What does it take to open a thriving bookstore café with no loans, no investors, and almost no money left in your bank account? On the latest episode of Building Local Business, host Carl Ulinski sits down with Nick Bennett — owner of Athenix Books and Brews in Little Falls — and the answer turns out to be equal parts stubbornness, hustle, and heart.
Bennett’s entrepreneurial story started at 14, selling posters out of a basement, and wound through exotic candy, custom merchandise, and mobile auto detailing before landing somewhere nobody expected: a bookstore café named after his two young daughters, Athena and Nixie. When he opened the doors in early 2025, nearly everyone around him said it wouldn’t work — including his own mom, the night before the launch. He opened anyway.
With nothing but a truck, a dream, and an overnight shift at a gas station to keep the lights on, Bennett built Athenix from the ground up — literally. He renovated the space himself and launched without a single paid ad. Today, the business pulls in over a million organic Facebook views every month, hosts a packed calendar of community events, and has four people on payroll.
In this episode, Bennett gets candid about the real challenges of entrepreneurship — from self-doubt and lost relationships to learning to tune out the haters while still listening to real criticism. He also shares his surprisingly simple social media philosophy, his thoughts on AI as a business tool, and what’s already brewing for his next venture.
His message to anyone sitting on a dream? Just do it. If you lose everything, you rebuild and start again.
Watch the full conversation on YouTube or catch it wherever you listen to podcasts.
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