Malaprop's Bookstore & Cafe

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Description

Malaprop’s Bookstore & Café has anchored downtown Asheville since 1982, and it is still independently owned. It sits at 55 Haywood Street, on the corner of Haywood and Walnut, and works as two things at once: a carefully curated independent bookstore, and a café that locals treat as a proper morning stop rather than an afterthought bolted onto a shop.

Opening hours — the café and the bookstore differ

This is the thing most people get wrong, so it is worth stating plainly: the café and the bookstore keep different hours, and the café opens first.

• Café: Monday to Friday, 9:00am – 4:00pm · Saturday and Sunday, 9:30am – 3:00pm

• Bookstore: Monday to Saturday, 10:00am – 7:00pm · Sunday, 11:00am – 4:00pm

Before the bookstore opens, the café serves through a walk-up window — so an early coffee is possible even when the shelves are still shut. In the evening the reverse applies: the bookstore stays open for a few hours after the café has closed, which makes the back half of the day the better time to browse and the front half the better time to sit.

What the café serves

Coffee, tea, baked goods and light snacks. There is WiFi, and no reservations are taken or needed. It is a genuine community hub rather than a quiet-please reading room — expect conversation, regulars, and people working from tables.

Parking and getting there

Malaprop’s is in the middle of walkable downtown, so most visitors arrive on foot as part of a wider afternoon. If you are driving, street parking outside is metered but free after 6:00pm and all day Sunday. The nearest city garages are the Civic Center and Rankin Avenue garages; city garages run about $2 per hour after a free first hour, capped at $20 for the day.

The practical version: come Sunday afternoon or after six on a weekday and parking costs nothing, but note the Sunday bookstore hours are shorter (11:00am – 4:00pm) and the café closes at 3:00pm.

Why go

Plenty of towns have a good bookshop and plenty have a good coffee shop. What makes Malaprop’s worth a deliberate stop is that it has been doing both, in the same room, in the same spot downtown, for over forty years — long enough that it functions as a landmark as much as a business. It is the easiest place in Asheville to lose an hour without planning to.

Location: 55 Haywood St, Asheville, NC 28801

Phone: (828) 254-6734

Opening Hours: Mon - Fri 9:00 AM - 4:00 PM

Sat - Sun 9:30 AM to 3:00 PM

Parking: Street; Nearby Garages

WiFi: Yes

 

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