Drinking News

Meow Wolf in Grapevine to open new interactive bar experience

The new Prime Materia at Meow Wolf Grapevine offers special drinks and a deeper level of storytelling

Photo by Imani Thomas

Immersive art museum Meow Wolf Grapevine is adding some high-tech sips via Prime Materia, a new in-house bar with drinks, snacks, and interactive art.

Set to open on Friday, June 20, Prime Materia will be equal parts cocktail bar, snack station, and interactive installation, bringing together those in search of a drink with those in search of an art experience, to uncover secrets through custom drink recipes, environmental details, and conversations with mixologists.

This new space will operate within the facility's current installation The Real Unreal, blending one-of-a-kind drinks and immersive art. Designed for all ages, it offers a new way to explore and interact at Meow Wolf Grapevine, says general manager Jamie Weaver-Garia.

"Introducing our first in-exhibition bar allows us to expand how guests engage with The Real Unreal while offering something truly unique to the Dallas-Fort Worth area," Weaver-Garia says.

The new area will be in the tucked-away zone of Lamp Shop Alley within the Meow Wolf Grapevine exhibition. Cocktails and non-alcoholic elixirs will feature names like the Overclocked Margarita, Elderberry Gin Potion, and Cold Brew Tincture.

Light bites will include pretzel bits and popcorn in the varieties of Popped Pixels and colorful Kernel Panic, provided by local vendors, with special souvenir gifts for guests who want their drinks with extra flair.

The space will allow visitors to enjoy a deeper layer of storytelling with lore-infused elixirs, snackable curiosities, and a cast of high-tech bartenders known as the Gizmo_Mancers — alchemical technologists who have mastered the art of brewing drinks from digital code.

While Prime Materia features a menu of cocktails for those 21 and up, the bar is also stocked with non-alcoholic mocktails, snacks, and interactive art elements for guests of all ages.

Access to Prime Materia is only available with admission to The Real Unreal. Tickets for Meow Wolf Grapevine are available at meowwolf.com/tickets.

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Book News

Barnes & Noble to open 2 new Dallas-area stores but will close Plano

Barnes & Noble

Barnes & Noble, new look.

There's good news and bad on the bookstore front: Two new locations of bookstore chain Barnes & Noble are opening in the Dallas area, one soon and one very soon, but a third is closing this week.

Closing
The store in Plano at 801 W. 15th St. is closing on Sunday, June 15. According to a company representative, the Plano store is an older, larger store model that the chain is turning away from, in favor of a new smaller model it's embracing for all new stores.

It also has three other locations within close proximity: West Plano, Allen, and Richardson.

Other DFW stores that still have that similar larger/older floorplan include Preston & Park in Plano; Prestonwood Center in North Dallas, and Lincoln Park in Dallas across from Northpark Center.

Opening
There are two new stores opening in summer/fall:

Rockwall, at 1009 E I-30, will open in late summer.
Prosper, at 1191 Gates Pkwy., in the newly developed Gates of Prosper, will open in the fall.

According to a spokesperson, the new Rockwall store will follow the chain's new design seen in their most recent store openings, featuring "all the best books, toys, games, vinyl, and gifts our customers have come to expect." It will also house a B&N Café.

The store is approximately 20,000 square feet and will be located in the space formerly occupied by Staples, which closed in January 2025.

The store in Prosper will be nearly 20,000 square feet and is anticipated to feature the same model and selection as the Rockwall store, including a B&N Café.

In August 2019, Barnes & Noble was acquired by Elliott Advisors (UK) and taken private. Elliott’s acquisition of Barnes & Noble followed its June 2018 acquisition of Waterstones, the largest bookseller in the U.K.

Barnes & Noble is experiencing a period of growth, the result of a strategy to hand over control of each bookstore to its manager. They're enjoying strong sales and have opened many new stores after 15-plus years of declining store numbers. In 2022, they opened more new bookstores in a single year than in the entire decade from 2009 to 2019.

They've continued to open more locations, including three in the DFW area in 2024: a store in Allen as well as stores in Flower Mound and Richardson — part of a wave of store openings that show the chain in the midst of a major comeback.

Barnes & Noble, Inc. is the largest retail bookseller in the United States. The company has more than 630 bookstores across the U.S., as well as its online bookstore at bn.com, the Nook Digital business which offers both e-books and an audio book subscriptions service, the SparkNotes educational service, stationery and gift retailer Paper Source, and the publisher Union Square & Co.

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