For Uriah Donnelly, owning a bookstore had long been a dream. A background in the restaurant industry, which he shares with co-owner and wife Janet Moscarello, made adding a bar a natural extension.
Since June, the pair has run arc{hive} book + snackery, a used bookstore and bar that serves wine, beer, nonalcoholic beverages and light snacks at 4 Market St. in Warren.
Donnelly and Moscarello both share a love of literature, having graduated with English degrees from Rhode Island College. Donnelly always wanted to run a bookstore, but for years it remained just an idea.
Eventually, his perspective shifted.
“If there’s something you really want to do, you have to act, to go do it now,” he said.
So, the pair began collecting books from family and friends, and rummaging through library sales to build out the store.
Arc{hive} is building its own community, the pair says.
“For certain people like us, there’s something about walking into a bookstore, used or new,” Donnelly said. “There’s this automatic sense of mystery and nostalgia that I think is attached to it. That’s intriguing for me, that there may be something really cool hidden somewhere within these shelves.”
