Catherine Kassouf is co-owner of The Browsing Room Bookstore and Cafe, one of the only shops still open in The Galleria at Erieview in Downtown Cleveland. She remembers the moment she fell in love with reading when her aunt gave her a copy of “Little Women” as a gift.
Since that day, she always wanted to open a bookstore. She even wrote her secret dream on a piece of paper that she kept in her purse. More than 45 years later, she and her husband, James Kassouf — who is a Cleveland property developer and the owner of Erieview Tower — stumbled upon the location while walking through The Galleria at Erieview Tower. Right then, she knew it was the right spot for her dream.
Catherine is a Cleveland native who remembers The Galleria in its heyday…