Book Trader Cafe
The ranks of New Haven's used bookstores have thinned a little in recent years: Whitlock's on Broadway is gone, so too is the fine Elm City Books, which had a good run on York Street a few years back. But even if those stores were still around, the Book Trader would be a worthy winner of this category. And even if you couldn't buy a delicious sandwich or muffin here, it would still be a major destination for book lovers. The key is selectivity. The shelves are not weighted down by mediocrity, but rather lifted up by good stuff. Some of it is obvious: You'll get your Ian McEwan, your Kazuo Ishiguro, your Jonathan Spence. Some of it is more obscure: Sitting on shelves in recent weeks has been a first edition of John Ashbery's hard-to-find novel, which he co-authored with James Schuyler. And you can also buy a good paperback mystery or sci-fi adventure.