Dec 30, 2008
Urban Grocery – An Austin Example
By: Kevin Buchanan
Over the holidays, Fort Worthology took a car-free, totally transit-and-walking-based vacation to our nation…err, state’s capitol, and I’m putting together some posts based on some of the transit and urbanism that we experienced. One thing that Austin’s got in spades that a lot of people around urban Fort Worth have been pining for are urban grocery stores.
Downtown Austin has, of course, a full Whole Foods, in the ground floor of the Whole Foods headquarters building. It’s an impressive store, managing to cram a very complete and full-range Whole Foods into a (mostly) urban form in a rapidly redeveloping neighborhood. I’ll show some photos of the downtown Whole Foods later, but for now I’d like to turn my attention to an even cooler local establishment: Royal Blue Grocery.
Royal Blue is what many of us dream of when we picture a neighborhood-scaled urban grocery store. It’s small, it fits into a ground-floor retail space, it doesn’t have a parking lot out front, it features some name brands and an extensive selection of local goods, it has a full range of products (in other words, it’s not just a glorified convenience store), and it’s an integral part of its neighborhood. The shopkeepers seem to know everybody who comes in the door, and there’s even a notebook at the front counter for neighborhood residents to give requests for items.
Considering that Royal Blue is probably not much larger than 600-700 square feet, it’s remarkable how much grocery goodness they’ve been able to pack into the small store. Here’s some more photos from inside:
There’s currently one Royal Blue open, at the corner of 3rd & Lavaca in the bustling, impressive 2nd Street District, in the ground floor of the AMLI Downtown building. Royal Blue has been doing so well, though, that they’re expanding – a second Royal Blue is opening just blocks away, in the ground floor of the 360 Condominiums tower, at the edge of both the 2nd Street District and the West End and Market Districts, just across the street from Lance Armstrong’s bike shop, Mellow Johnny’s. Royal Blue’s hours are also great – they’re open from 7:00 AM to midnight, seven days a week.
Royal Blue is an impressive achievement and Austin’s urban residents seem to have taken to the store. It’s a great model of the sort of compact, neighborhood-oriented urban grocery stores that a lot of us would love to see in Fort Worth’s own urban neighborhoods.
We were just talking about the need for a place (or two) like this in DTFW. Kevin, you must be reading my mind.
Austin. Texas’ own little slice of California, or so I imagine. Next time, if you feel like inviting some people along on your excursion, I’d like to be included. I’ll buy my own bus ticket and get my own room. =P
Have you been to the Roy Pope Grocery over off of Camp Bowie, just before it crosses under I20? It’s a free-standing store, but still counts as an urban grocery, as it’s right in the middle of a neighborhood. I used to walk there from my apartment just a couple blocks down. They have an excellent meat counter.
It would be interesting to know how many residential units and how many office employees are within 1/4 mile of the Royal Blue grocery. I have heard proponents of a downtown bodega/grocery in Fort Worth say that the residential critical mass isn’t sufficient, however I’m quite certain that Austin’s downtown does not have any pockets of residential density that exceeds that of Throckmorton between 3rd and 4th in Fort Worth. (about 420 units) plus an extremely dense daytime office population within 3-4 blocks. That is exciting to read that Royal Blue is a success story so far. I would love to understand why that has worked in spite of conventional wisdom.
I know it’s not exactly urban, but I went in the Braum’s on 8th Ave this morning for some breakfast. Their market is actually pretty impressive. It’s got all the staples of what one would need including a meat section. If you put it on Magnolia Ave and added a few more local items it would be perfect.
Off topic a bit Kevin, but I saw the Italian Brew Pub that was interested in going in next to Hot Damn Tamales now has a TABC notice in the old Gunn Cleaners on College and Magnolia. Hopefully they don’t get any opposition there and open up soon enough.
Off another topic, but for those that aren’t aware there’s now a bar in the T&P Building. It’s called the T&P Tavern and it’s in the patio space between the T&P Building and the hallway where people board the TRE. It can be a bit chilly this time of year but it’s going to be a great place in the spring and summer.
Urb – the Royal Blue in the 2nd Street District is in the ground floor of an AMLI development that has 220 apartments, and down the street is AMLI’s other 2nd Street development, AMLI on 2nd, with 231 units. There are two small office buildings (around 8 stories) in the district and Austin City Hall. The second Royal Blue going in at the 360 Condos tower will be on the ground floor of 430 residences. Apart from those developments, there are some other things several blocks away and some new stuff under construction that aren’t occupied yet.
Clearly, there is something about that approx. 450 residents in close proximity that enables Royal Blue to work, and as more infill is built they’ll be in even better shape. Between The Tower, Sundance West, and Sanger Lofts, there are around 430 units, and more within a pretty easy walk (and an even easier future streetcar ride).
I am a downtown T&P resident and I am So Jealous of this store!!!
I am a Fairmount resident and I am soooo freakin’ jealous of this store! I would like to see stats of how many residents we have in Fairmount and Ryan Place. Surely that alone would be enough to justify an urban grocer on Magnolia or Oleander.