Meet Richard Skorman

Today we’d like to introduce you to Richard Skorman.

So, before we jump into specific questions about the business, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
I opened Poor Richard’s Used Paperbacks in June 1975, after the bookstore I was working in, the Granite Harp Bookstore, went out of business. I was a senior at Colorado College at the time and had a half a semester left to go. After the summer, I would go to my classes in the morning, with a sign on the cashbox, urging customers to buy their own books, pay the sales tax required on the chart, and make their own change. When I returned from class, I would then sit in the store and study while I occasionally bought, traded, stocked and sold books.

Two years later in 1977, I moved all the books to our current location and opened up Poor Richard’s Feed and Read — a restaurant/bookstore combination. At the time, we were the first restaurant to sell espresso drinks, frozen yogurt, bagels, quiche, and gazpacho. We got a liquor license in 1980 and in 1982, began showing 16 mm Art films in the back of the restaurant when the one Art theater in Colorado Springs lease was not renewed by a Socially Conservative building owner.

For 12 years, we were a Restaurant/Bookstore combination, with bookshelves on wheels, that would be rolled out of the way to show movies at night. I also was a local film critic and had moved to NYC to write “Off Hollywood Movies: A Film Lover’s Guide” published in 1990 by Crown Publishing where I learned to make New York style pizza at the Pizza Emporium in Yonkers, which I brought to Poor Richard’s Restaurant in 1992. In 1994, I sold the Movie theater to a friend who opened on a two-screen theater in an old movie house in downtown. In 1995, we built a play area in the back of the restaurant and turned the movie theater spot into a Specialty Toystore, Little Richards, that is still operating today. In 2005, my wife Patricia Seator, who was a psychologist from New York City, became a full partner in the business. We opened up Ricos Cafe and Wine Bar then, and she began to manage the Bookstore and quickly turned it into Poor Richard’s Books and Gifts.

Today, she also manages the Toystore and Poor Richards Books and Gifts is a full used bookstore (3 miles of shelves), with many thousands of new books (the only new bookstore downtown), a card shop with over 1000 faces of greeting cards, and a gift store stocked full of fun, inexpensive gifts, accessories, novelties, journals and art supplies. We always win the “Best Place for Thoughtful Inexpensive Gifts.” And often gets Best Bookstore and Toystore in the Gazette and Independent Best of issues. We have four storefronts with patios in the front and back that connect all four businesses. We have 117 solar panels on our roof, we grow herbs and vegetables on our back patio, and we compost all of our food and paper waste. We have 50 plus employees and could be the only Toystore in the Country with a liquor license, as it lies between our two restaurants. Lots of other history, like the movie house that showed the “Last Temptation of Christ,” had Westborough Baptist Church and Fred Phelps (“God Hates Fags”) demonstrate in front of our business, brought William Burroughs, Allen Ginsberg, and Lawrence Ferlinghetti to Colorado Springs and first housed the now very successful Weekly, the Independent, when the started operations in 1994.

We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc. – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
We had an arsonist burn down the back of the restaurant in 1982, with a 150k claim and 60k insurance policy. Allen Ginsberg did a benefit for us, and many in the community volunteered to build us back up. During that time, Allen Ginsberg was mugged in our bookstore parking lot by a knife-wielding assailant, and we were able to save him from harm by surrounding him with attendees. During Amendment 2, as I a vocal critic and we were a safe place for LGBTQ people to congregate, and because, we had death threats, swastikas painted on our bathroom walls, and bricks thrown through our windows. We lost our two women food service managers in a car accident in 2005. They were partners on their way to a funeral and had to drive because they couldn’t get a bereavement airfare.

What else should our readers know?
As stated earlier, we are probably the only bookstore, cafe and wine bar, toystore and pizza restaurant combination in the country. I described our retail pretty well. The Toystore really specializes in learning and interactive toys, very few that require batteries or have a computer. We are proud of how we have greened our business, not just solar panels, but LED lighting, recycling, and many other energy and water saving devices. We are proud of what we sell. Much of our inventory is fair trade, organic, local or American made. We have extensive vegan, paleo and gluten-free choices. We pay our employees a living wage, have health insurance and paid vacations. We offer a relaxed atmosphere, we only have counter service, so that customers are welcome to spend as much time as they want. We offer a great place for parents and kids to congregate, breastfeeding welcome anywhere, anytime. We have diaper changing stations in unisex and women’s bathrooms. We open up many toys so children and grownups can play (we do card grownups). We offer quality live music in Ricos on Thursday-Sunday (Jazz/blues, Latin) with no cover that starts early and ends early (7-9:30) for baby boomers. Most of our walls are filled with local artist’s work and we donate to many local charities, including daily donations to our local soup kitchen. We offer a place for many groups to meet, including a meeting room upstairs that customers can use for free. No smoking anywhere on premises, we were one the first before State Law was passed.

Has luck played a meaningful role in your life and business?
Good luck definitely after the fire with so much community help. Good luck saving Allen Ginsberg from being attacked. Good luck starting the Toystore during the Beanie Baby craze. Bad luck when we lost our two restaurant managers. Good luck that I married Patricia and she turned out to be an incredible retail manager. Good luck having so many long and short term employees who have worked really hard to make our business so successful.

Pricing:

• The menus in the restaurant and cafe are reasonably priced, it’s quite easy to eat a large meal for under $10, or even $5 a person.
• Same is true in the retail, Between the Bookstore, 10ks of used books, inexpensive gifts and toys, the vast majority under $10

Contact Info:

• Address: 320-3241/2 North Tejon Street
  Colorado Springs, CO 80906 Between Platte and Boulder, on North Tejon Street
• Website: Poorrichardsdowntown.com
• Phone: 719-578-5549
• Email: adminstrator@poorrichardsdowntown.com
• Instagram: poorrichardsdowntown
• Facebook: poorrichardsdowntown

Getting in touch: VoyageDenver is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.