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In October 2025, Kaos Hospitality told the local business press that its new hot pot concept, 212° Shabu Shabu, would open at The Watermark that December. December came and went. The restaurant's tableside induction ranges sat cold through the holidays, through Valentine's Day, through most of the spring semester at ASU a few blocks away. When 212° finally opened, Mayor Corey Woods showed up for the ribbon cutting, but the date on the invitation read May 11, 2026. That's five months past the original promise.
For people following new restaurants in downtown Tempe, 212°'s timeline is one example of how announced opening dates can change. The list below distinguishes restaurants already open from projects with future target dates.
The projects below include ground-up construction as well as openings in existing storefronts, with different announced timelines.
212° Shabu Shabu is the clearest example. Its sibling project, Wood & Water, a 9,000-square-foot seafood restaurant with a 5,000-gallon shark tank planned for the same Watermark complex, was announced in October 2025 with groundbreaking penciled in for the end of that year and an opening targeted for late fall 2026. As of this spring's coverage, the project was still described only as being "worked on," with no construction milestone reported. Late fall is still theoretically possible. Whether it actually happens on that date is a different question, given what just happened next door.
IX Sushi opened inside the existing Three Thirty Three space at the same development. Kaos divided a room it already operated and opened a second menu inside it.
Mill Avenue has its own range of opening timelines. Roman God of Fire, chef Scott Conant's collaboration with Pretty Decent Concepts at 80 S. Rio Salado Parkway, was announced loosely for "2026" back in November 2025 with no specific month attached. It opened in August 2026, inside the calendar year it promised, even if the exact timing stayed vague until it happened.
Then there's Carmen. Julian Wright, who already runs Pedal Haus Brewery, Devil's Hideaway, and Idle Hands within two blocks of each other, announced his Yucatan-inspired concept for the old Anoche Cantina space at 640 S. Mill Avenue back in 2024. As of this month, it's still without a firm opening date, nearly two years after the announcement.
Here's what's open in downtown Tempe as of this month:
That list is pulled from Downtown Tempe's own running tracker of new businesses.
The remaining projects have opening dates or estimates ranging from specific days to broader seasonal targets.
Phantom Fox Beer Co. and its in-house pizzeria, Goat and Ram, are set to open October 8 in the former Illegal Pete's space near Fifth Street, with a soft opening the week before.
Level 1 Arcade Bar announced its Mill Avenue expansion on August 21, six days before publication. Owner Scott Goldsmith is targeting a November 1 opening at 4 E. University Drive, the northeast corner of Mill and University.
Novel Ice Cream is a more complicated case. The scoop shop was first announced in November 2025 for a spring 2026 opening inside the historic Harry Walker House, next to Tempe City Hall. By July 2026, owner Shawn Allard had revised that estimate to mid-October or November. The delay traces back to the building itself: the Walker House is a 1903 structure on the National Register of Historic Places that had to be physically relocated four blocks and put through a city-overseen historical rehabilitation before anyone could pour ice cream inside it. That's a very different kind of timeline than leasing a storefront.
Culinary Gangster is sitting in the exact window its own owner predicted would be the worst case. Ricky Raschillo told Phoenix New Times back in December that he hoped to open the Mill Avenue location, below Varsity Tavern, by March, but warned that if renovations ran long he'd wait out the summer and open in August. It's now late August. Whether the doors open this month or slide into fall is genuinely an open question.
Wood & Water, as noted above, is still targeting late fall 2026, with groundbreaking originally penciled for the end of 2025 and no construction update reported since.
RePUBlic Tempe, a sports bar and entertainment concept going into the former Mill Cue Club and Zuma Grill space south of Sixth Street, is also aiming for fall 2026.
The projects differ in their settings. 212° Shabu Shabu and Wood & Water are at The Watermark; Novel Ice Cream is planned for the Harry Walker House; and Carmen was announced for the former Anoche Cantina space.
Together, these projects involve a mixed-use development, a historic building, and a former restaurant space.
Several upcoming events also have announced dates. The Tempe Festival of the Arts returns December 4 through 6, with more than 300 artist booths lining Mill Avenue and the surrounding streets. 2nd Sundays on Mill, the monthly local goods market, runs from November through April on the second Sunday of each month. Those are city and Downtown Tempe Authority events with fixed dates set well in advance, not construction-dependent openings, and they've historically run on schedule year after year.
If you're planning a weekend around new dining, the list above separates restaurants already open from projects with announced future dates.
Whether you're renting a unit at Hayden Ferry, own a house near Tempe Town Lake, or are just curious how the Tempe market is shifting alongside all this new development, Celina Acosta Real Estate Group keeps a close eye on what's actually happening on the ground here, not just what's been announced. If you ever want to talk through what any of this means for your home's value, reach out for a free valuation.
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