Several months into the opening of Barnes & Noble Kitchen, the bookstore’s rebranding, the Eastchester location has already built up a loyal customer base.
along with their meal. Photo/Jen Parente
Included in the 22,000-square-foot bookstore, the third of its kind, is a 2,600-square-foot kitchen. The new store provides one convenient location for shoppers to enjoy a new book along with their breakfast, lunch or dinner.
“The reception [for the kitchen] has been exceptional,” said Amy Gautreau, community relations business development manager for Barnes & Noble. “Once [customers have] tried it, they come back again and again.”
The latest Barnes & Noble Kitchen launched in November 2016 in the Vernon Hills Shopping Center.
The bookstore’s sit-down restaurant serves breakfast until noon, and lunch, dinner and dessert all day.
On the menu are dishes including lemon-ricotta pancakes, chicken Caesar salad and brick-cooked chicken.
There are also gluten free options like the guacamole without chips, hummus and plancha-cooked salmon.
The restaurant also offers the “Kids’ Kitchen” menu with entrees and drinks available for children.
The menu was put together by Sheamus Feeley, executive chef consultant and operating partner at The Bransetter Group, a hospitality consulting business that has partnered with Barnes & Noble. Feeley has worked in the restaurant business for more than 20 years.
Along with food, the restaurant also serves 23 types of wine, champagne, and six types of draft beer. Each Barnes & Noble Kitchens’ beer selection is local to the restaurant’s location.
The restaurant can hold more than 80 people and provides indoor seating, a coffee bar, and an outdoor dining patio which opened at the end of April.
Gautreau explained that there are plans to open more Barnes & Noble concept stores, “which will always include Barnes & Noble Kitchens.”
