If you moved to Grove City more than two years ago, the Town Center you knew is quietly turning into a different place. Broadway now has a Korean fried chicken counter, a southern breakfast diner, a new tavern, and a proposal on the table for a 16,400 square foot food hall with an outdoor stage. The August calendar tells the same story in miniature.
This is a walk through what's actually new, what's happening this month, and how to read the bigger project on the horizon.
The Broadway storefront turnover
Grove City's business updates page reads less like a municipal newsletter this year and more like a leasing report. A handful of the recent openings, all pulled from the City's own Development Department listings:
- Broadway Standard, 3911 Broadway. Southern breakfast and lunch, 7 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. daily. The space is the former Pontone's Music, now leaning into home-cooked comfort with chicken and waffles, hoe cakes, and fried green tomatoes. The operator, Myles Deschner, is a former Nashville restaurant and bar manager who recently relocated to Columbus.
- DHC Chicken, 4009 Broadway. Korean fried chicken, now open.
- Dapper Dog Tavern, 4057 Broadway. Now open.
- Cava, 4120 Buckeye Parkway. Mediterranean, now open.
- Burlington, 1739 Stringtown Rd. Apparel and home goods, now open.
- Little Diggers, 4076 Hoover Rd. Indoor sandbox play-space, now open. Good rainy-Saturday intel if you have a toddler.
- SafeSplash Swim School, 4075 Hoover Rd., and Play It Again Sports, 4095 Hoover Rd., both listed on the City's active updates.
- AcutePet Urgent Care, 3612 Hoover Rd. Same-day emergency care for dogs and cats, opening date to be announced.
Read that list as a cluster, not a list. Two of the three new food spots on Broadway itself opened within a few blocks of each other, all within the DORA boundary, and all within the last handful of months. That's a density of change most longtime residents have not seen along that stretch.
What August actually looks like
The Town Center's summer programming is now a weekly habit rather than a handful of one-offs. If you want to plan the rest of the month around it, here's the shape:
| When | What | Where |
|---|---|---|
| Sat., Aug. 8, 1–10 p.m. | 11th Annual Bourbon & Spirits Festival | Town Center Park, 3359 Park St. |
| Wed., Aug. 12, 7 p.m. | Movies in the Park: Wicked For Good | Town Center Park |
| Sat., Aug. 15, 9 a.m.–noon | Back to School Bash | Town Center Park |
| Sat., Aug. 15, 8:30 p.m. | 5K9 Rescue Dog Glow Walk/Run | Start/finish at the Beulah Park arch |
| Sat., Aug. 22, noon | Olde Time Fair at Century Village | 4185 Orders Rd. |
The Bourbon & Spirits Festival is the anchor. Participating distilleries include Angel's Envy, High Bank, Motherwell, Rustic Farm, M&O Spirits, Noble Cut, Echo Spirits, Seven Brothers, Leather & Oak, Pap's Hilltop, Adventure Spirits, Belle of Dayton, and Middle West Spirits, with Grove City Brewing Co. serving craft beers on site. Admission to stroll, shop, hear live music, and eat from the food trucks is free; only the tastings require tickets. That last point matters. If you assumed it was a paywalled event, it isn't.
The Food Truck Festival & Shop Hop is the other recurring one to know. Hosted by Grove City Town Center, Inc., it runs every other Friday through Oct. 8, with multiple food trucks setting up throughout Town Center. The Summer Concert Series continues in the same park on the alternating Fridays.
And the Chamber Farmers Market is the quiet workhorse of the whole calendar. Now in its 37th year, it runs Saturday mornings from May through September in the Historic Town Center, drawing visitors from across Central Ohio for fresh produce, handmade goods, and local favorites.
The one to circle: Bourbon & Spirits, Aug. 8
A few pieces of pragmatic advice for the festival that most first-timers miss:
- Go early for the glass. The first 2,000 people each day receive a keepsake glass; after that it's plastic cups.
- Bring cash. Tickets are $30 for 10 tastings in cash, $35 on card, and additional tickets after the initial purchase are 3 for $10.
- Look for the local names. Grove City Brewing Co. and Echo Spirits are the ones with the shortest drive home if you decide you want a bottle later in the week.
If you are coming from a neighboring suburb, park south of Park Street and walk in. The blocks around Town Center Park close for the festival footprint, and the closer lots fill first.
The bigger read: Broadway Live
The single most consequential thing happening in Grove City right now is not a festival. It's a preliminary development plan.
The application is for Broadway Live, a mixed-use development consisting of a 16,400 square foot food hall, bar, outdoor plaza with stage, and 137 apartments at Broadway and Columbus Street. The City's most recent posted terms have expanded that to a maximum of 150 apartments, and the agreement between the developer and the City centers on a public asset in exchange for public dollars. Specifically, roughly 2.19 acres of land is to be conveyed to the City, including a 125-space public parking lot and public open space, with $4 million in City participation tied to the acceptance of the public parking facility and delivery of open space land.
The site is not vacant. The development would be centered around two existing single-story buildings that currently house Zassy's Tap Room and Grove City Brewing Company, and several structures will need to be demolished, including the former Schoedinger Norris funeral home and multiple commercial buildings on Columbus Street.
Two dates to keep on your radar. The financial participation agreement had its first reading on Council's May 4, 2026 meeting agenda. And the whole project has one significant contingency: FEMA approval of Axiom's submitted Conditional Letter of Map Revision, a process the developer anticipates taking six to nine months, as of May 2026. Translated: even in the most optimistic scenario, you are watching construction fencing and site prep for a while before you are watching a stage.
Why the two stories are one story
Read Broadway Standard, DHC Chicken, and Dapper Dog Tavern as leading indicators. Read Broadway Live as the trailing bet on those indicators. A developer does not propose a food hall with an outdoor stage in a Town Center that hasn't already proven, quietly, that people will show up on a Friday night with cash in hand. The Bourbon & Spirits Festival, the every-other-Friday food truck evenings, the 37-year-old farmers market, and the new storefronts on Broadway are all the same proof.
For someone who already lives in Grove City, this changes the practical answer to "where should we go tonight?" more than it changes the practical answer to "should we live here?" The character of a Friday evening in Town Center is different than it was in 2023, and it is going to be different again in 2027.
A short list for the rest of the month
- If you have not been to Broadway Standard yet, go on a weekday morning before 9 a.m. and try the hoe cakes.
- If you liked the fried chicken sandwich era, try DHC Chicken and compare.
- Put Aug. 8 on the fridge. Cash, comfortable shoes, arrive by 1:15 for the glass.
- If you have kids in South-Western City Schools, note that the first day for students is Wed., Aug. 19, and the Back to School Bash on Aug. 15 is the practical warm-up.
- Watch the Council agenda for Broadway Live votes if you own property within a few blocks of the site. The public parking and open space commitments are the meaningful details.
Grove City has always sold itself on small-town character. What's changed is that the small-town character now includes a bourbon festival with 14 distilleries and a proposed food hall the size of a small grocery store. Both things can be true.
If you own a home near the Town Center and you have been wondering what the last twelve months of Broadway activity has done to what your house is worth, that is a fair question and a specific one. Hart Property Advisors works this corridor and will pull the comps by street, not by ZIP. Ask us for a free home valuation when you are ready.
