aftersun, TROY — A QUIETER NEXT ACT FOR JOHN NAUGHTER
For some years, the upstairs apartment above Collar City Guitar Shop was home to John Naughter, the chef, restaurateur + creative mind behind late-night Industry Eggplant followed by the artsy Naughter’s diner, both in Troy. Now, having reduced the late night hours to the civilized daytime hours of most breakfast spots, Naughter has quietly transformed the former Guitar Shop at the corner or Fourth and Division into aftersun, a reading room, used bookstore, and video cassette library.
Editor Susie Davidson Powell drops in to chat.
INTEL: aftersun is the quiet second act from John Naughter, creator of the popular eponymous Troy diner, Naughter’s, and Industry Eggplant. Part reading room, part bookstore, aftersun is as analog as it gets.
The Dishing Editor Susie Davidson Powell drops by for a chat.
Interview: Susie Davidson Powell
Photos: Mise en frame / The Dishing
October 2026
aftersun — used bookstore/reading room 199 Fourth Street, Troy | aftersunbooks.com |
I have been watching and waiting for months at this point. Early in 2026, on a side quest to speak with John Naughter, he suggested we meet in the former Collar City Guitar Shop in Troy which he had under construction for a new project, a bookstore. Naughter who, for those who know him, is famously averse to social media or almost any online presence, has upped the ante after removing his existing business, Naughter’s, from social media and essentially moving himself offline. Now rocking with a non-smart flip phone and preferring email to text, Naughter’s new project is entirely analog. — SDP
REVIEW
Anchoring the corner of Fourth and Division in Troy, with a large Collar City Guitars mural on the Division Street wall, and a sandwich board out front, there is little other indication that this is not, in fact, a guitar shop. Enter aftersun, admiring the metal sculptures in the window, and you’ll encounter front walls lined with cards (for you to write in your bet penmanship), self-published books by local artists, writers and poets, (I picked up a copy of Feral Hues: A guide to painting with weeds by artist Ellie Irons), and racks of neatly organized used books. A retro TV and VCR stacked on top of the large drinks fridge is your first clue to a clue to an adjacent room jammed with video cassettes and DVDs in what feels like a logical extension of the tape cassette wall at Naughter’s diner. Just being around VCR tapes organized by genre is nostalgic for anyone who remembers trip to Blockbuster Video and carrying precious cargo home for movie nights.
This is all before you head up to the second floor into what for many years was Naughter’s own apartment, shared with his dog, Roony, your chief greeter at aftersun. Now, renovated into living room-meets-library space with vintage pink velvet sofas and chairs, reading nooks and walls of used books—including an excellent used cookbook section—Naughter’s intentional return to a more tactile, analog pace of life is on full display. And even that is reminiscent of hours spent at Borders or Barnes & Noble in the oughts, reading books we had no intention to buy.
aftersun goes beyond the material. As a reading room, Naughter welcomes the lingerer who orders a simple mug of coffee or grabs a Yesfolk kombucha from the fridge, but discourages laptops or the idea of aftersun as workspace. After years running the pandemic-born, after-hours Industry Eggplant, followed by all-hours Naughter’s, a diner with hours as late as 3 a.m. and as early as 7 a.m.—(and IMHO the best omelette upstate)—Naughter seems apathetic towards rat-race hustle. His diner now operates on the reduced and more typical hours of 7 a.m. to 3 p.m., while aftersun is open Wednesday to Saturday from 4 to 9 p.m., a window when you’ll find Naughter onsite with a mug in hand, reading or organizing new acquisitions. He buys books on Wednesdays from 5 to 8 p.m. or by appointment.
Once a month, drop in for a potluck Sunday supper club, where guests are asked to read something—and that means anything from book jackets to the back of a medicine bottle! A chalk board shows upcoming events from a Thursday drawing night to a foliage library pop up. None posted online. A basic website has only essentials: the address and hours.
I’m struck by the way Naughter is not only creating but embodying something slow, in-person and unapologetically authentic to his state of mind. Drop in when you can— but power down your devices.
INTERVIEW — October 2026
SDP: John, we’ve chatted many times from your opening of the late night Industry Eggplant during the pandemic to the opening of Naughter’s, but in the last two years I have watched you dial your social media footprint back to almost zero. What led you to this + the analog mood of aftersun?
JN: My antipathy to phones and the Internet seems to growing by the day. I’m transitioning back to a dumb flip-phone. Diving into the world of books has been very satisfying and I'll probably wind down the diner soon to focus full -time on the bookstore.
SDP: As a reading room, aftersun feels like an extension of where you stand. Early on you told me you didn’t really want it to be a place where people were working on laptops, but a place to rest and read. Was that focus built in to the space?
JN: At this point in time I’ll simply let the physical space speak for itself… I try my best to comment as little as possible online. For now, I delight in the mystery and slight confusion of people wandering by expecting a guitar shop only to find two floors of used books. And tracing the word of mouth to how people discover the shop is also very interesting. At the end of the day, I have only gratitude for the chance to carve out a living running my own show and serving the public. Eventually I will have a sign hanging over the corner at the bookstore and I'll invest more energy into marketing the business.
SDP: When you first opened Naughter’s with its sparkly green booths and red leather diner stools, much of the appeal were the super late hours and early mornings. You’ve had some of the same crew there since the beginning like Chef Bryan Charbonneau. Is it bittersweet cutting back to more traditional daytime diner hours?
JN: I'm not sure if you saw but my landlord listed the building for sale. February 14 is our 5th birthday at Naughter's. You know as well as anyone how tough the business is… [so] I find it a remarkable situation that I still have my original two employees in Chefs Ryan and Justin working there. With a chance for us to end what we started together, all on the same page and together, it feels like a rare opportunity to go out on our own terms.
SDP: I know you have the monthly supper club and a drawing night. Do you envision hosting more events?
JN: I'd like to do more events and invest in the space at the bookstore. My landlords that own Collar City Guitar are simply the best and have gone out of their way to make that bookstore a reality for me. I will be in Troy hopefully for decades to come running some kind of small business.
