Book & Wine Club
SubscribeWhen you subscribe to the Kramers Book & Wine (& Coffee) Club, you’ll unlock exclusive access to extraordinary books handpicked by our bookstore staff, uncommon wines, and unique coffee blends chosen (and sometimes roasted) by our Beverage Director. You'll get a monthly pairing of Kramers’ favorite books (ones we actually read!) with an accompanying bottle of wine or coffee depending on your preference.
Just select your favorite book genre and your wine preference (Red, White, Rosé, or Adventurous) for the perfect pairing each month!
Treat yourself to a subscription or gift a subscription to your favorite bibliophile. All Book & Wine subscription tiers are available for in-store pickup only. Book & Coffee subscriptions are available for nationwide shipping (and local pickup). Check out our page on Table22 for full details.
Questions about the club? Email us at bookwine@kramers.com.
Book Selections
Our process for selecting books is pretty straightforward; we’re aiming for newer titles that slipped under the radar or didn’t get quite the attention we thought they deserved. Many of these were listed for major awards or just happen to be books our staff enjoyed. Once we’ve collected a number of interesting titles, one of our buyers looks over the list and picks out the books they believe have the widest appeal (while aiming to give you some pleasant surprises).
Sample Picks:
Fiction: The Secret Lives of Church Ladies by Deesha Philyaw
Kramers Pick: Red at the Bone by Jacqueline Woodson
Mystery: My Sister the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite
Sci-Fi: The Ballad of Black Tom by Victor Lavalle
History/Biography: Black Fortunes by Shomari Wills
Cultural Affairs/Politics: A Terrible Thing to Waste by Harriet A. Washington
Poetry: The Tradition by Jericho Brown
Wine Selections
- Everything is natural. Nothing corporate, and hopefully nothing you’ll easily find on your corner store’s shelf. Unless your corner store is Domestique. And even then, we hope these will be new to you!
- Natural wine is just wine. Nothing added, nothing removed. To expand just a bit, that means: organic farming and/or no synthetic pesticides, hand harvested grapes, native fermentation (i.e. no commercial yeasts), minimal sulfur additions, no chemicals, food coloring, acids, preservatives, etc. etc. etc. Just grape juice fermented until it’s tasty.
- For the red, white, and rosé selections we want to stick to fairly classic interpretations of those styles. Some may assume that because it’s “natural” that it must mean wild, funky, or offbeat, but there’s a whole world of beautifully produced natural wines showcasing a grape’s unique qualities in a transparent and clean way.
- Adventurous is where we can have a bit of fun, and hopefully as we continue this subscription more folks will be interested in this option. This is where you’ll find orange wines, sparkling wines, co-ferments, chilled reds, etc.
Sample Selections:
Red: Martin & Anna Arndorfer Zweigelt
White: Jonc Blanc Fleur 2018
Rosé: Benjamin Taillandier 6 Roses Rosé
Adventurous: Giuseppe Amato, Valdisole Wines Armonia and Aura
Coffee Selections
Coffee subscribers can expect a totally different coffee every month – either roasted by our Beverage Director, Larry, or selected from a coffee roaster we admire somewhere in the world. All coffees selected for this club are sourced from importers that pay well above fair trade pricing, regardless of quality (though we can assure you that quality will always exist in the cup, too).
When Larry started as a roaster, he sought out expensive, well-processed coffees that were wholly unique in their flavor profiles. He still loves those, but as our coffee roasting program has matured, he's placed much more value in sustainable partnerships with specific farmers and cooperatives.
Roasters that only seek out the highest quality lots pay a good amount for their coffees, which is great for that year’s harvest – but this model leaves farmers in the lurch if they have a down year in the quality of their crops. With the ongoing climate crisis, these down years are beginning to happen more frequently, and it’s important to show farmers that they’re still going to have buyers even if their harvests are smaller, or maybe a bit less distinct one year over the next.