Bird's Might Already Be The City's Best Book Shop

Most of our favorite bookstores are barely still standing. For some reason, when it comes to art, there’s a certain appreciation that comes with something being decrepit or unkempt, intentionally or not. We’re charmed by the yellowing pages, dusty shelves, creaky floors and that unmistakable scent of oldness, even if we’d be repulsed by all of those in any other context.

It’s weird, it doesn’t make sense, and you can still expect us to be at one of those stores tonight after work. All that to say, though, when a store like Bird’s Bookstore comes around, it stands out like a chic thumb in a sea of aging bookshops.

Opened by married couple Drew and Emily Dawson, the all-encompassing bookstore (6025 Royal Ln. Ste 207) moved into the shopping center at Preston Royal, just a few doors down from Eatzi’s. Based on some teaser photos on Instagram, we could tell this store would bring a more polished addition to the bookstore lineup in Dallas, but a Friday afternoon stop at the shop’s soft opening left us totally blown away

Held over a whisper of a two-hour span, Bird’s opened its doors for the first time from 3-5 p.m. last Friday, offering Dallas the first look at what might be one of the city's very best bookstores.

The first thing we noticed was the design, a sleek wooden interior from the brains of Mary Bryan and Mary Lucille Quick, two halves of Dallas-based interior design firm, MMAISON. You enter a modest front counter area, which gives way to a small rotunda with six rows of shelves holding contemporary and classical fiction, all of which can be traversed with a wooden ladder — the library of your dream home come to life.

From there, you go straight through a hallway that features a small but staffed coffee and espresso bar to your right and a limited amount of lounge seating to your left, flanked by culinary books. The hallway connects to a larger, more traditional bookshop room in the back, which holds nonfiction, sports and graphic novel selections, among others.

Despite just being nestled away in an unassuming Preston Hollow shopping center, Bird’s feels like stepping into a billionaire’s private library, if only it somehow managed to remain warm, inviting and family-friendly all at the same time.

It’s not all just aesthetics; the inventory selection here is fantastic and well curated. We were drawn to a 100-year compilation of New Yorker short stories, the latest issue of Interview Magazine and Bryan Burrough’s Texas alt-history book, The Gunslingers. You could lose an entire weekend here, if time allowed. And soon it will.

Bird’s officially opens its doors this week for regular hours, and we’re already comfortable calling it one of the best bookstores in the city. The shop will be open from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday, 12 p.m. to 5 p.m. on Sunday, and closed on Monday.