![\"1710261001\"](\"https:\/\/longfellow365.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/1710261001.jpg\")
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Location:\u00a03032 Minnehaha Ave.
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\nFrom CityPages\u00a0Wednesday, October 4, 2017 by\u00a0Emily Cassel\u00a0
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\n“\u201cYou\u2019re moving\u00a0again?\u201d
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\nThat\u2019s the reaction Jamie Schwesnedl says he\u2019s been getting from just about all sides since last month\u2019s announcement that his colorful little bookstore was leaving\u00a03260 Minnehaha Ave. behind.
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\nAnd to be fair, Moon Palace Books, which opened in 2012, did just settle into the storefront between Peace Coffee and Trylon Cinema last year. (Famously, they did it assembly-line style, with the help of a 60-person volunteer \u201cbook brigade\u201d that passed each of the shop\u2019s 10,000 books from the original home just around the corner.)
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\nBut it turns out 3260 was always meant to be a temporary home — Schwesnedl calls it a \u201cpractice move.\u201d He and his wife and co-owner, Angela, wanted a slightly larger, intermediate shop that would lessen the learning curve as they looked for a much bigger, multi-function space.
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\nThe change let Moon Palace host events, an essential addition for any bookstore that wants to have a shot at staying open in 2017. And their calendar is pretty stacked these days… the thing is, those events tend to shut down the bookstore itself. And if they\u2019re well-attended enough, they\u2019ll make it so that not even the people who showed up specifically for the reading can buy anything, because they can\u2019t get to the register.
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\nWhat the couple needed was a space with a dedicated events area, which they\u2019ll have when they move into their\u00a0new\u00a0new home at\u00a03032 Minnehaha, just two blocks away from the current location.
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\nAnd they won\u2019t just have more room for events. Moon Palace 3.0 is going to have a full-service restaurant, with coffee, beer, and wine.
\n\u201cWe just tried to really think about, \u2018How can we have a bookstore that has stuff going on it it beyond being a bookstore from dawn to dusk?\u2019\u201d Schwesnedl says. \u201cAnd then we were like, \u2018You know what would be great? If we had some kind of restaurant-bar.\u201d
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\nThe Moon Palace crew is being coy for now, but an official announcement is coming sometime soon. Schwesnedl will say that they\u2019re partnering with \u201can old friend who runs a restaurant in south Minneapolis and whose food we really love,\u201d and that said person is doing \u201csomething different than what they normally do, but have professional experience with.\u201d
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\nThe restaurant won\u2019t be up and running until sometime in late fall or early winter, but the hope is to have the bookstore open by the end of October or early November. They might even make the move with the help of another book brigade.
\n\u201cBut we\u2019ll need a lot more people to pass them this far,\u201d Schwesnedl chuckles.”<\/p>\n
Photo: Kevin Venerus<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"