New Southlake Restaurants for Fall 2026 That Are Open Now

Drive past Park Village this week and the sign over the old RA Sushi space is lit for the first time in months. Hudson House, the East Coast raw bar and martini concept that Southlake residents have been reading about since last October, finally opened its doors. Depending on which outlet you trust, doors opened either September 11 or September 14, the date Vandelay Companies put on its own press materials. Either way, it's open now, at 1131 E. Southlake Blvd, directly across from Gloria's Latin Cuisine.

Hudson House is one of several new restaurant and retail projects in Southlake's Town Square area this fall. Wonder, the celebrity-chef food hall a few blocks west, has not announced a confirmed opening date.

Hudson House Opens in Southlake

Hudson House started as a single neighborhood restaurant in Highland Park. Southlake is its 12th location, and the buildout wasn't simple. Southlake Mayor Shawn McCaskill confirmed in July that the former RA Sushi space had been completely gutted to make room for the new restaurant, which explains why a "summer 2026" target announced back in October 2025 slipped into September before anyone could sit down at the roughly 5,000-square-foot space.

What's inside now: warm leather booths, a wraparound bar built to hold a crowd, a full sit-down raw bar with oysters flown in daily, and the restaurant's signature draw, the World's Coldest Martini, made with Grey Goose vodka served on tap and chilled to 10 degrees. Founder Hunter Pond has said the company chose Southlake for its mix of energy, growth and appreciation for hospitality, and the slow rollout backs that up. Vandelay didn't rush a half-finished space open to hit a press release deadline. It waited until the gut renovation was actually done.

The other Town Square projects are at different stages.

Other Openings and Planned Projects

Town Square's 2026 lineup includes new openings and projects still in progress. Here's where things stand as of this week:

The retail entries in this list include several openings. Rothy's opened. Crate & Barrel hit its Independence Day window for a nearly 19,000-square-foot store. Ascension Coffee, opening its seventh location and only its second in Tarrant County, landed in August as planned, taking over the old Corner Bakery spot with a full espresso bar and single-origin slow bar.

A retail buildout is usually cosmetic work inside an existing shell. A restaurant like Hudson House or Wonder can require changes to plumbing, ventilation, and kitchen infrastructure for a different use, followed by inspections. These differences can affect project timelines.

Wonder's Current Status

Wonder is the name most people ask about, and it's still the one without a date. The multi-concept food hall, which lets guests order from more than 20 restaurant partners including Bobby Flay and Marcus Samuelsson in a single transaction, filed permits back in January for a 3,868-square-foot space next to Baskin-Robbins on West Southlake Boulevard. Construction was supposed to start April 2 and wrap June 12, which pointed to a summer opening.

The projected summer timeline passed. By mid-August, a Town Square spokesperson had stopped giving a specific month and was calling the target simply "this fall." Wonder also has similar projects moving through permitting in Spring, Texas, and in Houston.

If you're planning a group dinner, Hudson House and Whistle Britches, the scratch-made fried chicken spot in Town Square, are options already open. Wonder's opening date remains unconfirmed.

Oktoberfest Southlake Returns October 16–18

Oktoberfest Southlake turns 25 this year and is scheduled for October 16 through 18 in Town Square, with free admission and free parking, courtesy of the Southlake Chamber of Commerce. The Chamber has run this event every year for a quarter century, and this year's lineup includes a full three-stage weekend of live music:

• Friday, October 16: Ashmore, a rock cover band that's shared stages with Motley Crue and Bon Jovi, opens for headliner Back in Black, an AC/DC tribute act.
• Saturday, October 17: Blues act Texas Flood, led by Tommy Katona, warms up for Larger Than Life, a 90s boy band tribute act that's toured alongside NSYNC and 98 Degrees.

Oktoberfest has taken place every October for 25 years, while the opening timelines for the projects above vary.

Planning the Rest of Your Fall

Southlake's September already had one fixed point behind it. Celebrate Southlake, the city's annual birthday celebration, ran September 12 at Rustin Pavilion, free and open to the public from 2 to 7 p.m. DiwaliFest, the Southlake Foundation's cultural festival now drawing more than 10,000 people to Town Square, typically lands somewhere in late October or early November. It started small in 2018 with a handful of food vendors and a dance floor. It has since grown into one of the city's largest single-day gatherings, and its date tends to firm up closer to the event itself, so it's worth checking the Southlake Foundation's listings before you pencil anything in.

The events and business updates offer different kinds of planning information. The civic calendar includes Oktoberfest, Celebrate Southlake, and DiwaliFest. Retail and restaurant projects may be subject to construction-permit timelines. Hudson House is open, while Wonder's target is this fall.

If you're mapping out the next month in Southlake, the practical move is simple: treat Oktoberfest's 25th as locked in, treat Hudson House as open and worth the trip, and treat Wonder as a bonus if it lands before the year's out rather than something to build a specific weekend around.

Southlake's fall calendar includes scheduled events, businesses that are open, and projects whose opening dates are still unconfirmed.

If you're weighing a move to Southlake and want a read on the neighborhood that goes beyond what's open this month, Nathan Karns can walk you through what daily life here actually looks like, block by block. Schedule a consultation whenever you're ready.