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.

"Sur La Table has made the decision to close our Knox, Dallas location," their spokesperson said. "Since opening in 2016, it has been a privilege to serve the community surrounding our Knox store and deeply appreciate the support we've received over the years."

"Sur La Table is not currently planning to open any new locations in the area, we are still proudly serving the great city of Dallas and nearby Fort Worth with our Preston Royal and Southlake locations," they said.

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.

Closure news

Beloved Dallas retailer Weir’s Furniture to close after 78 years

Facebook/Weir's

Weir's Furniture is closing all locations.

Weir's Furniture, a family-owned company that has sold home furnishings to generations of North Texans since 1948, is closing the doors to all stores for good.

Going-out-of-business sales will begin Thursday, March 26, and the stores will close when all merchandise is sold - likely May or June, a spokesperson says. Weir's currently has four locations in Dallas-Fort Worth: on Travis Street in the Knox-Henderson neighborhood, in Farmers Branch, Plano, and Southlake.

Online retail operations will wind down, as well.

"Founded by J. Ray and Bea Weir with a single storefront on Knox Street in Dallas, Weir’s was built on a simple but enduring philosophy: honor God and serve people," says a release. "What began as a modest neighborhood store has since grown into four locations across the Dallas-Fort Worth area, grounded in unwavering commitments to courtesy, respect, integrity, and offering high-quality furniture at a fair price."

Al Boulden, Weir’s Chairman of the Board, says the decision to close after nearly eight decades was made only after exploring "all reasonable alternatives. They carefully evaluated the company's long-term financial position, difficult market conditions and operational challenges, he said, but ultimately they determined that Weir's could no longer continue to operate sustainably.

“This was an extremely difficult decision, but closing now enables us to honor J. Ray and Bea’s legacy by finishing well and taking care of our employees,” Boulden says in the release. “From the very beginning, Weir’s mission has been rooted in honoring God and serving our people.

"We are incredibly grateful to our customers, employees, and the broader community who have supported us for so many decades and made Weir’s a beloved retailer throughout North Texas.”

Weir's Furniture Plano The Weir's store in Plano.Photo courtesy of Weir's

Over the decades, Weir’s grew beyond a traditional furniture retailer into a retail institution in Dallas-Fort Worth, with ties to local charities, ministries, and schools. Its in-store “Country Store,” introduced in 1963, became a draw with its old-fashioned candy and inexpensive treats that appealed to generations.

Leadership of the company remained within the founding family for much of its history, passing from founder J. Ray Weir to his son Dan Weir in 1972, and later to nephew Mark Moore, who served as CEO until 2024 as the last family member in the top role.

The company also built a reputation for prioritizing relationships — from paying vendors promptly, even during challenging periods like the COVID-19 pandemic, to maintaining a workforce with unusually long tenures, with some employees staying for more than four decades.

“We’ve built generational relationships with both customers and employees,” Weir family member, current board member and former CEO Mark Moore says in the release. “While your patronage has sustained us, it has been your friendships, encouragement, and faith in our team that truly defined us. We are proud of what we created and thankful for every person who has walked through our doors.”

Closing sales will begin on March 26 and customers are encouraged to visit their local store while merchandise is still available, they say.

furniture closings