Our Story
Camilla Kitchen
Meet your new favorite Place
It’s important to us that everything we do and use comes from real people with their own stories. Between the ingredients we gather, the recipes we use, and the people that do the making and eating, a million stories are combined into something new. And we think you can taste the difference.
In the Beginning…
Having a kitchen at M.Judson was always part of our vision. When we first opened our doors in July of 2015, the kitchen was integral to our story. We had lovely tartines and a sprouted lentil salad that still has people calling us for the recipe. But we were learning a lot at the time – about running a bookstore and running a cafe, and we decided we needed to focus on learning how to be a bookstore. The Chocolate Moose had new ownership and needed a new home, so the timing was perfect to share the space and get yummy cupcakes and some delicious chicken salad under our roof.
Camilla Kitchen is Born
The pandemic was hard. Y’all might remember? There weren’t a lot of celebrations happening, and the cupcake world took a hit. When our friends at The Chocolate Moose made the difficult decision to hang up their oven mitts, we decided that we were ready to give the Kitchen another try. We had learned a lot by running the coffee shop at our store in Auburn, and we knew once the pandemic restrictions were lifted, that we were going to be ready to sit around a table with absolutely everyone. And just like that, Camilla Kitchen was born. In September of 2020. We’ll always be proud of that: opening in 2020, which is why we incorporated the date into our logo.
Why a Kitchen in a Bookstore?
We’re all about stories. Stories in books, stories in humans, stories in food. Here’s how we described the business before we even opened:
“M.Judson is more than a bookstore. It’s a literary hub, a cultural hive. It’s trade in a story-centered lifestyle, and that’s the philosophy reflected in everything we do. You’ll see it in our commitment to a well-curated book offering, our funky gifts and vintage housewares, and our special events and author signings.
What customers find in our store will always flux and change, but at the center is what feeds us: our home, our bellies, and our kids. To these ends, we carry Southern, place-based literature of every kind; books about a handmade life, growing and eating and making food; and books for the next generation of readers. We are a store that’s as comfortable in the history of our stories as it is on the leading edge of what’s next in books and reading and everything a reader’s life entails.”
Yep, that about sums us up.
