It's Your Business: Huxley's Bookmark Cafe

Floating above the tables and chairs, amidst the shelves of books, the painting of a man reading hangs from a backroom wall of Huxley’s Bookmark Café. It’s both a tribute and a reflection.

The tribute is to famed British author Aldous Huxley—the man in the painting and the restaurant's namesake. Huxley, a prolific writer in the middle part of the 20^th century, ironically is perhaps best known for his book The Doors of Perception. Not for the work itself, but because it's where “The Doors” band drew its name.

More than that however, the painting mirrors the café. Books encircle the dining room, resting on a ledge that runs just beneath the ceiling.  Hollowed out columns are filled with hard-covers in the center of the room, on either side of an antique piano.

Customers, who are encouraged to take books down to read while they wait for their meal – Huxley's serves tasty diner fare, from breakfasts to burgers – marvel at the collection. Where did they come from, they ask.

“I get that question all the time,” said Dimitrios Klonaras, who runs the diner for his parents.  “I’ll tell them that an old library closed down years ago and donated the books. I have no idea where they came from, but that sounds better than ‘I don’t know.’”

Gregory Klonaras, Dimitrios’ father, isn’t sure either. He purchased the café in 1999 after emigrating from Greece several years before.

Buying a restaurant in his native country had been more difficult than expected, the elder Klonaras said. Economic and social problems similar to the ones facing Greece now made business deals perilous.

“People would lie to you,” he said in a thick accent.  “They would try to use you.”

Things are much easier now, though it can get hectic. The Klonaras’ own and operate two more restaurants in the New Haven area.

As for Huxley’s, Gregory is very proud of the way his son is handling the job.

Dimitrios began managing the café right after he graduated from Shelton High School in 2005.

“Every day is still challenging,” he said with a Greek accent tempered by American schooling. “I learn from my mistakes, but it also helped to have a good mentor, a good teacher—my father.”

The two often work weekends together at Huxley’s, along with Stella, Dimitrios’ mother and Gregory’s wife.

The family will put in a full day, bouncing from the kitchen to the front, doing whatever is needed.  They'll listen to the piano player who comes in on Saturdays and Sundays.

Bill, one of the restaurant’s many regulars, used to be a customer only. One day in 2006 he offered to play for them and hasn’t stopped since.  His smooth keystrokes compliment the café’s relaxed atmosphere.

They’re something that Huxley himself—or at least “The Doors”—would probably enjoy.