Dress like a Roy on Newbury Street, or find a good Side Quest in Somerville’s Union Square

Somerville’s Bow Market is now home to fairies, wizards, and dragons — or at least, books about them.

Caroline Sheridan opened Side Quest Books & Games a month ago, selling magical novels, role playing games, and nerdy miscellany. The 530-square-foot space is a haven for fantasy die-hards, complete with a monthly book club, events (“witchcraft cinema” and a “cozy hour” among them), and the chance to rent the store and its professional Wyrmwood gaming table.

“Fantasy hasn’t always been the most accessible and open space, but that’s changing,” Sheridan said. “A while ago, I began to feel like there was a community of nerds waiting for a third space. I thought I could create that space.”

The COVID-19 pandemic pushed new readers towards the escapist pleasures of fantasy. Then TikTok’s literary enclave, “BookTok,” fostered a love for “cozy fantasy” and “romantasy” books. Now many authors are penning fantasy in expanding subgenres, including urban fantasy and magical realism, and setting stories in places, like Asia and Africa, that were long overlooked for sorcery.

“There are a lot of tropes that can feel intimidating and othering to beginning fantasy readers, and the publishing world is still incredibly difficult for authors of color,” Sheridan said. “But more people think maps at the start of the book are fun now.”

Sheridan is doing her part to diversify the space. She handles all of the ordering for Side Quest, handpicking books by independent authors in New England and beyond. The games for sale are created by two indie gaming companies, Indie Press Revolution and Heart of the Deernicorn, and some have taken off after the popularity of the newest edition of Dungeons & Dragons, a tabletop role-playing game of adventuring and monster-slaying.

It’s in that imaginative world that Sheridan feels most at home. Side Quest marks her first move away from her day job as a database designer into “something that’s much more me.” She long lived a few blocks from Bow Market and began debuting her business at pop-ups in coffee shops and breweries last year, sometimes with her two-year-old in tow.

The Bow Market location reflects her favorite places to read: small, warmly lit, and populated with dark and moody pieces. The store is scattered with Persian-style rugs and thrifted furniture Sheridan chose (“I drove the length of Massachusetts multiple times looking for everything,” she joked). On one table sits a 1920s microscope that once belonged to Sheridan’s great-great-aunt.

It’s an effort to differentiate herself from the dozens of competitors in Greater Boston, which saw a veritable boom in bookstore openings after 2020. Side Quests follows the opening of Narrative, another women-owned outpost in Somerville, Beacon Hill’s cat-friendly A Sanctuary Cafe, and justBook-ish in Fields Corner, co-owned by Boston’s last poet laureate, Porsha Olayiwola.

“Seeing what Caroline achieved in our tiny popup space makes us excited for what she’ll do in a permanent space three times the size,” said Zach Baum, co-owner of Bow Market. “Her products and her connection to the community are going to be an incredible addition to our collection of businesses.”

Nagomi Bento, a Japanese bento box maker, and the sustainable goods store Green Tiger & Co. also recently launched at Bow Market, which ishome to more than 30 businesses.

www.sidequestbooks.com; 1 bow market way, Somerville

A decade ago, Michael Berkowitz identified a problem: The Italian cashmere he wore to work as a commodities trader did little to protect him from the New York City winters, and the giant puffers that kept him warm were too shabby for the boardroom. “My nice coats weren’t warm, or my warm coats weren’t nice,” Berkowitz said. “They weren’t something you’d be excited to be seen in on a date or job interview.”

Thus began Norwegian Wool, a New York-based outerwear brand that captures all the elements of “quiet luxury” — simple, elegant, and unidentifiable — and has recently expanded to Newbury Street.

Its coats, which start at $1,095 online, are stitched with Italian craftsmanship, but borrow the minimalist aesthetics of Scandinavian design. Think neutral colors, clean lines, and muted hues from the Nordic landscape. It comes together to prove that “there’s no such thing as bad weather,” Berkowitz said. “Just bad clothing.”

Norwegian Wool has exploded in popularity since its 2014 launch. Berkowitz sold roughly 200 pieces his first year. Now the coats are sold in over 50 countries and are often seen on celebrities and prime-time television. The brand even got name-checked in season three of the ever-stylish HBO drama “Succession,” when Conner refuses to check his coat at Kendall’s birthday party. “I don’t trust those things,” he says. “I lost a ‘Norwegian Wool’ in a fusion restaurant in Vancouver.”

After that, Berkowitz remembered: “My phone is blowing up. Everyone was following up on Instagram.” Later, he helped lay out clothes for the show.

The Boston store is the company’s only permanent outpost outside of Manhattan, though it has an ongoing pop-up in Paris. Its mezzanine-level location in a Newbury Street townhouse feels like proof to Berkowitz that the company has succeeded despite naysayers’ criticisms.

“You need an outsider to solve this problem,” he said. “Fashion brands want to be different and provocative. They want the runways. But everyday people — they want to feel like they’re in sweatpants even if they’re not. And that is luxury: comfort.”

www.norwegian-wool.com; 175 Newbury Street, Boston

A developer looking to revamp Beachmont Square will open a female-owned nanobrewery, Twisted Fate, by the Blue Line station there next spring.

It’ll be one of many soon-to-launch businesses in Suffolk Downs, the expansive residential project that straddles Revere and East Boston. Planning to overtake a ground-floor space in the new Amaya apartment building, Twisted Fate serve “a diverse selection of craft beers, ranging from the refreshing tastes of their lagering programs to the hoppy depths of their New England IPAs, to the rich warmth of their year-round stouts,” according to a press release.

The Revere outpost will be Twisted Fate’s second location after their original in Danvers.

“Twisted Fate’s commitment to quality and community aligns perfectly with our vision for Suffolk Downs as a vibrant, dynamic hub, and their taproom at Amaya will further enhance the Beachmont Square neighborhood,” said Thomas O’Brien, managing partner of Suffolk Downs developer, HYM Investment Group, in a statement.

Diti Kohli can be reached at diti.kohli@globe.com. Follow her @ditikohli_.