenges of a growing and changing Sag Harbor downtown and once again find a place in the heart of the village, where it belongs.