8 Year Anniversary and Grand Opening Weekend
Celebrate with Vivienne Culinary Books April 25-29
We did it! February 10, we opened our doors at 2724 NE Alberta Street and we are finally ready to celebrate with you for our GRAND OPENING this weekend, which also coincides with Independent Bookstore Day, and our 8 YEAR ANNIVERSARY as a business. The weekend is full with events, we’re having a 20% off sale, and the whole weekend will be a party at the shop. Please come celebrate with us and share your memories of the last eight years of Vivienne, or visit for your first time at the best bookstore there ever was.
Thursday 4/25 Food Illustration with Drawn Hungry
Friday-Monday 4/26-4/29 Grand Opening and 8 Year Anniversary Sale and Celebration
Read on for a few words about the conception and course of Vivienne over the years from Robin Wheelright, founder and owner:
Time is relentless! Somehow eight years ago on April 26, 2016, I opened Vivienne (then Kitchen & Pantry), a breakfast and lunch restaurant with the sweetest vibe in an adorable, but scrappy space on Sandy Blvd. I was on a blind course to rebuild my life after the end of a marriage, and subconsciously, to learn to feed my future family (since I had just lost the one I’d been building for a decade).
Many don’t know that I didn’t know how to cook when I started the restaurant, I just had a good sense of what needed to be done. With little grace and lots of grit, by the skin of my teeth, I did it, I learned to cook and to feed others. Business was rough, challenges were many, but none proved insurmountable, not even the pandemic.
I remember feeling energized at the slow down, ready to face the challenges and feeling so lucky to be free when so many were staggering at the changes. The pandemic wasn’t easy, it was frightening, my already struggling business ready to capsize on a stormy sea, financial devastation looming. Like any good captain would, though, I changed course and in December 2021 Vivienne Culinary Books was born.
This store is my vision for working in food. A cookbook store, with cooking classes, and kitchenwares; a resource for connecting, learning, and cultivating our core human need to eat and feed our families, through a lens of sustainability and local food systems. That’s what Vivienne Culinary Books is all about.
Now, moving to Alberta Street I envision the store’s impact deepening, our connections multiplying, and our community bonding. I’ve created a space for you to fill with your own desire to learn, revise, and expand your ability to feed your family.
See you this weekend!
Love, Robin