Food + Home

Williams Sonoma cozies up to Dallas with new showpiece store

Williams Sonoma is opening a new store.

Photo courtesy of Williams Sonoma

Williams Sonoma is opening a new dual-concept store at NorthPark Center, which will combine artisanal items that are local to Dallas, as well as a touch-and-see display of its line of home furnishings.

The store will offer the Williams Sonoma kitchen and food products that are already available in its current store, in addition to an assortment of food from local businesses. The store will also incorporate display pieces from the Williams Sonoma Home furnishings line.

A Williams Sonoma spokesman says that the dual-concept store includes some of the company's home products, so that customers can see the line in person.

"It's something we've started to do in the past few years at stores that are performing especially well, like the store at Northpark Center," the spokesman says. "Customers who are considering buying one of our items online can see it on the floor before they order."

Williams Sonoma Home started in 2004 as an extension of the Williams Sonoma lifestyle, offering furnishings for every room in the home. Known for authentic craftsmanship, superior quality, and enduring design, Williams Sonoma Home has become a mainstay for consumers and design trade alike.

Products include furniture, decorative accessories, bedding, bath, pillows and throws, lighting, window treatments, and outdoor furnishings.

In addition to the home furnishings collection, the store is also stepping up its selection of locally made goods. The list is long and includes 44 Farms beef jerky, Cat Spring Yapon tea, and chocolates from Srsly Chocolate in Austin and Dude Sweet Chocolate in Dallas.

There'll be pickled veggies, apple butter, and jams from Yims Foods; honey from Stroope Honey Farms; salsas and sauces from Salsa Maya and from Leaning R; and a chimichurri from Gypsy Grove Foods.

But wait, there's more: coffee from Cuvee Coffee, peppers from Humble House, toffee from Texas Toffee Queen, pickles from Pogue Mahone, and jellies from the Jelly Queens. There's even more.

The new store is 10,000 square feet and will go into the space previously occupied by Anthropologie, which itself moved into a new space near La Madeleine.

Opening is May 12, and the transition from the old store to the new will be seamless. To celebrate, the store will be hosting some events including a Trick Dog Pop Up and a mezcal tasting bar at 7 pm. A weekend of events will follow including a juniors cooking class and a Mother's Day tea event with Fortum & Mason.

openings shopping

Kitchen News

Kitchen temple Sur La Table to close Knox Street Dallas location

Sur La Table

A longtime home cook favorite in Dallas' Knox Street district is closing: Sur La Table, the nationwide specialty retailer of cookware, kitchen electrics, and bakeware, will close its location at 4525 Cole St. at the end of January.

According to a spokesperson, the location is permanently closing on January 25.

Sales at the store have already begun, with 30 percent off everything in the store.

Sur La Table opened their first store in Seattle's Pike Place Market in 1972. From the beginning, their founder Shirley Collins partnered with the world’s best chefs and kitchen brands to bring customers trusted tools to make delicious memories.

Their in-house chefs teach 60,000 cooking classes a year to more than 700,000 people in kitchens and now online.

In addition to offering services like knife-sharpening, and selling gourmet goods which were not available elsewhere at the time, Sur La Table has played host to many chefs and cookbook authors over the years.

They were a "foodie" presence before there was such a thing when they first came to Dallas in 1998, opening off Knox Street, back when it was still a darling collection of shops and not the overdeveloped high-rise hell it is today.

It's tempting to blame the closure on factors such as online shopping; and Sur La Table did go through a pandemic-induced bankruptcy in 2020 when it closed nearly half of its stores.

However, the store's fortunes were not helped when it was forced to depart its original eccentric location at 4527 Travis St. for an invisible storefront on Cole Street, in order to make room for the Knox Hotel and Residences, a 140-room hotel managed by Auberge Resorts Collection, plus 48 ultra-luxury condominiums.

There are two other Sur La Table locations in the DFW area including Preston Royal which opened in 2017, and Southlake which opened in 2015, both of which will remain open. Two other locations — in Fort Worth at the Waterside shopping center, and Plano at Lakeside Village — closed in 2020.