Grocery News
Berkley's Market closes 2 Dallas locations in urban neighborhoods
Berkley's Market on Knox Street will remain open.
A small Dallas grocery chain is doing some readjusting: Berkley's Market, an ambitious upscale market and cafe with four locations, closed two of those locations on September 25, both in high-profile walkable neighborhoods.
The locations that closed were downtown Dallas at 1800 Main St. and Oak Cliff at 634 W. Davis St. An upbeat notice posted on the door said that Berkley's was moving to a new location in the coming weeks, and thanked customers for their support. "This is not goodbye, it's see you again real soon," the note said.
In a statement, owner Zac Porter said that the closures were sad but that the chain was also working on some new locations as well.
"In a step toward this strategic expansion, we have closed our stores in Oak Cliff and on Main Street to consolidate and reposition our operations in more central and convenient locations for our customers," Porter said. "While we're very sad to close stores where we've built so many great relationships with customers over the years, our upcoming location will improve our reach and allow us to better serve even more of the Dallas community."
Porter opened the downtown location in 2018 with a goal to add density, vitality, street amenities, and convenience for workers and residents downtown. The store was as centrally located as you could get: across the street from Neiman Marcus and with multiple residential buildings and hotels nearby.
The Oak Cliff store opened in 2022 in the long-vacant Bolsa Mercado space, where it featured its trademark combination of supermarket staples and gourmet goods, plus prepared foods, a wine department & bar, and a coffee shop with espresso drinks. They also converted the rear of the building into a catering kitchen that would have the capacity to make more prepared foods as the chain grew.
Berkley's started out as a Dallas offshoot of Royal Blue Grocery, an approachable gourmet grocery from Austin, and made its debut in Highland Park Village in 2015, as a combination coffee shop, grab-and-go and small grocery developing a following for its laid-back neighborhood charm and high-and-low collection of goods, from basics like toilet paper to fancy $8 boxes of crackers.
The closures represent a big loss for the neighborhoods, even if neither location seemed to have a population that supported the stores.
Berkley's now has two locations: a smaller downtown location in the Trammell Crow Center at 2001 Ross Ave.; and a bustling flagship location at 3300 Knox St. which opened in 2022 in a 5,000-square-foot space that was previously Into the Garden.
And apparently more to come.
Mural on the wall at Belle Vie Bistro RockwallFacebook