Saying Goodbye to Bookstore Entrepreneur Poppy of TV’s ‘Single Parents’
One of TV’s dream literary businesswomen is Poppy on ABC’s Single Parents. Played by actress Kimrie Lewis, Poppy owns the ultimate dream venture: a bookstore/wine bar.
We won’t see any new updates with Poppy’s business because ABC cancelled the adult-centric family comedy series last week. Now with the series’ two seasons living on Hulu, The Winebrary in the background can still be appreciated as the ideal place to peruse books and drink wine.
The Winebrary showcased bookshelves in a swanky setting with the bar being the focal point. The business model is starting to pick up steam in the real-life literary world. One example includes The 1894, the wine bar at Vroman’s Bookstore in Pasadena, which opened in February but has been temporarily closed like most bookstores due to the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic.
Bookstores find it hard to break even with the competition of Amazon.com, so adding another non-book part, especially surrounding refreshments has been explored more in the past few years.
KIMRIE LEWIS, JAKE CHOI
KIMRIE LEWIS, BRAD GARRETT
Single Parents revolved around a group of five single parents played by Kimrie, Brad Garrett of Everybody Loves Raymond, Taran Killam of Saturday Night Live, Leighton Meester of book-to-TV classic Gossip Girl, and Jake Choi separately raising their children but depending on each other to create a village. With the children spewing appropriate lines clearly written for an adult audience and hanging out at The Winebrary bar at times, it stood out as an edgy, refreshing comedy even if you’re an adult who’s outgrown the family comedy model.
Having Poppy as a black woman owning a bookstore was also a unique creative decision. Los Angeles itself doesn’t have a black woman-owned bookstore though black women do own stores that sell books on top of other merchandise. Black women are the top book consumers, but owning indie bookstores period is too risky of a business for anyone with Amazon taking over the market share. The bookish bizwoman character even inspired Kimrie to share her book picks as #PoppysPick on her Instagram account. Though she hadn’t shared a selection in a while, Kimrie would pose with books worth reading.
