Earlier this month long-time cookbook specialty retailer Jessica's Biscuit closed its online web business, ecookbooks.com, which was one of the first independent, niche online bookstores. As one customer posted on the e-tailer's Facebook page last week: “RIP Jessica’s Biscuit. You will be missed.”
Owner Dave Strymish, who began Jessica’s in 1980, with his then-roommate Mark Landau, wrote in a statement that he closed the website for personal reasons. “It has been a pleasure and a superb honor to serve the world of food professionals and food aficionados for over 35 years,” he said.
The closure follows news that Jessica’s, which offered books at 20-75% off, lost its largest client, the Food Network. At its height, Jessica's also had affiliate relationships with Epicurious.com and Cooking.com, among others.
Not only is ecookbooks.com closed, but the Jessica’s warehouse, in Foxboro, Mass., has also gone on the market.
In his statement, Strymish said that he would like to continue to sell books through bulk orders to schools and institutions. Asked how he would handle such sales without the site, Strymish said: "I am still taking care of my special event customers, and they have my email."
After nearly 35 years at Jessica’s--as well as a number of years working in his family's bookstore in Newton Highlands, Mass., New England Mobile Book Fair--Strymish plans to try something new. His next venture is a microbrewery, 7th Wave Brewing.
Strymish’s brother, Jon, with whom he ran the Book Fair for many years, has also found a way to mix books and brew. In 2013, he cofounded Portsmouth Book & Bar in Portsmouth, N.H.
