WORCESTER – Independent bookstore and cafe Root & Press is moving to Shrewsbury Street after efforts to keep the business in Worcester’s West Side were unsuccessful.
“We’re going to miss you in the neighborhood,” City License Commissioner Charran Fisher said, hoping initially that the request for new licenses meant a second shop.
But owner Richard Collins said he’d tried, unsuccessfully, to find new locations close to the current spot at 623 Chandler St.
“We looked all over to try and find a spot in that neighborhood and it was just … nothing seemed to work,” said Collins, who runs the business with his wife, Nicole Cote.
The shop opened in 2019 and heads soon to a bigger spot at 156 Shrewsbury St., most recently home to Beirut Bite.
The city License Commission issued a common victualler license to the business at their meeting Thursday following a unanimous vote.
The license allows Root & Press to serve food, including the breakfast and lunch menu for which it is known.
Kim Ring fell into journalism in the 1980s as a correspondent at the Telegram & Gazette and eventually left her initial career to pursue reporting full time. In her years of writing she has penned articles for several Massachusetts-based publications, taking a brief hiatus to work as chief of staff for a state representative. She has lived her entire life in the 413 area and resides there still, on a small farm, with her family. She can be reached at Kimringwrites@gmail.com
