Baby Grand Books celebrates arrival of new Baby Grand Piano

Warwick — The first Baby Grand was a sad tale of never being in tune, then a set of ivory keys being replaced by an electric keyboard n a blasphemy to true pianists - and finally, that old ivory keyboard being washed away in the last flood (Baby Grand Books is on the Wawayanda River). “But my partner, Steve Calitri, who owned that ill-fated Baby Grand, said Baby Grand Books had to have a real Baby Grand piano,” said bookstore manager George Nitti. “So we went to the House of Steinway, the world’s greatest piano maker, and bought the Boston Baby Grand, designed by Steinway. It’s a piano that players will want to sit down at and play.” “The Boston by Steinway is our gift to the pianists in Warwick Valley,” said Calitri, who owns the building at 7 West St. “The music that comes from it will be the gift that piano players give to the people of Warwick who have made Baby Grand Books a place to hang out.” Baby Grand is known as much for its hospitality as for its books. The store has four rooms holding some 15,000 titles, both new and used. Throughout the store a browser can always find a chair, stool or a cushioned arm-chair to perch and read. Or write. The store offers wireless internet and tables for laptops. Coffee, like the piano, is on the house at Baby Grand Books. But can the store last in a commercial landscape dominated by Internet sales and superstores? “We are not competing with anyone but ourselves,” said Calitri. “We offer book titles, most of which you won’t find in Borders or Barnes and Noble because they are quality out-of-print books those stores don’t carry. “We also offer new books. And we offer a place that is like no other place in one of the greatest little downtowns in the country: Warwick.” “Look,” said Nitti, a former school teacher, “we will grow little by little as book lovers find us. And our goal is to make a living from Baby Grand. “But I’m also crazy enough to enjoy the tranquility of a peaceful moment in the store, just one or two customers about and the ivory keys being tickled by someone with music in her spirit. What other place of work will give me that?”