Downtown Dallas Finally Gets its First Grocery Store: Trendy Texas Favorite Brings Austin Cred, Gives the Neighborhood Something Besides 7-Eleven
BY Natalie Gempel // 08.01.18Downtown Dallas has experienced a true renaissance over the past couple years with the revamp of The Adolphus, the reopening of The Statler, and the addition of foodie hotspots like Bullion and Mirador. Yet, up until now, there was still one crucial element missing from the downtown landscape: a grocery store.
Luckily, city dwellers will no longer be faced with the choice between trekking to Uptown or searching for produce at 7-Eleven.
Royal Blue Grocery has officially opened its second Dallas location at 1800 Main Street. The compact grocery store is providing downtown with fresh coffee, produce, groceries, household supplies, grab-and-go meals and more.
It’s Royal Blue’s eighth location overall, including six stores in Austin and one in Highland Park Village, which opened three years ago.
“We started looking in downtown first actually, before we opened in Park Cities,” explains co-owner Zac Porter.
With all the recent growth in the neighborhood, Porter and co-owner Cullen Potts decided to revisit the idea of a downtown store.
“We felt like now the timing was right and the neighborhood was in need,” Porter says. “It’s been really rewarding in these first few days to have customers come in and say, ‘I’ve lived downtown for six years and I’ve been waiting for this day.’
“They’re super excited just to get fresh produce, because before they were buying bananas and apples at 7-Eleven.”
The downtown store isn’t much larger than a convenience store, but it does everything a conventional grocery store does on a smaller scale. There’s a limited yet substantial selection of produce, dry goods, frozen foods, and ready-to-eat items from both big name brands and local businesses.
Having opened less than a week ago, the store is only partially stocked; Royal Blue will build its inventory based on the needs and requests of its regulars.
“It’s our mission to carry what the neighborhood wants, so we stock the store with what we think the neighborhood is going to be looking for, but we keep request books at every register,” Porter says.
In addition to bringing Downtown Dallas its first grocer, Royal Blue is also adding another fast-casual dining option to the ‘hood. The shop serves Stumptown Coffee, sandwiches made with bread from Empire Baking Co., pastries from Bisou Bisou, Tacodeli breakfast tacos, and more.