A New Bookstore and the Old Logos Space Share One Downtown Santa Cruz Block
The 1100 block of Pacific Avenue holds both ends of downtown Santa Cruz's bookstore story. At 1128-B Pacific, between Anthropologie and Cafe Delmarette, Charese Allen's new shop The Burning Ember set its grand opening for Friday, Oct. 30. It stocks romance and romantasy. On the same block, 1117 Pacific is the two-level storefront where Logos Books & Records sold used books and music for 48 years before it closed in 2017. The city is now offering it on leases as short as one month.
Downtown's book scene is coming back through focused shops, each built around a particular reader, a particular kind of book, or a night out. The big general-purpose browsing store has not come back, and the building it used is still waiting for a permanent tenant.
Lookout Santa Cruz's Oct. 28 bookstore story lists the county's losses over the past 15 years: Capitola Book Cafe, Logos, The Literary Guillotine and Kelly's Books in Watsonville. Borders closed its downtown store in 2011. Marissa Swett, who is opening Trailside Books in Aptos Village, grew up locally and told Lookout she remembers when the area had as many as nine independent bookstores.
The Santa Cruz Sentinel's 2017 report on Logos named the pressures behind its closure: weaker summer sales, softer used-book sales, different browsing habits and competition from online sellers. The store had been put up for sale and drew no serious offers. In November 2024, Lookout reported that 1117 Pacific had stood vacant since 2017 and that its unusual two-level layout made a long-term tenant hard to find. Two floors of open space suited a shop with a huge, mixed inventory. That kind of shop is what stopped working.
The Burning Ember is built around a single genre, and the numbers show why. Lookout cites Bloomberg figures showing U.S. print romantasy sales went from $454 million in 2023 to $610 million in 2024, helped along by BookTok and authors such as Sarah J. Maas and Rebecca Yarros. Allen, who calls herself an "OG romance reader," told Lookout that "in a world with so much division, people are embracing this." Lookout reported the store's planned hours as Wednesday through Monday, 11 a.m. to 8 p.m., closed Tuesdays. Allen and Swett both told Lookout they hope to host author talks, book clubs and writing groups, so their shops work as social spaces as well as stores.
Downtown's longest-running general bookstore saw the same readers turn out four days before that opening date. On Monday night, Oct. 26, Bookshop Santa Cruz held "Midnight Maas," its first midnight release party in 10 years, for Maas's A Court of Splintered Harmony. According to Lookout's coverage, about 300 fans filled the sold-out event. Tickets were $75 and included the book, a drink and dessert, and the night featured a DJ, tarot readings and custom tattoos. So a store that stocks every genre filled up for a party built around one series.
This isn't only happening here. The American Booksellers Association counted 422 new independent bookshops opening in the U.S. in 2025, up 31% from 2024.
Downtown's bookstores and comic shops now overlap very little, because each one is built around something different.
| Shop | Address | Specialty | Worth knowing now |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Burning Ember | 1128-B Pacific Ave. | Romance and romantasy | Grand opening set for Oct. 30; planned hours Wed–Mon, 11 a.m.–8 p.m. |
| Bookshop Santa Cruz | Downtown | General bookstore and event venue | November author series; Dav Pilkey event at the Warriors arena has sold out |
| Bad Animal | 1011 Cedar St. | Rare and collectible books, wine bar, restaurant | Kitchen moved in-house in January 2026 under chef Nick Hahn |
| Atlantis Fantasyworld | 1020 Cedar St. | Comics | Nearing its 50th anniversary as of January 2026 |
| Comicopolis | Downtown | Games and comics | Open since 1997; Best Game Store in the 2025 Good Times readers poll |
Bad Animal goes furthest in tying books to a night out. It pairs rare and collectible books with a wine bar and a restaurant. After Hanloh's three-year residency ended in December 2025, Bad Animal took over its own kitchen in January. Former Hanloh chef Nick Hahn now cooks modern French-bistro food with global influences, according to Lookout's February review. Atlantis Fantasyworld has spent close to five decades on comics, Good Times reported in January. Comicopolis highlights young-reader graphic novels along with its games.
A big part of what Bookshop Santa Cruz offers now is its calendar. Its posted November schedule opened with Priyanka Mattoo on Wednesday, Nov. 4. Here's what's still ahead:
December is quieter so far. The posted calendar lists a Chanukah Story Hour on Thursday, Dec. 10.
The Nov. 19 Dav Pilkey event shows how far this has gone. A single children's author drew enough interest that the bookstore booked the arena, and every ticket was claimed.
Logos never got a bookstore successor. Its old space is now part of a city program built for short stays. Santa Cruz started Downtown Pops! in 2021. The city leases vacant downtown storefronts from their owners, guarantees the owners a minimum rent and subleases the spaces to pop-up tenants for six-month terms. Tenants can also get up to six months of free Cruzio Internet service and a $1,000 tenant improvement grant. According to Lookout's Oct. 28 business column, the city has added one-to-six-month options aimed at seasonal businesses such as holiday pop-ups. Both 1117 Pacific and 1407 Pacific, the former Palace Art & Office Supply, are available on those terms. Business owners can find the details in the city's Downtown Pops! guide.
Last December, Lookout reported that Collective Santa Cruz had scheduled two days of holiday markets in the old Logos building, Dec. 21 and 22, with more than two dozen local artists, makers and food vendors. Santa Cruz Mountains Makers Market used the Palace space the same season. The building that once held an enormous used-book stock is now marketed for stays as short as a month, while the 1128 storefront across the block was set up for a shop devoted to one genre.
The library and affordable housing project has closed Lot 4, the block bounded by Cathcart, Cedar and Lincoln. The meters on those streets next to the site are out of service. The city is sending drivers to the Soquel Garage and Lots 3, 7 and 9, and Lot 8 has limited three-hour parking. Businesses around the fencing are open. The Downtown Association lists 20 downtown parking locations, six of them free lots with time limits. From either of the Cedar Street shops, Bad Animal at 1011 and Atlantis Fantasyworld at 1020, Pacific Avenue's 1100 block is a short walk.
I grew up browsing these blocks, and I'm always glad to talk about what's opening on Pacific and Cedar, which corners stay busy and how a downtown storefront's story plays out over the years. If you'd like a local's take on any part of Santa Cruz, Jessyka Sommers is happy to talk it through. Let's Connect.
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