Barnes & Noble to bring books — and beer and food — to Plano
In downtown Fort Worth, Barnes & Noble Booksellers closed a couple of years ago and was replaced by Cheesecake Factory, a restaurant that sells beer, wine and other beverages.
In Plano, Barnes & Noble will add a bookstore that will include a restaurant that sells beer and wine. Unclear if it will sell cheesecake, but hey, it’s a 9,000-square-foot bookstore with a restaurant in it.
The new “concept store” will be at Legacy West, which announced the addition Wednesday afternoon. As reported by Fortune and others, Barnes & Noble announced plans for the concept stores earlier this year. This one, scheduled to open in March 2017, is the fifth such store to be announced and the first in the southwest.
Although most Barnes & Nobles feature coffee bars that sell Starbucks products as well as food, both sweet and savory, the “concept stores” will have expanded menus and the notable additions of the beer and the wine. The move is seen as a way of taking on online retailers such as Amazon.com by enticing people to come back into bookstores for other socializing reasons besides, you know, books. There are indications that there will be author events in the store.
“Having a new Barnes & Noble concept store join Legacy West is a huge win,” Legacy West developer Fehmi Karahan says in a release. “It provides the community a unique experience where people can relax, discover great new books, or meet a friend to listen to an author speak and have a glass of wine.”
None of the stores is open yet. Fortune reported that the first one is scheduled to open in October in Eastchester, N.Y., about 30 miles north of New York City, in October “and have amenities like a fire pit and bocce court.” The three other stores will be in the Galleria Edina in Edina, Minn.; the Palladio at Broadstone mall in Folsom, Calif.; and One Loudoun, a mixed-use community in Loudoun County, Va., Fortune reported.
At the end of 2013, Barnes & Noble closed stores in Fort Worth’s Sundance Square and in the University Plaza shopping center. The TCU bookstore, which was once affiliated with Barnes & Noble, ended that relationship this year. One Barnes & Noble remains in Fort Worth, in the Hulen Center at 4801 Overton Ridge Blvd. in the southwest part of the city.
In Tarrant County, there are also stores at the Parks at Arlington, in Southlake Town Square and near North East Mall.
This is the second big restaurant score for Legacy West in August: On Aug. 12, Dean & DeLuca announced that its first Texas location would be at the center. Legacy West is near the interchange of the Dallas North Tollway and Legacy Drive in Plano.
This story was originally published August 31, 2016 at 5:42 PM with the headline "Barnes & Noble to bring books — and beer and food — to Plano."