Three miles apart, two restaurant announcements landed in Hilliard this year, and neither one looked at the other before picking a side. On Main Street, a shuttered Chase bank branch is being gutted for a sit-down Italian restaurant. Off Trueman Boulevard, a restaurant group led by a 20-year hospitality veteran with past leadership roles at Cameron Mitchell Restaurants is opening a global small-plates concept inside a $200 million mixed-use development that didn't exist five years ago. Same city, same year, two completely different bets on where people want to eat.
If you live here, you've probably noticed the food scene feels busier without quite being able to say why. The reason is that Hilliard isn't building one new dining district. It's building two, at the same time, with different money behind each one, and this week happens to be the hinge between the summer that just wrapped and the fall that's about to start.
Old Hilliard is renovating its way into a restaurant
The building at 4056 E. Main St. used to be a Chase branch. The Hilliard Development Corporation, a city-partnered nonprofit, worked out an agreement letting local real estate firm The Westwood Collective buy and redevelop it. The plan calls for a sit-down Italian restaurant to move into the old bank building itself, with a new mixed-use structure going up on the adjoining parking lot to add retail space and a limited run of luxury apartments upstairs, according to NBC4's coverage of the deal. More parking is part of the plan too, which tells you the city expects this corner to get busier once it opens.
That's not an isolated move. A few doors down, Paris Baguette was slated to open in Old Hilliard in July 2026, according to Destination Hilliard's dining directory, joining a strip that already includes Otie's Tavern & Grill, a restaurant housed in a building on the National Register of Historic Places, known locally for its fried bologna sandwich and its outdoor patio in the heart of the district. None of this required new roads or new sewer lines. It required someone deciding an old bank was worth saving.
TruePointe just signed its sixth restaurant tenant
East of I-270, the model flips. TruePointe is a $200 million mixed-use development on 27 acres, with its first apartments opening last summer and a growing restaurant row that keeps adding names. Medley Kitchen is set to open there this fall, according to Columbus Underground, built around tapas, dim sum, and mezze-style dishes from restaurant group Culinary Collectives, led by Derek Bush, who spent years in leadership roles at Cameron Mitchell Restaurants and Ohio State's hospitality management program. Medley joins Qahwah House, Smoked Lick BBQ, Drunch Eatery + Bar, Old Scratch Pizza, and Teriyaki Madness, all already open on the same 27 acres.
TruePointe isn't the only place national chains are landing on the west side, either. CAVA opened its first Columbus-area location at 1790 Hilliard Rome Rd. in April 2026, ahead of planned locations in Polaris and Grove City, according to Columbus Underground's report on the opening. That made Hilliard the chain's first Columbus-area stop, just weeks after its debut Ohio location opened in Cincinnati that March.
Here's the split laid out plainly:
| Old Hilliard | TruePointe | |
|---|---|---|
| Investment style | Adaptive reuse of existing buildings | Ground-up construction on a 27-acre site |
| Anchor project | Former Chase bank at 4056 E. Main St. | $200M mixed-use development off Trueman Blvd. |
| Newest addition | Planned Italian restaurant (name not yet announced) | Medley Kitchen, opening fall 2026 |
| Character | Walkable, historic Main Street | New construction near I-270 |
Neither approach is winning. They're running in parallel, funded by different developers, aimed at different parts of the same city.
This week is the last chance to catch the summer version of Hilliard
If you've been meaning to get to Celebration at the Station, the clock is close to running out. The 2026 season runs Thursday evenings from June 4 through August 13 at Hilliard's Station Park, 6:30 to 9 p.m., according to the City of Hilliard's lineup announcement. Fleetwood Gold closes out the season on the 13th. Station Park is also a Designated Outdoor Refreshment Area, which in Ohio means you can carry a drink from a participating bar out into the park itself, one of the small civic details that makes Old Hilliard function more like a plaza than a strip.
The very next day, the calendar hands off directly to the 15th Annual Columbus Food Truck Festival, happening Friday, August 14, at 4951 Northwest Parkway on the Franklin County Fairgrounds. Two big draws, back to back, both walkable from Old Hilliard's restaurant row, neither one connected to TruePointe.
Then there's a quiet stretch. Nothing citywide until Sunday, September 13, when the Hilliard Fall Festival takes over Roger A. Reynolds Municipal Park from 1 to 4 p.m. Expect hayrides, a pumpkin patch, a petting zoo, and live music from Simba Jordan, according to Destination Hilliard's event listing. It's the kind of event that pulls people from both sides of the city into one park for an afternoon, which is worth remembering the next time someone tells you Hilliard is two separate places now.
What's actually open versus what's still a plan
It's easy to lose track of which of these is real right now and which is still a rendering. Here's where things stand as of this month:
Already open:
- CAVA, 1790 Hilliard Rome Rd. (opened April 2026)
- Otie's Tavern & Grill, Old Hilliard's historic district
- Qahwah House, Smoked Lick BBQ, Drunch Eatery + Bar, Old Scratch Pizza, and Teriyaki Madness at TruePointe
Should be open, pending confirmation:
- Paris Baguette in Old Hilliard, listed for a July 2026 opening
Announced but not yet open:
- Medley Kitchen at TruePointe, targeting fall 2026
- The Italian restaurant planned for the former Chase bank building, no opening date or name announced yet
Why the split matters if you live here
The easy read is that Hilliard is choosing a winner between old and new. The more accurate read is that both sides are getting real capital at the same time, which is a better position for the city than either node getting all the investment alone. A restaurant closing in one district doesn't take the whole food scene down with it, and a resident who prefers a historic Main Street patio has just as much reason to stay put as one who wants a new development with covered parking and a dozen tenants under one roof.
What's worth watching over the next year is whether the Chase bank restaurant gets a name and a date, and whether Medley Kitchen's fall opening actually lands before winter. Either way, the split itself is the story. Hilliard isn't becoming one thing. It's becoming two things well.
If you're the kind of person who tracks which corner of a city is getting investment and why, that instinct is exactly what makes a good real estate decision later, whether that's this year or three years from now. The Shoaf Team watches these patterns across Dublin, Powell, Hilliard, Plain City, and Delaware because they shape what a home is worth long before a listing goes live. If you'd like to talk through what a specific pocket of Hilliard looks like for buying or selling, schedule a free consultation and we'll walk through it together.
