Barnes & Noble Bookstore

Friendly staff and great selection all in a beautifully restored theatre house. Find the coffee bar upstairs.

This is the best looking Barnes and Noble I have ever been to!

I just have to say this is the coolest looking Barnes and Noble I’ve ever seen with the castle /​fairy tale décor inside.
Bonus: the café has stuff from Sweet Street Foods, most notably, the best savory scones. The basil mozzarella and the cheddar rosemary are both moist, are a good texture, have lots of flavor, and have just the right amount of cheese (think: an even better version of the Red Lobster biscuits). I love savory scones and wish more people would make them !

When I was a teenager I watched «Jaws» here.
I was scared for weeks.
Now it is a bookstore and I’m not so scared.
Lovely place to browse and even read a little.
Well worth finding your way through the Habitrail
to get there.

Purchased a NOOK HD, does not work, like pulling hens teeth to get them to take it back.

Cool bookstore, nicer than the mall ones because of the fact it used to be a theatre, awesome atmosphere, a great place to hang it also connects directly to the galeria shopping, skyway and clinc.

Good selection, cool atmosphere. I walked there from Mayo Clinic via the subway/​skyway and didn’t ever have to go outside. Got more than one offer for help from employees.

This is a very unique and cool Barnes and Noble — it is themed like a Castle and has a fabulous area for kids. You can grab lunch here also and they have a big selection of gift ideas and novelty books and magazines to grab and go for people that are downtown working or visiting mayo clinic…

When I was in high school, i used to come here all the time to hang out with friends. Still my favorite place in Rochester. Actually every time I want to meet anyone from Rochester, I would always tell them to meet around Barnes N Noble. hehe… I am surprised that the place hasn’t changed. Same layout inside. Great staffs.
Also, I absolutely love sitting outside the little area with the music playing.

Once upon a time in a world where Kindles and Nooks didn’t exist, there lived a girl who was held captive by a dragon. The girl found that books offered her a way of escaping from the dragon so she frequented many bookstores and library book sales, collecting and hiding her treasures from the dragon for the dragon threatened to burn all the books with its fiery breath. The girl bided her time, learning the ways of the world. She grew up and met her prince, who rescued her from the dragon, and they got married. She was delighted that her prince loved books, too, and that she no longer had to hide her treasures but could share them. Then, she and the prince had a family. The small cottage in the woods was no longer enough for their family so they had to move. The prince huffed and puffed and piled over 8 bookcases overflowing of books into boxes and carried them up and down many steps. For that, he shone in the girl’s eyes. Unfortunately, an evil wind blew upon the girl’s life and she had to move again. Again, the prince huffed and puffed and moved all the books. And when the evil wind was finally vanquished, the girl and the prince moved yet again, but this time, the prince stomped his foot and turned into the big bad wolf and said, «No! No more moving books!» The girl had to part with her precious treasures — she was sad, but in her heart, she knew that 30+ boxes of books was just too much so she parted with her books and she vowed to avoid bookstores in the future. She was not always quite successful, but for the most part, she was curbing her book addiction.
Lo, one day, she hears of a bookstore in Rochester that used to be a theatre. She hears legends of its ceiling, the architecture, and that this bookstore is a historic landmark. She hears of the lights outside shining the way to the entrance. The girl insists on searching out this bookstore, dragging the prince and the little princelings with her. And lo, they are all astounded by the sites of the bookstore. The beautifully painted ceiling is indeed an amazing sight. The castle scenery works its magic on the prince. He forgets his big bad wolf moment and even tells the girl to buy a book. The girl vows to come back to visit the magical bookstore every time she is in Rochester.

Coolest Barnes and Noble ever. You have got to stop by and check it out. Seriously. Step away from wherever you are reading this and go.
The inside is amazing. It is 2 stories and part of the Shops at University Square. The ambiance (yes, I used a word I traditionally reserve for romantic restaurants) is incredible. You don’t want to leave. You will find excuses of other things to look for just so you can stick around for a bit longer. There is a Starbuck’s Café upstairs with plenty of seating as well as chairs and tables all throughout both levels. Take a book, take your laptop and enjoy a quite and majestic morning/​afternoon/​evening with your intelligent self. :-)
Neither words nor pictures can do this building justice so please just go and enjoy.

I love the atmosphere of this B&N and it’s what makes it unique.
Get your camera ready for the first time your kids see the inside.

This is a nice B&N, and worth a trip to see the interior. It’s fantastic — the building used to be a playhouse in its early days, but was later converted to a bookstore. The interior has a dark blue ceiling with painted stars and physical turrets and a castle in the distance. You sort of have to see it to believe it. It’s definitely a historic building.
The B&N is pretty much like all B&Ns…lots of books and magazines and a small Starbucks café. It’s a decent place to study or read if you’re downtown.
The one area I think could be improved is better coffee (Starbucks is fine, but nothing special) and free downtown parking.

The City of Rochester couldn’t have picked a better store to occupy a building that used to be a movie theatre. The only thing I like better than movies are books. Lots of books.
Sure it’s a chain store, but the location alone is what makes this worth a trip. Very wisely, the City petitioned to have this now-​bookstore placed on the National Register of Historic Places. I like they kept the castle courtyard aesthetic by not building the second floor all the way to the walls, thereby preserving the castle characteristics. The stars stayed on the ceiling, too — very cool.
This B&N is otherwise your standard store, albeit with an independent bookstore feel. With an atmosphere conducive to spending time browsing, this B&N really gives you a true book store experience. The one turn-​off for me was the odor as I first walked in the door — it smelled like bug spray. Probably not a big deal, it is an old building after all, but there was something a bit off-​putting about it. Once inside, though, the smell disappeared.