A familiar Dallas bookstore is getting a little bigger and taking over a space that was once home to a neighborhood restaurant.
Wild Detectives has opened a second location just down the street from its original bookstore in the Bishop Arts District in Dallas. The new space, called Wild Detectives -- Ideas, occupies the former Sketches of Spain restaurant.
Owner Javier Garcia Del Moral Diaz said the bookstore quietly opened the new location Sept. 11, with little promotion. The team wanted to give the space time to take shape before inviting a larger crowd.
“We really wanted to do is just to get it open and have just random people coming through,” Garcia Del Moral Diaz said. “Just to get a little bit used to the dynamics of the space, but without really expecting a lot of people or creating expectations... honestly we made the decision about 24 hours before.”
The idea for a second space came together relatively quickly. Garcia Del Moral Diaz said he and his wife began seriously discussing an expansion in March, and the new store opened about six months later.
But the decision wasn't simply about getting more room.
Wild Detectives’ original location had become increasingly limited in what it could accommodate, Garcia Del Moral Diaz said. The bookstore was hosting events and wanted to expand its programming and selection of books, but there wasn't enough space to do everything.
At the same time, Garcia Del Moral Diaz said he noticed changes in what customers were reading.
As political polarization and other social changes have unfolded across the country, he said some customers have turned toward nonfiction, looking for data and explanations to make sense of the world. That observation helped shape the new store.
The original Wild Detectives – Stories will continue to focus on fiction, while Wild Detectives -- Ideas will emphasize nonfiction.
For Garcia Del Moral Diaz, the new location is an opportunity to rethink what a bookstore can be. Not simply a place to buy books, but a space for food, conversation, events and, potentially, making sense of a complicated moment.
“We have a lot of inspiration in bookstores in Barcelona,” he said, “because they are really making very cool spaces with sometimes big limitations, and some others not so much, but still very nice spaces that they're bookstores, but they go a little beyond that.”
The new location also expands on something customers already associate with Wild Detectives: food and drink.
Unlike the original store, the new space has a full kitchen. The chef from Sketches of Spain, Garcia Del Moral Diaz's friend Inaki Betran, is part of the new project and will oversee a more extensive daytime food menu.
The menu won't replicate the Spanish restaurant that previously occupied the space. Instead, Garcia Del Moral Diaz said the kitchen will offer breakfast and lunch options, creating a more substantial daytime offering than what's available at the original Wild Detectives.
At night, the space will retain the bookstore's familiar bar and books atmosphere. By the time Sketches of Spain closed, work on the new bookstore was already underway.
“We've been in the neighborhood for a while,” Garcia Del Moral Diaz said. “We already know who we're working with, we all know each other, and that simplifies things.”
The bookstore plans to celebrate the new location with an opening weekend Oct. 2-4. During the weekend, Wild Detectives will hold their usual “Happy Book Hour” promotion all-day. Customers who buy a book will receive a drink on the house.
The store will also host events connected to the Hay Festival link later in October.
Wild Detectives Ideas is now open in the former Sketches of Spain space, a short walk from the original Wild Detectives.
DETAILS: Wild Detectives- Ideas, 321 N Zang Blvd, Dallas, TX; Wild Detectives - Stories, 314 W Eighth St, Dallas, TX
