Courtesy of Ilir Berisha Photography
It’s been 10 years since Anita and Berat Bllaca moved to Westchester County from their native Albania and settled in New Rochelle. Both are avid and informed coffee drinkers and love reading. Anita also loves flowers.
Nothing very remarkable in any of that, you might think, but this extraordionary couple have put their money where there mouth, intellect and refined aesthetic sense all lie. In April, after coming up with the idea of combining the three interests and the goal of creating a different type of café, they opened Libri CoffeeBooksFlowers (@libricoffeec\booksflowers) in Yorktown Heights.
“In our area there are books and there is coffee and of course there are also flowers, but there aren’t many places that have a blend of all three,” Anita Bllaca told the Westfair Business Journal.
Until now, that is.
After searching all over Westchester for a suitable store, Anita – who is fluent in Albanian, Turkish, Serbian, Spanish and English, with near proficiency in Italian – told the Journal that it was in fact thanks to their kids, ages 5 and 7, that they found the Yorktown Heights site. She explained that while they speak to their kids in English, they also want them to be fluent in Albanian. That was what brought the family to the Albanian American Dual Language and Culture program, which caters to the Albanian community in Yorktown Heights and gives Albanian lessons on weekends.
“We fell in love with Yorktown Heights right away,” Anita said, “and when we saw this shop we were very excited.”
Negotiations for the lease went on for four months – the delay exacerbated by the fact that the building’s owners were living in Ohio.
Courtesy of Ilir Berisha Photography
“They were searching for the right attorney and we (meanwhile) didn’t give up,” she said.
Anita is a software engineer by profession and Berat an IT engineer. He has left his most recent job to devote himself to the café but Anita is continuing to work remotely “until we are all set up.”
Although they did have a coffee shop back in Albania, neither had real experience of running a business at this level. They worked on the shop themselves, including the design, the bookshelves and the painting, without using contractors.
“Thank God we’re handy so we could do all the work ourselves,” said Anita, with more than a touch of understatement.
While they have much experience as coffee shop owners, that was not the case with floristry. Anita had always considered herself a creative person – when she was quite young she used to make jewelry and sell it to family and friends.
Additionally, she said she had always been good at stylish presentation and packaging. She took some online courses and then basically decided to wing it. She buys from a national wholesaler and plans to do fresh flower bouquets initially. She mentioned she would also like to source a local nursery as a supplier.
Asked what she thought she might bring to local floristry, Anita was diplomatic. She hoped to bring a broader aesthetic to the art of flower-arranging and selling in Westchester.
“Classy,” is how she summed it up. In other words, don’t expect flower arrangements to come with balloons or Teddy bears at Libri.
As for the shop itself, with its beautiful built-in bookcases, trailing flower decorations and mood-lighting, it doesn’t look like a typical coffee shop. All the books on the shelves are for sale, including a selection of second-hand books from the Bllacas’ own collection.
Anita curated the for-sale book collection by looking at websites like goodreads.com and reading reviews. Categories broadly include cooking, architecture design and travel, with some bestselling fiction thrown into the eclectic mix.
Last but obviously not least: coffee. Their house brand is Italian Essse caffè and the New York City-based Italian company that supplies the coffee also provides Libri with pastries.
Anita stressed that in her culture, coffee was actually associated with wellness, “something you sit and savor and drink slowly, enjoying good company and good conversation with it.” That’s how she would like coffee to be drunk at Libri at any rate – not gulped on the hoof out of super-sized styrofoam cups.
As for doing business in Westchester?
“It’s not as fast-paced as the city; it’s a great environment, a great vibe and people are nice,” Anita said. “Yes, it may take a little longer to open here because there are a few more regulations, but it’s worth it.”
