For years the running joke among east-side Hilliard residents was that you could stand in your driveway, spot the I-270 outerbelt, and still have to drive fifteen minutes to sit down for dinner. Equity/ECS founder Steve Wathen has said the quiet part out loud: there is a three-mile radius around Trueman Boulevard with, in his words, "virtually no restaurants, very few options." That gap is closing this summer, at the same moment Old Hilliard is running one of its busiest event calendars in years. Two different Hilliards are showing up in the same ninety-day window, and if you already live here, that changes what a Thursday night looks like.
The east side finally gets a walkable block
TruePointe is the $250 million mixed-use district that Hilliard-based Equity Commercial Real Estate Solutions has been building on Trueman Boulevard, just off I-270. It sits on what used to be a 27-acre office park, and the plan turns Trueman from a fast four-lane into something closer to a walkable corridor with apartments, a hotel, retail, and a restaurant row. The Water's Edge Conference Center, TEMPO Apartments, Brick House Blue, and Kenneth's Salon and Day Spa are already there. Equity expects the next wave of tenants to begin welcoming customers in late summer 2026.
Here is what that wave actually contains, and when each piece is scheduled to land:
| Business | Concept | Timing |
|---|---|---|
| Medley Kitchen | Chef Derek Bush's first Culinary Collectives restaurant; shared-ingredient menu spanning tapas, dim sum, and mezze | Fall 2026, dinner service only |
| Teriyaki Madness | Seattle-style teriyaki bowls, fast casual | Q3 2026 |
| Smoked Lick BBQ | Slow-smoked Southern barbecue, third location with a full dining room and bar | Late summer 2026 |
| Old Scratch Pizza Kitchen | Dayton-based Neapolitan pizza, first location outside the Dayton region | Announced, opening TBD |
| Qahwah House | Family-owned Yemeni coffee house | Announced, opening TBD |
| Drunch Eatery | Breakfast and lunch concept | Announced, opening TBD |
| Home2 Suites by Hilton | Select-service hotel anchoring the district | Under construction |
A few of those deserve a second look. Medley Kitchen is not another suburban chain; Derek Bush spent years in leadership at Cameron Mitchell Restaurants and at Ohio State's Hospitality Management program before partnering with Justin McMaster on Culinary Collectives, and Medley is his first brick-and-mortar. The concept centers on shared ingredients presented in different global styles at the same table, which is closer to what you find in the Short North than what has historically opened in a Hilliard strip center. Smoked Lick BBQ is not new to Hilliard either. Its original location has run out of 4333 Cosgray Road since January 2025 with limited seating, mostly catering and delivery. The TruePointe location is the first with a real dining room, a bar, and carryout under one roof.
Teriyaki Madness is the concrete date to circle. Franchisee Anshu Garg's location is slated for the third quarter of the year, per the Hilliard Area Chamber of Commerce, making it likely the first of the new food tenants residents can actually walk into. The chain debuted in central Ohio at Polaris in November 2020 and has since added Worthington and northeast Columbus locations, so the Hilliard opening completes a rough ring around the outerbelt.
The other opening that changes traffic patterns
Not everything opening on the west side is a restaurant. CAVA quietly opened its first Columbus-area location on April 29, 2026 at 1790 Hilliard Rome Rd, in the Hilliard Green area. It is the Mediterranean chain's first Ohio store outside Cincinnati, and Hilliard beat Polaris and Grove City to it. If your household has been driving to Dublin for a build-your-own bowl, that trip is now shorter than a run to Kroger.
Put the CAVA opening next to the TruePointe pipeline and a pattern shows up. Hilliard is not getting one new place. It is getting a whole tier of fast-casual and chef-driven concepts within one summer, which is why the Franklin County Finance Authority is treating TruePointe as a workforce-attraction project rather than a retail play. Economic Development Director David Meadows has been direct that Hilliard was missing the "work-life amenities onsite" that companies expect. The infill of restaurants, a hotel, and residential units is the fix.
Meanwhile in Old Hilliard
Here is the part that is easy to miss if you only follow the TruePointe headlines. Old Hilliard is having one of its strongest summers on the calendar, in part because 2026 doubles as the America 250 semiquincentennial and the Hilliard Ohio Historical Society's 60th anniversary. The programming reflects both.
The regular anchors are still there:
- Celebration at the Station at Hilliard's Station Park runs Thursdays from June through mid-August, 6:30 to 9:00 p.m., inside the DORA. Ten shows plus a special edition earlier this spring on 4/30/26 that leaned on the 43026 zip code as the theme.
- The Hilliard Arts Council Summer Concert Series kicked off June 14 and runs Sunday evenings through September 6, in front of the Hilliard Civic and Cultural Arts Center on Center Street. Free, DORA-friendly, bring a chair.
- Lunchtime Live! brings midday concerts to Weaver Park on Fridays.
- HillGarten, the outdoor beer and wine garden downtown, has live music most Friday and Saturday evenings. Crooked Can, Otie's Tavern & Grill, Wilson's, and Louie's round out the downtown live-music rotation.
Then the 2026-only additions:
- Freedom Fest on July 4 at Roger A. Reynolds Municipal Park is being paired with the official Homecoming Picnic this year. Destination Hilliard calls it the city's most-attended one-day event.
- The Franklin County Fair runs July 20–26 at the fairgrounds in Old Hilliard, with America 250 themed programming layered on top of the usual midway. Sunday, July 26 from 1 to 3 p.m., Scoop, Chalk, and Celebrate Ohio 250 Goes to the Fair pairs free ice cream and fountain play with community chalk art.
- The Hilliard History Passport is a Historical Society project where local third-graders partner with businesses to tell the stories of Hilliard spaces. The 2025–2026 class debuted their work in late April, and the passport is still active through summer.
Two cabooses are on public display through the season, one at Homestead Park and one at the Historical Village in Weaver Park, which is a small thing that matters if you have a train-obsessed five-year-old on a Saturday morning.
A weekend that actually uses both sides of Hilliard
The reason to hold these two lists in your head at once is that they finally combine into something. A summer weekend in Hilliard used to mean one of two things: the fairgrounds side or the outerbelt side. This year they braid together.
A working test: pick any Thursday in July, and you can start at Celebration at the Station in Old Hilliard around 6:30, walk the DORA with a drink from HillGarten, and finish the week the next day with a lunch at a TruePointe opening. That itinerary did not exist in July 2024.
A concrete version:
- Thursday, 6:30 p.m. Show up early at Hilliard's Station Park for the Celebration at the Station band. Grab dinner from a food truck or walk down to Otie's.
- Friday, 11:30 a.m. Lunchtime Live! at Weaver Park with the kids, then loop through the Historical Village to see the caboose and pick up a History Passport stamp.
- Saturday afternoon. Drive the ten minutes over to Trueman Boulevard and see whichever TruePointe tenant has soft-opened. If you go before Q3, Brick House Blue and Water's Edge are already operating.
- Sunday evening. Hilliard Arts Council concert on Center Street. Beverage from a participating DORA establishment. Chairs on the lawn.
Nothing on that list is a destination event for someone driving in from Delaware County. It is a resident weekend, which is the point.
What this means if you own here
Two quick observations for homeowners who read this far.
First, if you bought on the east side of Hilliard in the last five years, the amenity gap that used to show up in your commute is closing without you moving. Wathen's own framing is that TruePointe is filling a gap the demographics never justified. The gap was a market failure, not a taste problem.
Second, if you have friends visiting this summer and you have been apologetic about what there is to do in Hilliard proper, stop. Between Freedom Fest, the fair, the Ohio 250 programming, two weekly concert series, and a district's worth of new places to eat opening within one quarter, the pitch writes itself.
If you have been thinking about what your home would be worth in a market where new hospitality, retail, and residential are coming online this close to you, that is a conversation worth having with someone who has watched this specific corridor develop. Reach out to the Lundquist Group to schedule a free home consultation.
