Two of the most closely watched U.S. specialty food chains – both with roots deep in the heart of Texas – are putting their faith in Dallas-area residents to help them define their next steps in food retailing.

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The Central Market at the Shops of Southlake has a restyled store layout, a large cheese department, a café with a waitstaff and a playground.

Competitors known for their innovations, Whole Foods Market Inc. and H.E. Butt Grocery Co.'s Central Market swear it's just a coincidence that they're each opening their chain's next-generation stores in D-FW today. In Southlake, shoppers will help Central Market decide if it's landed on the right suburban concept to make the leap outside of Texas.

In Dallas, the new Whole Foods at Preston Road and Forest Lane will help the Austin-based chain decide if it's going to become a major spa operator.

"This is our only spa, and no other spa has someone doing your grocery shopping for you while you're getting a spa treatment," said Nona Evans, Whole Foods' marketing director.

Central Market has heard visitors asking for a store in major cities on the East and West coasts and in Chicago, said Stephen Butt, head of San Antonio-based H-E-B's Central Market division, which is headquartered in Dallas.

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The new Whole Foods in Dallas includes a spa on the second floor. Refresh offers all-natural treatments and has double-insulated walls to block noise from the grocery area.

"We find that very encouraging because there are a limited number of Central Market stores that we can build in Texas cities," Mr. Butt said.

"And the Plano, and now the Southlake, shoppers will help us grow beyond the urban parts of larger cities."

One way it's testing that is with a Central Market Café that serves breakfast, lunch and dinner with outdoor seating for 200, a stage for entertainment and a playground with a castle and a friendly dragon.

That doesn't mean the Dallas area is a mature market for either chain.

Mr. Butt said that it's still a growth region for Central Market and that he envisions a fifth and maybe a sixth store in the area.

Whole Foods has an 80,000-square-foot store – which would be its largest – planned for 2008 at Park Lane and Central Expressway. A 50,000-square-foot store is also planned for the Dallas area, but no location or date has been specified.

Both chains have been raising the bar for grocery shopping in the area over the years, and traditional supermarket operators have responded.

Kroger, for example, expanded its organic and natural food departments. Tom Thumb added olive bars, more prepared foods and hearth ovens.

Traditional chains have also catered to neighborhood needs by bringing in specialty ethnic foods to differentiate themselves. Kroger surveys the neighborhood before opening a new Signature store location.

Tom Thumb and Albertsons LLC each have a kosher-certified store, and Minyard Food Stores is focusing on the Hispanic shopper with its Carnival chain.

Even Wal-Mart Stores Inc. put its experimental upscale Supercenter in Plano to try out organics, a sushi chef and other amenities.

While Wal-Mart and traditional supermarkets dominate food spending in the region, Central Market and Whole Foods serve a small segment of select grocery shoppers.

The market shares are in the single digits, and both chains want those numbers to grow.

While both chains' next-generation stores similarly take key departments such as cheese and prepared foods to the next level, they still reflect their roots.

"We all share shoppers, but our two brands have different roots," Mr. Butt said.

"Whole Foods is rooted in organics, and we've made a culinary commitment. ... They take a stand on what they will and won't sell. We sell variety and let the customer decide their nutritional views."

From its chair-massage days sprouts Whole Food's first full-service spa. The 4,500-square-foot facility features all-natural beauty and wellness treatments in seven private rooms, including two equipped for body scrubs and wraps. All linens are made from organic cotton.

The spa, named Refresh, is on the second level of the store. Walls have been double-insulated to block store noise, and patrons can have lunch or sip tea on the private balcony.

Whole Foods may incorporate the spa into other stores if shoppers take to the idea, Ms. Evans said.

"Each store is unique, but we've hired our own staff. We tried to do this on a small scale with an outside operator once in Austin, and that didn't work for us."

The spa director is Sherrie Huebner, who was hired from the Lake Austin Spa Resort. She has been a director of spas at the Arizona Biltmore Resort in Phoenix and the Hyatt Regency Hill Country Resort in San Antonio.

The spa has its own retail shop with a wide range of gifts and personal items, from jewelry to body care to cosmetics to bedding, as well as a large selection of organic clothing for adults and babies. Even a few shoes are in the mix, as are a pair of designer organic jeans for $130.

"We think we know the lifestyle of our customer," down to the coffee and pastry bar opening at 7 a.m., an hour before the store, Ms. Evans aid.

People at both stores have done a lot of thinking about where everything should be located. Wine and cheese are near each other in the new Central Market. The housewares department, previously broken up throughout a store, is all in one place, across from the fresh seafood, meat and poultry cases.

Seafood is a big theme of the new Whole Foods store, reflecting the chain's investment in its own seafood facilities in Gloucester, Mass., Seattle and Atlanta. The exterior of the store even looks like a ship ready to sail.

Whole Foods is trying to put its prepared foods and ingredients closer to each other, Ms. Evans said.

"So if you're in the store and decide you'd rather not cook fish, you can have it cooked for you. Or, if you don't want to make barbecue, it's there next to the fresh-meat case."

In the prepared chef's case, meals are presented with side dishes. It's followed by a New York-style deli, which leads into the bakery, so shoppers can pick up bread at the same time.

"Or if they don't want to make it, sandwiches are made in the same spot," Ms. Evans said.

Borrowing an idea from traditional supermarkets, Whole Foods put its vitamins, supplements, pet care, and shampoos and body care items in the end grocery aisles.

Central Market, meanwhile, is mixing its organics throughout its produce department.

"Organic produce is integrated so that customers can see their choices all together," said Lee Crenshaw, director of perishable procurement at the Southlake Central Market.

"We've been learning from our other stores. And this one is the result of sitting down and saying, 'If we could do it all over again, how would we organize the store?' " Mr. Crenshaw said.

This Central Market also has more of an attitude, poking fun at itself as it tries to be more inviting to more people.

"It's a mission to celebrate and discover foods," said Frank Hamlin, the chain's marketing director. "And we want people to be comfortable with it."

Signs are one way they're doing it. "What plastic fruit aspires to be" hangs in produce. A poster defining Central Market's signature "foodie" warns that this person "could smell like fresh baked bread."

The store is trying to become more of a weekly destination for more families, Mr. Butt said. "We've been studying how people shop us. We have the foodies who love us and others who see us as a special-occasion place to shop a few times a year.

"The refinements to the Southlake store, we think, will accelerate the adoption process with shoppers who are more comfortable with a traditional supermarket, making us more of a weekly store."

E-mail mhalkias@dallasnews.com