New Coffee Shop, Bookstore Planned for Belmont in March

BELMONT, MA — Two local book lovers are bringing a new bookstore and coffee shop to Belmont next spring, which will be located within walking distance to Arlington residents near the town line.

Belmont Books, the brainchild of Belmont couple Chris Abouzeid and Kathy Crowley, will take over the former Macy's location in Belmont Center in March.

First reported by the Boston Globe, the couple announced on their website that they've leased two floors of space at 79 Leonard St. for the hybrid bookstore-coffee shop.

According to the announcement, posted on the website Shelf Awareness, Abouzeid is currently a bookseller at Porter Square Books in Cambridge and author of "Anatopsis," a young adult fantasy novel. Crowley is a physician at Boston Medical Center and assistant professor at Boston University School of Medicine, as well as an author working on her second novel, a spy mystery set in the local area.

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