‘A Sacred Place To Me’: New bookstore prepares grand opening in Highland Park

After leaving a corporate job she “hated” and on the verge of ending an eight-year stint as a stay-at-home mom, Lauren Cardick was considering what her next career move should be when she decided to attend a booksellers course in February 2024.

Less than four months later, she bought a two-story house near downtown Highland Park under her parents’ name and began drafting where the shelves would go. At 10 a.m. on Saturday, Sept. 13, Cardick will host the grand opening for Matchmaker Bookshop, the city’s newest book shop.

“Bookstores are really a special place in a lot of people’s lives. It’s an essential gathering place, it’s a place where you can feel safe, and where you find information, and it’s always been a sacred place to me,” Cardick said. 

“So the idea of being that for someone in the community is really appealing to me,” she added. “I think a lot about the kids who are going to come here and think about this as their childhood bookstore.”

Matchmaker Bookshop, 1891 2nd St. in Highland Park, will offer an inventory of “general interest” fiction, nonfiction and children’s books with 8,500 titles already in stock. The store will operate 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays, and 11 a.m.-4 p.m. on Sundays. 

Unlike other storefronts nearby, Matchmaker Bookshop sits in a two-story house. Pale green with purple shutters, the location formerly was home to Wild Birds Unlimited feed store. 

The first floor features Matchmaker Bookshop’s collection with a large built-on addition. Upstairs — with a children’s play area, lounge and conference room — is where Cardick envisions she’ll host readings and craft workshops. An outside back patio space also offers more tables and spots to read. 

Growing up in Glencoe, Cardick was a precocious reader from a young age. She recalls devouring “Little House on the Prairie,” when she was just 6 years old. She’s remained an avid reader; among other genres, her favorites include romance novels, literary fiction and a “cozy mystery.”

But after growing up and obtaining a corporate job, Cardick “felt like a square peg in a round hole” contending with all the cutthroat ladder-climbing that did not interest her. So she decided to become a stay-at-home mother to help raise her two children in Highland Park.

The February 2024 booksellers conference in Florida was a make-or-break moment for her idea of opening a bookshop. But rather than feel discouraged surrounded by so many other booksellers discussing how they run their shops, she found it fun and decided to pursue it. 

Elissa Dauria Smith, Cardick’s events and marketing coordinator, emphasized all the “kismet” that quickly ensued that swiftly brought Matchmaker Bookshop into being. 

The two met through a book club, Cardick’s store manager was hired after two less-qualified candidates had to bow out, and her children’s books specialist is actually the recently retired director of the preschool Cardick’s kids attended. 

Likewise, the house on 2nd Street went on sale in the spring of 2024. After finding it the perfect fit, Cardick learned it was already under contract and thought she had to move on. Fortunately for her, that contract fell through and Cardick’s family bought the building in May 2024.  

Cardick said she enjoys that her bookstore doesn’t remind her of any other bookstores she knows. Though the shop is high end, she’s aiming for it to feel like sitting under a tree, or an English cottage garden. 

Cardick also said Matchmaker’s inventory will be inclusive to titles that focus on queer and BIPOC stories, which have become the target of book-banning efforts in recent years.

“I know there’s a lot of controversy in the world around banning books, particularly banning books in schools, and I feel like the thing that’s missing that people don’t talk about is children should be allowed to read and access whatever material they want,” Cardick said. 

“We don’t want our children necessarily reading things they don’t understand in a vacuum but I want them to be exposed to whatever they may be interested in and if it’s a topic that’s difficult, then we have a conversation about it,” Cardick said.

Furthermore, Matchmaker Bookshop’s brand name is intentional because Cardick said she’d like to connect her customers with the titles they want to see in their neighborhood bookstore.

She hopes her craft events and twice-a-week children’ book readings will also foster community. 

While bringing the store into compliance (resolving challenges “every other day” with power outages, plumbing issues and permitting red tape), Cardick said it was ultimately heartwarming to see her community of family and friends come together to help her bring the store into being.

On Saturday, Sept. 6, she’ll host an invite-only event for friends and family those who volunteered to get the store together. Then at 10 a.m. on Sept. 13 and 14, Matchmaker Bookshop’s grand opening will feature door prizes, live music, face painting, story hours, a coffee cart, goodies, and more.

“I especially love being able to show it off now to people because this vision has been living in my head for a while, for more than a year,” Cardick said. “It’s really exciting for people to now be able to see what we’ve been imagining all this time.”

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