Ask anyone who has lived off White Chapel or near Timarron for more than a year and they will tell you the rhythm of Town Square rarely changes. Then, sometime around 2024, the leasing pattern shifted. In the last twelve months alone, Kite Realty Group has signed more premier brands into the 130-acre center than at any point in its two-decade history, according to the group's own leasing team. Fall 2026 is when a lot of those signatures finally become storefronts.
If you already own here, the question is not whether Southlake is growing. The question is which of the rumored openings actually happens between Labor Day and Thanksgiving, where to send an out-of-town cousin who last visited before the pandemic, and how to work Oktoberfest's 25th anniversary weekend without spending forty minutes looking for parking. This is that map.
The Town Square shift you will notice by December
The clearest change is on Grand Avenue East. On Running, the Swiss performance brand, is opening its first Tarrant County store this fall in a roughly 6,000 square foot space at 415 Grand Avenue East, tucked between Alo and Sunglass Hut. If you have been driving to NorthPark or ordering Cloudmonsters online, that trip gets a lot shorter.
Two doors over on Grand Avenue, Reformation is finishing its first Tarrant County boutique in a 2,007 square foot bay near lululemon and YETI. The sustainable fashion label built its following in Los Angeles and New York, and this is the closest location to a Southlake zip code that has existed.
The largest footprint belongs to Crate & Barrel, which was slated to open at 321 State Street next to Tyler's around the Independence Day window. If it took the full summer to finish, expect the grand-opening cadence to run into early fall. The store occupies about 18,945 square feet, which is the kind of anchor square footage that used to require a trip to Willow Bend.
The smallest and probably most important addition for daily life is Ascension Coffee, opening in August in the former Corner Bakery space. It is the Dallas roaster's seventh location and only its second in Tarrant County, and the concept brings a full espresso bar, a single-origin slow bar, and an all-day chef-driven menu. Corner Bakery had been a soft handoff spot for morning meetings for years, and the space is finally getting a tenant that matches the rest of the block.
Rothy's, for what it is worth, is already open if you missed the quiet debut earlier this year.
The dining bench beyond Grand Avenue
The interesting food story is not really at Town Square proper. It is the ring around it.
- Ferah Tex-Med on Carroll Avenue, next door to Nothing Bundt Cakes, is serving modern Mediterranean with a Texas hand. Open now.
- Nikko is doing sushi and broader Asian cuisine in the pad next to Trader Joe's. Open now.
- Stella Trattoria is on State Street directly across from Market by Macy's, with a straightforward Italian menu.
- Hudson House, one of the more talked-about DFW openings of the last few years, is taking the former RA Sushi space at Park Village. Its East Coast atmosphere, oyster bar, cheeseburgers, and martini program have made the Dallas locations reliably difficult to get into on a Friday night.
- Wonder, the tech-driven food hall backed by a roster that includes Bobby Flay and Marcus Samuelsson, is making its DFW debut in Southlake. The concept lets a table order from more than twenty restaurant kitchens on one check, which is either a solution or a philosophical crisis depending on the diner.
Read that list together and a pattern emerges. Southlake is no longer just picking up second or third DFW locations. It is landing first-in-Tarrant-County stores from On and Reformation and a first-in-DFW debut from Wonder. That is a different tier of leasing than the town was getting five years ago, and it changes what a Saturday afternoon within a two-mile radius of Town Square looks like.
The 25th Oktoberfest, and the rest of the fall calendar
The anchor event this fall is Oktoberfest Southlake's 25th anniversary, running October 16 through 18 in Town Square. Admission and parking are both free, which is the same deal the Chamber has kept since the early years. What is different this time is the milestone programming. The Friday-night stack pairs Ashmore as the warm-up with a Back in Black AC/DC tribute headlining at 9:30 p.m. Saturday runs Tommy Katona and Texas Flood at 7:15 p.m. into a boyband tribute called Larger Than Life at 9:15 p.m. Three stages, Bavarian food, the wiener-dog races that somehow keep growing, and a quarter-century of muscle memory from the Chamber's volunteer corps.
Before that, the City of Southlake has its own birthday. Celebrate Southlake falls on September 12 from 2:00 to 7:00 p.m. at Rustin Pavilion, and it is free. It is the year's easiest event to bring kids to, because the whole thing is set up around civic groups, nonprofits, and interactive booths rather than a headliner act.
September also carries the Southlake Hispanic Heritage Celebration, which the city runs with mariachi, Peruvian folklórico dancers, salsa and bachata, and a Latino artisan marketplace. Later in the fall, DiwaliFest, hosted by the Southlake Foundation in Town Square, brings Indian dance performances, cultural exhibits, and authentic cuisine. Both events lean heavily on food, which is a nice pairing with the new dining additions above.
The MasterWorks Concert Series, run jointly by the city and the Arts Council Northeast, continues at Rustin Pavilion through the season. Schedules are updated on the Experience Southlake calendar as performers are announced, so it is worth checking before making other plans on a Friday.
| Weekend | What is happening | Where |
|---|---|---|
| Sept 12 | Celebrate Southlake, 2 to 7 p.m. | Rustin Pavilion |
| September | Southlake Hispanic Heritage Celebration | Town Square |
| Oct 16 to 18 | Oktoberfest Southlake, 25th anniversary | Town Square |
| Fall date TBA | DiwaliFest, Southlake Foundation | Town Square |
How to actually work it into a weekend
If you are hosting family for a Saturday in October, the sequence that will make you look prepared is roughly this. Start with a mid-morning coffee at Ascension in the old Corner Bakery footprint. Walk the block to see whether Crate & Barrel has opened its doors, because at 18,945 square feet, it is going to swallow a full hour if you let it. Loop past the On and Reformation storefronts to confirm the Grand Avenue East transformation is not a rumor. Cross State Street for lunch at Stella Trattoria or head to Park Village for Hudson House if the wait list has moved. If the weekend lines up with October 16 to 18, skip the rest and go straight to Oktoberfest before the 6 p.m. crowd hits Main Street.
For anyone with houseguests who have not been back since the Kendra Scott era, that route is a fair answer to the tired question of "what is there to do in Southlake." It is a different answer than it was even two years ago.
What this fall says about the center
There is a temptation to read every new lease as more of the same. It is not. On, Reformation, Crate & Barrel, Wonder, Ascension, and Hudson House are not filler tenants backfilling churn. They are brands that had to be convinced Southlake was worth their first Tarrant County or first DFW address, and they collectively signal that Kite Realty's leasing team has repositioned the merchandising mix in a way most residents will not fully see until they walk it.
For homeowners who already live within a school-drive of Town Square, that is good news that costs you nothing. You do not have to move to enjoy it. You just have to know when the doors open.
If you or a friend are weighing whether Southlake still has the community texture that first drew you here, the fall calendar is the best possible answer. The team at Go To Texas lives inside this market year-round, tracks the openings before they hit the papers, and is happy to talk through what any of this means for a home you already own or one you are quietly considering. Reach out when you are ready to begin your relocation journey, or just to compare notes over an Ascension pour-over.
