Sundance Square gets In the Sack, food and wine delivery, to replace Oliver’s

April 25,2017

By Bud Kennedy

In the Sack, a Dallas sandwich shop with gourmet wines and liquors known for free delivery, is replacing Oliver’s Fine Foods in Sundance Square.

The market offers a “unique delivery concept allowing residents to bypass the grocery store,” Sundance Square executive Johnny Campbell said in a prepared release.

The Fort Worth location will include cooked-to-order items, farm-fresh foods and a catering menu, Campbell said.

In a statement, In the Sack founder Devin Cox said Sundance fits the company’s plan to “provide added convenience to an urban lifestyle.”

Oliver’s closed its downtown Fort Worth location Tuesday, less than three weeks after a larger supermarket opened along West Seventh Street.

Oliver’s original Mansfield location will remain open, and catering business will continue, workers said.

When Oliver’s opened in late 2011 in Sundance Square’s Sanger Lofts building, it was billed as the long-awaited downtown grocery store and gourmet foods shop. But it became best known as a breakfast and sandwich deli.

Shelves of the 6,600-square-foot store were nearly bare late Tuesday, and workers gave away remaining pieces of red velvet cake or tres leches cake.

Oliver’s opened to meet the needs of the then-900 downtown residents, Sundance Square officials said at the time.

Now, downtown has about 2,400 households, according to a Downtown Fort Worth Inc. survey, and a new Tom Thumb Food & Pharmacy store across the West Seventh Street bridge, along with bus service to the nearby Super Target in Montgomery Plaza. A CVS Pharmacy with food items is also projected downtown.

Grocery delivery is also widely available from several stores, and Amazon.com offers same-day and sometimes faster delivery in downtown Fort Worth.

A DFW.com review in 2012 described Oliver’s as “an inviting space — contemporary and brightly lit, with warm wood tables and rows and rows of wine bottles, and shelves stocked with gourmet goodies. It feels a bit like an Eatzi’s or a Dean & DeLuca, giving downtown a buzzy, urban vibe.”

Ironically, Eatzi’s will open this month in University Park Village, and Dean & DeLuca now sponsors the annual pro golf tournament stop in Fort Worth. A Dean & DeLuca will open later this year in Plano, and officials have expressed interest in a Fort Worth location without naming a specific neighborhood.