Bookstore with wine and beer

Carol Hoenig and Peggy Zieran once ran a book club. "Book and a Bottle," Hoenig says. "We loved discussing books but we always had to haves a glass of wine. Or a bottle of wine."

The popularity of that group led these two former Border's Books employees to an idea they believed might improve upon the business model of their now-defunct ex-employer.

"You can't survive on just selling books alone," Zieran says.

So Peggy and Carol opened a bookstore with a wine bar in the back, reconsidering traditional notions of wine pairings and encouraging customers to wander their shelves bringing a pinot to a Stephen King, some chardonnay to some Jane Austen, or a Steinbeck to an IPA.

"We have seen people discover books they never would've discovered if they hadn't done that," Hoenig says.

Four weeks in, Peggy and Carol say they've seen an equal number of readers who end up staying for a glass of wine as drinkers who end up buying a book.

"It encourages people to stay a little longer," Ziernan says.

Located in Rockville Centre, on the south shore of Long Island, Turn of the Corkscrew -- a play on the title of a Henry James novella -- finds itself surrounded by bars, six miles from the nearest bookstore, and (it believes) the only beer, wine, and books hybrid on all of Long Island.

"Hey, we like to read and drink wine and we found that many other people do, too," Zieran says.