Discover this new book store hidden among the trees of South Miami-Dade’s Cauley Square
A lane of trees with intertwined canopies, creating a marvelous sheltering shade, connects the bungalows of Cauley Square, one of Miami’s most enchanting and secret places. The village is so far south on Old Dixie Highway that its origins can be traced back to the early 20th century, when it was an agricultural area and not a land occupied by new developments, which have expanded to reach the Everglades on one side and Biscayne Bay on the other.
Wooden houses with colored windows and eaves and signs that invite you to buy handicrafts, for a tarot or palm reading, to drink tea in a cozy cottage that has survived hurricanes without losing its charm spread across both sides of the tree grove where the song of birds drowns out the cars in this place of shops, galleries and an old wedding chapel.
Almost at the end, when you don’t expect to discover much more between brick paths and statues, there is Sweet Haven Books, a bookstore in which the books are not kept on traditional shelves but on old furniture, sometimes with a sofa and a vintage lamp at the side, inviting the visitor to sit right there and forget about the world while reading a book.
“When I came up with the idea of this business, I received comments like, ‘Oh my God, a bookstore in this age of technology!’ But I got more comments from people who told me: ‘I miss so much reading a physical book and having it in my hands’,” said Patricia Medina, who spent the hardest months of the pandemic considering how to open a bookstore.
It was a dream that she had in Seattle for 12 years, when her daughter was born and she decided that her life would not be in an office from 9 to 6, but together with her little girl.
Books in English and Spanish
Medina, who has a BA in Psychology and an MBA, and her husband, Jesús Castellat, who has a career in the Army, settled in an old Homestead house a few years ago and fell in love with Cauley Square.
They knew that few independent Miami bookstores survive and that Hooked on Books, which had been in Islamorada for 20 years, had recently closed.
Cauley Square is located very close to the entrance to the Florida Keys.
Medina and Castellat made a key decision for their bookstore —they would not have books in just one language, but instead there would be texts of all genres in English and Spanish, cookbooks, table books, self-help books, and at different prices.
“This is a project of passion. I have my job, and my husband has his occupation. We have prices that are economical so people can buy more than one book,” said Medina. She warns visitors that the price shown on any book is negotiable.
“The important thing is that people don’t feel like they have to wait for their next paycheck to buy another book. People leave the store feeling happy, with five or six books,” she adds.
A second life for antique furniture
With their passion for antique furniture, they went to garage sales and estate sales to buy wood and glass cabinets that were used to display glassware and that today contain books by Paulo Coelho, Stephen King, Hemingway and also local authors, because Medina and Castellat take great pride in “serving the community.”
The furthest they went looking for furniture was Georgia, explain Medina and Castellat, proving that it was worth the trip to the neighboring state.
When they bought the furniture, they used to tell the former owners that they were going to put them in a bookstore and invited them to come and “visit the furniture.” Some of them have actually visited and have taken photos with the objects that belonged to their families and that today have a new life.
On the deck at the entrance to Sweet Haven Books, some small tables invite the customers to sit outdoors. That is what a writer from Miami does, explaining that he feels inspired to write in that place, Medina said.
“We love to see teenagers spend up to an hour reading the books from when they were children,” says Medina, showing the room dedicated to books for children and young people, where there are also educational toys, cloth dolls that sport shimmering braids like Goldilocks, and the brain teasers, the favorites of a generation used to video games.
A Miami bookstore where you can feel at home
In the afternoon, a group of teenagers comes to do homework. The store already has two book clubs, one for women, which had its first meeting on February 4, and another for teenagers, who will meet starting at 7 p.m. There are also open mic sessions, with songs and poems.
“Besides being a bookstore, it’s a place for everyone to feel comfortable,” says Medina, who has ordered special snacks, pretzels and popcorn that she loves.
Bookstore visitors also leave notes for Scruffy, the Medina-Castellat’s puppy and the store pet, which reaffirms that feeling of being at home.
Other notes welcomed by the owners of Sweet Haven Books are suggestions from customers. If they don’t have a book in the store that customers like, an author they usually read, they ask the customers to leave a note with the information, so they can order it and have it ready for them when they return.
Medina and Castellat are also proud of the selection of books about Florida history and old texts, some of them first editions, that they have acquired under the guidance of historian César Becerra, an expert in the history of Cauley Square, where he offers a public tour the first Saturday of each month starting at 11 am.
“There are not many old-school style bookstores in Miami —they have all closed,” says Becerra, an admirer of the history of Cauley Square, one of the oldest places in South Miami-Dade, although many of the small houses that remain are not the original ones.
On his Saturday tours, Becerra takes visitors to Tree of Life, a store that offers a variety of incense, stones, oils, and books on spiritual topics, and to Sweet Haven Books, where readers can find his most recent book, “Orange Blossom 2.0,” on lesser-known facts about Mary Brickell, a key figure in Miami’s development.
“Cauley Square is a place that takes you away and relaxes you from modern life. Everything is slower there, people have to park their cars, walk to the little houses and discover the places,” concludes Becerra, pointing out that Sweet Haven Books, with its comfort, its flair and its original way of displaying books, adds a lot to the mystery of the place.
Sweet Haven Books
Where: Cauley Square Historic Village, 22400 Old Dixie Hwy
Info: 786-227-2222.
This story was originally published February 8, 2022 at 6:00 AM.
