Book festival held at Sea Cliff businesses 

Authors, business owners and members of the community came together for ‘A Midsummer Night’s Book Fest’ in Sea Cliff. Featuring eight authors and four vendors, the event took place at Sea Cliff Daily Grind and Glowinskin Esthetics. Attendees could purchase books and other merchandise, get books signed, do crafts, enter raffles and get a spiritual reading. 

Sunday’s book fest was organized by Robyn Baldwin-Cacchione, who runs Sea Cliff’s chapter of the Silent Book Club, and Glowinskin Esthetics owner Jamie Glowinski. Baldwin-Cacchione also runs Main Character Club Long Island, an all-women club that does crafts, holds brunches and goes on trips. She and club members made flower-shaped bookmarks at the event. 

Baldwin-Cacchione met Glowinski and her husband Terrence Cave, owner of Sea Cliff Daily Grind, through the Silent Book Club. She said that she and Glowinski began talking about holding events together in September. After a Valentine’s Day event at Glowinskin Esthetics featuring authors and vendors, they decided to hold a summer event. Baldwin-Cacchione knows the authors and vendors who attended personally. 

“There’s this whole big book community on Long Island, and once you’re in, you’re in, so you kind of just start meeting people,” she said. “It’s really cool.” 

Juniper’s Bookish and Art Boutique, owned by Balwin-Cacchione, had a booth set up outside Sea Cliff Daily Grind during the afternoon.

Baldwin-Cacchione emphasized that the goal of these events is building community and offering “third spaces,” social environments that are separate from home and work or school. 

“I feel like we’re losing third space options by the day,” she said, “and so we’re trying to create that.”

Glowinski added that another goal was to bring more people to Sea Cliff, visiting the village and exploring local businesses.

“We want everyone to be successful,” she said. “So, if we can do events like this and people start to walk around and people want to stay open later, or whatever, I think a day event is perfect because that’s when everybody is open.”

With the event being held at Glowinskin Esthetics and Sea Cliff Daily Grind, Glowinski said both saw increased business and foot traffic. Both regular clientele and members of the book club attended the event. 

“It was more exposure for myself and for the Daily Grind too,” Glowinski said, “which was huge because a lot of people came in like ‘Oh we didn’t know you were here,’ ‘We didn’t know that he served food too, and not just coffee.’”

Balwin-Cacchione said Sunday’s book fest was “really fun” and that she and Glowinski got positive feedback from the community. She added that they are planning to hold another event together in October. Glowinski said that the October event could have a focus on children’s activities.