Bookstore looks to open new chapter in Westwood

Bins of used books attract the eyes of curious readers in a room generally reserved for late-night karaoke and stand-up comedy routines.

The 700-volume collection, which fills the upstairs room of the Westwood Brewing Company, is the beginning of two friends’ quest to open their own fully functioning bookstore in Westwood Village.

Westwood residents Rama Bauer and Steve Rohal plan to create a used bookstore and coffeehouse focusing on specific types of books, including the classics and books on history, sociology and women’s studies. The small book sale is the friends’ first step toward building a permanent bookstore.

The temporary sale is named Whitman’s Beard, after two poems referring to the famous American writer Walt Whitman. Bauer and Rohal run the book sale in one of two upstairs rooms in the popular Westwood Brewing Company bar, commonly knownby students as Brew Co.

“(The upstairs of Brew Co.) is an extremely unconventional location, but it’s working a lot better than we both expected it to,” Bauer said. “I came into this with pretty low expectations, but we’ve had plenty of customers come in.”

Bauer, a 39-year-old freelance English tutor who runs the book store each afternoon, said he formed the makeshift shop as a trial run before a more permanent store is built in Westwood with shelves and thousands of volumes.

Bauer said he has been considering running a used bookstore for several years. He said he met Rohal 20 years ago playing in an alternative band, and that they are now both Westwood residents.

Bauer said they started selling at Brew Co. because he knows the manager personally and because there is more available space. The bar will close in the next few months, said George Workman, the general manager of Brew Co.

“It’s just incredible to me that so many businesses are vacant in Westwood,” Bauer said. “I think (Westwood) is a prime location to open a bookselling business.”

Bauer submitted a proposal for the expanded bookstore to the UCLA Hammer Museum’s “Arts ReSTORE LA: Westwood,” an urban renewal program aimed at creating a “pop-up village” in retail spaces in Westwood. The pop-up village will bring DJs, chefs, artists and other creative people to vacant stores in the village.

Bauer said he is waiting to hear back from the museum, which will decide which proposals to accept by early August.

Colleen Jaurretche, a UCLA English and writing professor and co-director of a local lending library, said she visited the book sale while walking through Westwood.

“I followed fliers to Whitman’s Beard, which turned out to be a wonderful little gem,” she said. “Their goal of starting a bookstore (in Westwood) is absolutely praiseworthy.”

Jaurretche said she used to visit bookstores along Westwood Boulevard as an undergraduate and graduate student at UCLA. She said she hopes bookstores will re-emerge as part of Westwood’s cultural space.

Westwood Village was once the epicenter of the bookselling culture in Los Angeles, home to as many as eight bookstores at one time, said Steve Sann, chair of the Westwood Community Council.

Bookstores in Westwood Village historically thrived by appealing to niche demographics, Sann said. Only one permanent bookstore, Textbooks Plus, is now operating in the village.

“If there’s anywhere that could support a used bookstore, Westwood is the place,” Sann said.

Bauer said the experience of going into a bookstore brings people back again and again because they can browse through books they would never have seen otherwise.

“When (the big-box stores) closed down, it created a vacuum,” he said. “Actually going into a store provides you with a whole experience, which appeals to people who love books, who love to read. People want that experience.”

The Whitman’s Beard Book Sale is open daily until July 29, from noon until 6 p.m., at the Westwood Brewing Company at 1097 Glendon Ave. Credit cards are not accepted.