Merrick's Libraries Now Run a Café, a Compost Hub and a Holiday Market
October 29, 2026
October 29, 2026
"It seemed to me like it was an underutilized area," Merrick Library Director Dan Chuzmir told Greater Long Island about the corner that used to hold vending machines. In August, that corner became a full-service coffee bar.
At North Merrick Public Library, neighbors bring five-gallon buckets of vegetable peels every Saturday morning to a compost site on the library grounds. The November calendars point the same way. Merrick's two libraries are no longer only places to borrow books. They have become a café, a waste drop-off, a gift market and a free concert hall, all on one card.
The coffee bar at 2279 Merrick Ave. replaced shelves of bottled drinks with an espresso machine and a menu that, according to Greater Long Island's August report, rivals a neighborhood coffee shop. Signature drinks include a crème brûlée latte, a white mocha raspberry cream cold brew and a brown sugar honey cortado.
The sourcing stays on Long Island. Coffee comes from Flux Coffee in Farmingdale and tea from SerendipiTea in Manhasset. "Keeping it local and supporting local businesses on the Island was very important to us," Chuzmir told the outlet.
Gina Noto works the counter. She spent eight years at Massapequa Perk before answering an Indeed posting for a civil-service barista, and she is the library's only barista. In the same story, she said cold brews, iced lattes and anything with matcha had been the most popular orders. She has also added refreshers, lemonades and hot chocolate for younger customers. She is also, by her account, the only library employee who knows how to make cookie butter cold foam.
Chuzmir framed the bar as a reason to stay. "We wanted to provide a better experience for people who were coming to spend time here, whether it was to work, use our programs or just read," he said. That changes how you use the building. A morning of remote work or an hour before a program now comes with an espresso. You no longer have to run out to Merrick Avenue for one.
The hours fit a weekday routine and leave weekends out. In August, Greater Long Island reported the bar open 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Thursday and 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Friday, closed Saturday and Sunday. Schedules can shift after a first season, so check with the library before planning a Friday afternoon around it.
North Merrick Public Library has taken on a different job. Its compost hub is run with Community Composting Counts, a group co-founded by Merrick resident Lauren Krueger and Kimberly Wright. The library's composting page describes it as a community site where households bring food scraps to be turned into compost.
The Herald's October 15 story explains why it ended up at a library. Krueger first looked at East Meadow Farm as a location. She chose the library because it had unused outdoor space and a steady stream of visitors. "If you're already coming to the library to return your books and pick up new things," she told the Herald, "why not bring your food scraps along?"
The site itself is a neighborhood project. Mason Tso, a Boy Scout from Troop 225, raised money for materials and built the three-bin structure with his father as his Eagle Scout project, finishing it in August 2025. Library Director Jacqueline Perez backed the proposal from the start, and the board of trustees approved it unanimously. "Sharing resources is what libraries do best, and environmental stewardship fits naturally with that mission," Perez told the Herald.
As the Herald describes it, a Saturday at the bins goes like this:
The numbers show how much a small group can move. The site opened with a Pumpkin Smash in October 2025 and began weekly operations in April. By mid-October 2026 it had collected more than 1,000 pounds of food scraps from 23 participating families. That works out to more than 40 pounds per household in about six months. Krueger told the Herald she focused on food waste because, in her words, it "makes up about a third of solid waste overall."
The easiest way in is the anniversary event. The annual Community Composting Counts Pumpkin Smash is Sunday, November 8, 2026, from 2 to 4 p.m. at the library's Outdoor Pavilion. Unpainted pumpkins, decorative gourds and other seasonal vegetables are welcome, so the porch pumpkins softening since Halloween have somewhere to go. The listing is labeled "In-Person" but also includes a line calling it an online event, so confirm the format with the library before you load the car.
North Merrick also runs a free Seed Library for cardholders, offering 26 varieties of Northeast pollinator annuals and perennials.
The café and the compost bins are the most visible changes. The event calendars show the same thing happening more quietly. Most of November's programs are free, many need no registration, and several fill a slot a local business might otherwise fill. Merrick and North Merrick are separate members of the Nassau Library System, each with its own building and its own calendar. Between them, here is what is on the books from the week this post goes up through mid-December:
The Holiday Handmade Market shows the shift most clearly. A free Saturday gift market with local makers is the kind of event a business district usually puts on. In Merrick this November, it takes place in the library's Community Room, a few steps from the coffee bar. A longisland.com event listing also describes it as free.
Toward December, the Merrick Chamber of Commerce takes over much of the calendar, and its events gather around Merrick Avenue. Its November event is a weekday one. The Chamber's networking lunch is Monday, Nov. 16, from noon to 2 p.m. at Bourbon & Brews, 361 Merrick Ave., at $23 per person.
The December weekend is the bigger draw. The Chamber's free Santa visit is Saturday, Dec. 5, from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. on the first floor of the Merrick Golf Course Clubhouse, 2550B Clubhouse Road. The listing says Santa arrives by fire truck, with candy and hot chocolate waiting. The next evening, Sunday, Dec. 6, the Chamber's annual Menorah and Christmas Tree lighting runs from 5 to 6 p.m. at the gazebo at Merrick Avenue and Broadcast Plaza, with refreshments.
You can plan the season as one sequence. Bring your pumpkins to North Merrick on Nov. 8. Do your gift shopping at the Handmade Market on Nov. 21 and get a weekday cortado another time. Spend the first weekend of December at the clubhouse and the gazebo. Then wrap up with the Paumanok Stompers back at Merrick Library on Dec. 13. Event details can change, so confirm times with each library or the Chamber before you go.
At Leatherman Homes, we keep track of how Merrick actually spends its weekends, from the compost bins in North Merrick to the gazebo on Merrick Avenue, because that daily rhythm is part of what we explain to clients who are thinking about buying or selling here. If you're weighing a move within Merrick, or just want to know which side of the hamlet suits your Saturdays, Let's Talk.
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