True that Node.JS didn't have, and still doesn't have a 2 liner to pop an sqlite db. But what it did have(a few years after its launch) was a pure-JS sqlite client which can leverage V8's event loop and libuv to make parallel execution of db-queries a trivial operation.
There is a lot of mettle in Node.js for server side programming.
There is a lot of mettle in Node.js for server side programming.
PS: have you looked at TypeORM(http://typeorm.io/)