Dutton's and Diesel to Open Branches

by Bridget Kinsella, PW Daily for Booksellers -- Publishers Weekly, 5/12/2004

Two more bookstores are opening soon in California.

Dutton's Brentwood Books will open a store in Beverly Hills, called Dutton's Beverly Hills Books, in early September. For its part, Diesel, A Bookstore in Oakland started demolition on the interior of the store it plans to open this May in Malibu.

Both stores are opening in communities that have not had bookstores for about five years; for residents the new stores are a dream come true. "People are stopping by every day and saying, 'Is it really going to be a bookstore?' " said Diesel co-owner John Evans. "It's sweet, really."

Dutton's Beverly Hills is five years in the making. "The city approached us," said owner Doug Dutton. "This was a community that once supported a number of quality bookstores just 20 years ago. I remember going to Beverly Hills to go to bookstores." Still, he added, "We do this with a fair amount of high hopes and mixed trepidation."

Dutton's Beverly Hills Books will be 8,000 square feet, some 3,000 more than the original store in Brentwood. (Last year Dutton's opened a specialty kiosk in the new Walt Disney Concert Hall designed by architect Frank O. Gehry. "It's an experimental space," said Dutton, an avid music lover. "We're selling interesting and eclectic stuff.")

For Diesel, the move to open a second store happened quickly, although it wasn't completely out of the blue. For years Evans and partner Alison Reid have camped in Malibu and dreamt of having a bookstore there, but there was already an independent and a SuperCrown. First the independent closed, then five years ago the SuperCrown "died with the rest of the chain in the family squabble of bad haircuts," as Evans put it.

Last fall Evans and Reid ventured to Malibu to explore the idea of opening a store and soon started to negotiate for space. Diesel, A Bookstore, Malibu (the proper name for the store) will be a 1,800-sq.-ft. store on the same spot where Crown once stood.

"We're a little behind the game," said Evans about the construction. "I'm now saying we open May 15. Allison's saying this year."