Meet the Folks Behind Epilogue, Chapel Hill's Newest Bookstore

If you’re a Franklin Street regular, you might have noticed a new storefront pop up at the corner of N. Columbia Street this fall. This is Epilogue Books Chocolate Brews, a bookstore/cafe/chocolatería/community space started by Jaime and Miranda Sanchez, both Chapel Hill residents and literature, culture, and food enthusiasts.

We were thrilled to see a new bookstore open in Chapel Hill, especially one as stylish and welcoming as Epilogue—the pastries! the books! the murals! We’re excited to partner with them in the coming months: we’re hosting a literary trivia night at Epilogue on Friday, Dec. 13 and are hosting one of our six-week Fiction I workshops there starting in January. In advance of that, we wrote to Miranda and Jaime to learn a bit about how Epilogue came to be and their vision for the store going forward.

Redbud: Tell us the story of why you decided to start Epilogue. How do you see your bookstore/cafe fitting into the cultural scene in Chapel Hill?

Miranda: The short answer is, I’ve always wanted to live/work/own (in) a place like Belle’s library and Jaime has always wanted to bring a piece of his home culture to his new home; and, it just so happens, that books and Mexican pastries go very well together.

The long answer: We moved to Chapel Hill because it was the type of literary community that had sustained a bookstore and comic book store on its main street, so when both of those left within a year of each other, we decided we needed to help fill that hole they left behind. I grew up in a place without a bookstore and we’ve lived in many places with and without them; in our experience, cities and towns that value bookstores have a different community feel, a different ethos, than those that do not and we wanted to be a part of upholding what Chapel Hill has wanted to be.

On the other side of things, Jaime got his wish for a place that feels like home to him: the Mexican breads/pastries, the sweet churros, the thick chocolate and the robust coffee.

If the first part sounds a little altruistic, it merely masks our selfish desire to have a community space rich in the things we love – literature, chocolate, and culture.

Redbud: We are very interested in contributing to a sustainable, inclusive arts scene in the Triangle--which it seems you are too! Could you tell us a bit about your vision for the arts scene here? How do you hope the scene changes over the next ten years?

Jaime: We totally are! We want to make (or help make) DT Chapel Hill a destination for art. The idea for us is to have DT Chapel Hill as an environment where artists know they will have an audience.

To accomplish the above, we are working within our store on building a space where artists can come and display their art. For this purpose we are searching for independent artists and reaching out to see if we can work with them in any way.

In 10 years we see Chapel Hill having the same vibe and recognition as other art cities/districts around the country. A place where artists are respected and creativity is encouraged in all its forms. A place where I know I can walk down the street and I will hear the sound of a sax being played or I will see an artist working on a mural and it will not be an out-of-the-ordinary thing. Rather, it will just be part of my regular Tuesday.

Redbud: What challenges do you see facing the arts scene here?

Jaime: Definitely the barrier of entry for new small independent businesses or alternatively the lack of support for the arts from bigger retailers that are coming into the area. The community as well as local government are very much supportive of art initiatives. However, retail space rent being what it is in Chapel Hill, it leaves very little room for error when a new independent business is thinking about opening up in Chapel Hill. This leaves very little room for a business to think about how to support the arts in the area.

Redbud: Tell us about some of the books you're looking forward to selling at Epilogue. What are some recent favorites of yours?

Miranda: Our book selection focuses on smaller presses and voices that generally don’t get the big marketing behind them. I’ve gone into book buying with a simple goal: as a writer, it’s not my place to tell these stories, but as a privileged gatekeeper of sorts it is absolutely my responsibility to be a place for them.

Some of my recent favorites have been Dominicana by Angie Cruz, In the Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado, and Useful Phrases for Immigrants: Stories by May-Lee Chai, and While They Sleep (Under the Bed is Another Country) by Raquel Salas Rivera.

My secondary goal is to be a place where we can re-introduce some forgotten classics, like The Street by Ann Petry, which is one of my top five favorite novels. First published in 1946, The Street is as poignant today as it was then – which says at least as much about the current state of society as it does about Petry’s abilities. I already own several copies (because it’s the first book I hand over when friends and family ask for a recommendation) but there’s a beautiful new release of it coming out this January with an introduction by Tayari Jones that I know I won’t be able to resist.

Redbud: We've noticed, in our visits to Epilogue, that you have quite a tasty array of pastries. Can you paint a word picture of your favorite one for our readers and tell us a little bit about it?

Jaime: Uff si! For us it’s the vanilla concha. The simplest of iterations for a very typical Mexican pastry. From design to the taste you can feel Mexico when you take your first bite; specially when you eat it right when the baker puts out a new warm batch. A warm first bite is akin to the warmth received when arriving into a Mexican home. The concha (Spanish for conch or shell) design on top is reminiscent of the tapestries still designed by indigenous tribes in central Mexico. And the vanilla, a gift to the world from our Totonaca ancestors.

Redbud: What do you have coming up at Epilogue that our readers might want to know about?

Jaime: Our year is starting off with a very busy couple of months! We are ramping up our event lineup and have a ton of authors coming in to speak. ALSO, vegan pastries have been tested and finalized so we will start rolling those out soon. Can you say Lavender Earl Grey Cupcake and not have your mouth water?

Redbud: Anything else you'd like to add?

Thank you so much! We so look forward to hosting your workshop in our space!

Find out more about the workshop and sign up here! Hope to see you there and/or at literary trivia!