Lake City Books sets sail

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Madison loves its independent bookstores, and despite today’s plethora of digital reading options, screens are no substitute for the cultural enrichment bookstores bring to a community.

That’s according to Molly Fish, owner of downtown’s Lake City Books, which in April announced its upcoming move to an over 4,000-square-foot space just off of the Capitol Square.

The new spot, opening at 120 S. Carroll St. in the first week of July, will retain Lake City Books’ distinctive blue shelves and other branding that nods to Madison’s lakes. It will also feature a wine bar and a 36-foot-long wall of bookshelves with a rolling ladder. Lined with huge windows on two sides, the store will have capacity for more books, visitors and events.

It’s a natural progression for the business which in the roughly three years since it opened has substantially outperformed her expectations, Fish said, achieving 40% annual revenue growth each year. The new, bigger space, still downtown but within view of Lake Monona, is projected to generate annual revenue of over $1 million.

“Madison turns out for us,” Fish said. “We’re still growing, and I’m excited. … I think one of the biggest things that’s helped us continue to thrive and grow is the community … aspect of the bookstore.”

The First Draft

When Fish contemplated opening her first store in 2023, she wondered if it even made sense to set up shop in such a saturated local landscape.

“The Madison indie bookstore scene is very lush and vibrant,” she said. Still, she observed that in recent years many stores like hers have closed or moved away from the heart of the city.

“When I was growing up, there were tons of bookstores downtown,” she said. “There was Canterbury (Booksellers), there was Rainbow (Bookstore Cooperative) … there was Paul’s (Book Store), there was Shakespeare’s, there was Browsers,” and others like A Room of One’s Own relocated away from State Street and the Capitol.

A self-proclaimed lifelong reader and book lover, Fish spent her 20s working in bookstores — from the University Book Store on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus to family-run Beck’s in Chicago — and as a quality assurance team leader for Epic, where she said she honed some spreadsheet skills that would later come in handy.

Fish returned to Madison to run the bookstore side of Leopold’s Books Bar Caffé on Regent Street for a time and said that’s when she knew she had the skills to launch her own venture.

“I think a lot of us came out of the (COVID-19) pandemic going … we need a change,” said Fish. “I had already been taking a lot of UW Small Business Development Center classes. They have an entrepreneurship program that … I was doing at night, and I just felt ready.”

Fish took a gamble opening Lake City Books at 107 N. Hamilton St. in a long-vacant space she said others warned her against due to its basement-level placement and relatively low visibility.

“But I could really see it,” she said. “I (thought), this could be a little hidden gem of a bookstore down here. … A lot of people thought I was crazy. I was like, well, maybe, but I’m opening a bookstore.”

A third space

Fish said stores like Lake City Books provide a third space for locals seeking social connection or entertainment, and much of her store’s traffic comes from young clientele.

“Neighborhoods also really love a bookstore,” she said, citing the loyal east side following of A Room of One’s Own on Atwood Avenue and the popularity of Monroe Street’s Mystery to Me. “I think the Madison culture and the university really help… and (people who) like to read for fun, including Gen Z, (Madison’s) student population.”

Jason Ilstrup, president of Downtown Madison Inc., said bookstores like Lake City Books are reflective of Madison’s values — supporting creativity, local businesses and civic engagement.

“Madison has always had a strong culture of curiosity, education and local pride, driven in large part by the presence of the University of Wisconsin and a highly engaged, well-read community,” he said in a statement. “Independent bookstores fit naturally into that ecosystem because … they provide curated experiences, local connections and spaces for dialogue.”

He said independent bookstores, like other brick-and-mortar retailers, have “faced significant headwinds” with the expansion of e-commerce, changing consumer habits and increased operating costs.

“At the same time (in Madison), downtown dynamics, like shifting foot traffic patterns and redevelopment, can make it harder for some concepts to sustain themselves,” he added. “However, recently, we’ve seen renewed interest in experiential retail, like bookstores. People want an experience and bookstores provide that in spades.”

Fish also noted that for many young people who have been “raised on screens,” digital reading options have lost their novelty, while books have become “trophy items” — tangible, valuable and even beautiful beyond their content — and hot in pop culture thanks to major movie adaptations, like this year’s “Project Hail Mary” or the forthcoming “The Odyssey.”

A 2023 report from the American Library Association corroborates Fish’s observations about young people’s preferred reading format. According to “Gen Z and Millennials: How They Use Public Libraries and Identify Through Media Use,” print is Gen Z’s most preferred book format.

In all formats, Gen Zers buy and read more than millennials, the report said, and the older the reader, the fewer print books they tend to purchase per month.

“Print media is, I think, back in a lot of ways,” said Fish. “Hopefully that is not a bubble that bursts. … That trend towards the analog is a natural backlash, I think, to AI, when you can’t even trust what you read on the internet anymore. … But when you pick up a book, there’s trust there … it feels more real.”

For all ages, Fish said, visiting a bookstore is an activity in and of itself, and many families spend 45 minutes in her shop exploring and learning.

Ilstrup said bookstores like Lake City Books strengthen downtown areas by encouraging people to gather, bolstering nearby businesses and “add(ing) to the overall vibrancy of the district.”

Casting a wide net

Lake City Books will open its new doors in the Pressman Building on Carroll Street with more inventory than ever and several new attractions for guests.

A huge set of bookcases with a rolling ladder will be visible from the street through 10-foot windows, although Fish joked that she still needs to check with her insurance agent on whether guests will be allowed to use the ladder.

The opposite end of the 4,400-square-foot space will house a wine bar, plus tables inside and on an adjoining outdoor patio. A large theater curtain will divide the front of the bookstore from the back wine space for events — either private or hosted by the store.

Meanwhile, just down Carroll Street, the Lake Monona shoreline is being redeveloped via the Madison Lakeway project, which Fish said could result in more visitors to the immediate area. Incidentally, Alan Fish, her father, is a Madison LakeWay Partners executive committee member.

Fish said she was lucky to find such a large, affordable space downtown.

“The total cost of the move will be around $190,000, including everything from construction to stocking up on inventory,” she said. “We are getting help covering that cost from a city of Madison building improvement grant and a tenant improvement budget from the landlord, ULI (Urban Land Interests). The bookstore’s profits from 2025 will cover the remaining costs.”

Mark Binkowski, a ULI shareholder, said ULI is thrilled to work with Fish to help grow her business.

“Having a locally owned, independent bookstore is an amenity for residents, (an) attraction for visitors and exactly the sort of retail user that brings life and vitality to the Capitol Square,” he said in a statement.

Fish said the new location will allow for more staff and expanded inventory. The store on Hamilton Street employs three part-time employees and two full-timers besides Fish herself, and she said she is already in the process of hiring another three part-time workers.

Lake City Books has more than 8,000 regular customers with store accounts and in 2025 saw over 25,000 transactions. Fish said her new sales goals are ambitious — especially for the wine bar, which she said she is determined to make profitable on its own.

“I’m a big numbers person and spreadsheet person,” she said. “I do my own bookkeeping. … Year after year, I’ve tried to grow the staff and inventory with sales, such that I’m always in the black — I was profitable. I broke even in year one, having only been open nine months, recouped all my investment, was profitable immediately in year two and even more so in year three.

“As sales have gone up, our expenses haven’t gone up that much, and therefore our profit has increased.”

Like the first store, the new Lake City Books location will open debt-free.

Fish is planning a series of introductory events to familiarize the public with the space, including a grand opening party and lectures or readings. Amid the extra work of moving, she is not yet accepting requests for private event rentals but will in the future.

While Fish expressed some nostalgia for the store’s current space, which she recalls cobbling together with the help of family and friends, she also said she’s ready for the change.

“I feel OK. I’m really excited about the new space, which is helping,” she said. The current store “was kind of scrapped together. I think it helps me to think about … a space that is actually more planned from the beginning, with more deliberate design choices.

“Owning a successful business was a lifetime goal for me. Making that happen before the age of 40, and expanding it into something even bigger, has been a dream come true.”

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