What's open on the Square at 11 a.m. on a Tuesday? A couple of years ago you'd have had a short answer. Today you have a gastropub, a tapas café, a vintage clothing shop, a makers' collective and a provisions shop to choose from, all on one stretch of Main Street.
The renovated Square was built around concerts, festivals and pop-up markets. It now carries daily traffic along with those events. The places that filled in during 2026 fit into a few short blocks of Main Street. The fall calendar arriving this month will land on a street that's already busy rather than on an empty lawn waiting for a stage to light up.
A walk down Main Street, by address
The new businesses line up neatly by street number. Starting near State Street and heading south along Main, here's the order:
- State & Main Merchant Groceries & Provisions, 500 Main St., Suite 200. This convenience grocery sells wine, beer, champagne, snacks and prepared food to go. The City reported it open back in February 2025, so it's the oldest stop on this list.
- Lockwood Distilling Company, 532 Main St., Suite A. The Richardson distillery brought handcrafted spirits and Southern comfort food to the Square. CultureMap Dallas covered the new Garland gastropub on February 16, 2026.
- For the South, 602 Main St. This Southern-inspired vintage and streetwear brand says its Garland store opened in March 2026.
- Lola's Tapas Cafe & Wine, 708 Main St. Lola's serves Spanish-influenced tapas, wine and coffee. In February, the City's State of the City presentation had it on the schedule for a summer opening. By September 23, Voyage Dallas was interviewing owners Mia and Meli about a café already serving guests and hosting events.
- The Bankhead Collective, 713 Main St. This curated retail space features local makers, artists and small businesses, plus a multi-use room for workshops and events.
The City's June 17, 2026 downtown feature also names Fortunate Son, Deadwax Records and Taco y Vino among the businesses the renovation brought to the Square. The February presentation added Made Here and Fuego Dance to its list of new downtown businesses. Taken together, that's a full afternoon's worth of stops. A record store, a wine-and-taco spot, a distillery and a tapas café within a short walk was the City's goal when it pitched the rebuild as economic development.
Mondays are still quiet
The posted hours for the two new restaurants tell you a lot about how the week works downtown.
Lockwood is closed Monday. It's open 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday, 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday, and 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Sunday. Lola's keeps almost the same weekday schedule: closed Monday, 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday, and 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday. On Sunday it closes earlier, running 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.
That makes Tuesday the start of the week for sit-down food on the Square, and Monday the one day neither new kitchen is serving. On Sunday evenings, Lockwood stays open four hours after Lola's closes. We didn't find posted hours for For the South, State & Main Merchant or The Bankhead Collective, so check with those three directly before you plan around them.
The rebuild came first, and the businesses followed
None of this happened at the same time as the renovation. Voters approved Downtown Garland's makeover in the 2019 Build Garland Bond Program, construction began in 2021, and the Square reopened in 2023 with a LeAnn Rimes concert and a drone show. The City's July 2026 infrastructure update confirms the streets, parking, sidewalks and streetscape were finished in 2023.
That puts roughly three years between the new lawn, shade pavilion and play area and the arrival of Lockwood, For the South and Lola's. The landmark many people think of as new isn't from this year either. The Big Hat was unveiled on September 27, 2025.
What's changed in 2026 is the storefronts. The public space was finished three years ago, and private businesses have spent the time since moving into the buildings around it. The City's own February slide closes its list of new downtown businesses by noting there are more downtown properties seeking developers.
This fall's calendar lands on a busier street
The Downtown Garland Fall Crawl on Saturday, October 3, gave a preview of how events and the new businesses overlap. Its craft beer tasting trail ran from 3 to 6 p.m. and stopped at Lockwood, Lola's, State & Main Merchant, Taco y Vino and The Bankhead Collective. Most of the route followed the same Main Street addresses listed above.
Here's what's still ahead between now and the end of the year:
- Starting Thursday, October 8: Alebrijes: A Dreamworld in Downtown Garland turns the Square into an outdoor gallery of large, brightly colored spirit creatures made by artisans from Mexico City in the papier-mâché tradition of cartonería. It runs through March 29, 2027.
- Saturdays, October 10, November 14 and December 12: The Urban Market's "Food & Finds" pop-up is scheduled for the second Saturday of each month from March through December, which works out to these three remaining dates.
- Saturday, October 24, 2 to 8 p.m.: Día de los Muertos on Downtown Garland Square. It falls in the middle of the Alebrijes run, so the Mexican folk-art figures will already be up.
- October at the Plaza Theatre: Beetlejuice Jr. on October 7 and 8, Take Me Home: The Music of John Denver on October 18, and The Rocky Horror Picture Show on Friday, October 30.
- Friday, November 6, 7 p.m.: Ryan Berg plays a free Music Made Here show, part of the first-Friday concert series on the Square.
- Early November at Granville's Brownlee Auditorium: The Entire American Revolution in 40 Minutes or Less on November 3, and What She's Having on Saturday, November 7, with 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. performances.
- Friday, December 4, 5 to 9 p.m.: Garland Christmas on the Square.
- December 17 and 19: Blind Boys of Alabama and Asleep at the Wheel at Granville on Thursday, December 17, then A Tejas Brothers Christmas at the Plaza Theatre on Saturday, December 19.
Nearly every one of these falls on a day when Lockwood and Lola's are both open. The exception is a Sunday evening, when Lola's has already closed. A Friday concert or a Saturday market used to be the main reason to head downtown. Now it can be an add-on to dinner at 532 or 708 Main.
What's still coming to the Square
Three projects will shape the next stage, and each one is at a different point.
The Owl Icehouse, 519 W. State St. The City describes it as a two-story restaurant and gathering place with a scratch kitchen, event spaces and patio seating. In August 2025, construction was expected to continue through early 2026. The 2025 development agreement called for it to begin operating on or before August 1, 2026. The City's 2026 State of the City presentation lists it as "opening 2027," and the June feature still calls it a coming development. Visit Garland did include The Owl Icehouse as a beer stop on the October 3 Fall Crawl. We haven't found a public notice that the permanent space is open, so follow the business's Instagram for an opening date.
The Granville Arts Center. The City says design work on a renovation is underway. It hasn't published a completion date.
116 S. Sixth St. At a June 1, 2026 work session, the City Council reviewed four concepts for the former Boy Scout and fire station building. At the end of the session, it directed staff to negotiate with two of the proposals, Firehouse Commons and Station One. No construction start or completion date has been made public since.
Of the three, only The Owl has a firm address and a published concept, and even its opening year has moved. For now, the stretch of Main Street from 500 to 713 is what's open, and from Tuesday through Sunday it's enough to fill a day.
When you see a new storefront open on the Square, you're watching the downtown Garland market change in real time, and that's the kind of local detail we track every week at Jeanie Marten. If you're curious what all this activity on Main Street means for homes nearby, give Jeanie a call. She's happy to talk it through over coffee at one of these spots.
