Walk out of Whole Foods at 7 p.m. on a Saturday in June, cut across Old Brick Road, and you can hear the summer concert before you can see it. Camp chairs on the grass, a band on the small stage, kids weaving between the Adirondacks outside Foxtail Coffee. If you already live here, you know the drill. What you might not know is that this particular version of the lawn has a shelf life.
The central green at 2301 Old Brick Road, the one that hosts the Summer Concert Series and Movies Under the Stars, is the last undeveloped parcel in West Broad Village. Plans filed with Henrico County last spring will change what that space does after hours. This post is a case for treating the 2026 season like the residents-only preview it quietly is, and for knowing exactly where to spend it while the geography still looks the way you remember.
The lawn, while it's still the lawn
The property's own event calendar carries four recurring anchors: the Summer Concert Series on the Lawn, Movies Under the Stars, a Fall Festival, and the Holiday Tree Lighting. Concert nights run through the warm months on Saturdays, with movies scheduled on separate weekends. If you have kids under ten, the movie nights are the easier sell. If you have neighbors visiting from Church Hill or Midlothian who insist Short Pump is a parking lot with restaurants, the concert nights are the counter-argument.
What makes the programming work is the surface it sits on. CTO Realty Growth, which owns the bulk of the commercial space in the mixed-use, Whole Foods-anchored neighborhood, has filed plans for a set of four new retail buildings to be built on part of a 1-acre grassy area at 2301 Old Brick Road, one of the last undeveloped pieces of West Broad Village. The new buildings, described as "retail jewel boxes" in preliminary plans, would house three 1,500-square-foot storefronts along with a 2,500-square-foot restaurant space with a 1,000-square-foot patio. The "farmside kitchen" building would sit at the eastern end of the parcel, across from Park Lane Tavern, and much of the grassy area would be kept as such.
Translation for the people who watch fireworks from that lawn every July: most of the grass survives, but the sight line changes. The concert stage will share the parcel with a patio and three storefronts. That is not a loss, but it is a shift, and 2026 is the last summer before it starts.
What's new on Old Brick Road this year
The restaurant lineup you memorized in 2022 is not the one you're eating in now. A handful of quiet substitutions have reshuffled the block over the last two years.
| Space | Was | Is now |
|---|---|---|
| Old Brick Road corner | Burger Bach | Emmy Squared Pizza |
| Adjacent slot | Carrabba's Italian Grill | Tilebar |
| Along Broad | Carolina Ale House | MPM Tiki Bar |
| Newer arrivals | — | Ford's Garage, Fogo de Chão |
The Burger Bach and Carrabba's there closed, but those spaces have since been snapped up by Detroit-style pizzeria Emmy Squared Pizza and building materials retailer Tilebar. Other recent arrivals at the development include Ford's Garage, a Ford Motor Co.-themed restaurant, and Fogo de Chão, a Brazilian steakhouse. MPM Tiki Bar took over the former Carolina Ale House space along Broad.
The pattern is worth reading. Two chain casual-dining rooms exited. One was replaced by a regional pizza concept, the other by non-food retail. The two additions on the food side, Ford's Garage and Fogo de Chão, are destination-priced. If it feels like your weeknight options got a little thinner and your date-night options got a little thicker, you are reading the block correctly.
For a walkable weekend, the most useful information is probably this: listed dining options include Arilang Sushi, Bartizan, Bonefish Grill, Chuy's, Dave & Buster's, Fogo de Chão, Ford's Garage, Ray's Italian Ice, and Sea By Thai. That is enough to build a full evening without leaving the sidewalk.
A quieter morning routine
Concerts and steakhouses are the loud version of West Broad Village. The mornings are the version you actually live in.
Foxtail Coffee at West Broad Village is a good fit for a slower weekend pace. Its official location page highlights coffee along with gelato, beer, and wine, plus indoor and outdoor seating. Post up on the patio, walk to Whole Foods for whatever you forgot, and you have used maybe ninety minutes of your Saturday without touching a car.
A few things worth knowing if you have not stopped in lately:
- The Whole Foods at 11173 W. Broad Street opens at 8 a.m., which means the pre-concert grocery run before a 7 p.m. show is very much possible.
- West Broad Village is also home to the Henrico County Public Library's newest branch, which has become a community anchor. Storytime crowds pull families onto Old Brick Road on weekday mornings.
- Trader Joe's sits next door in the adjacent Short Pump Station center, close enough to walk if the weather cooperates.
If you have out-of-town guests staying with you, the morning circuit of Foxtail, the library, and a Whole Foods lap does more to sell the neighborhood than any restaurant reservation. Save the reservation for dinner.
The anchors that have not moved
Some rooms in this district have been here long enough that residents forget to recommend them. Worth naming.
Keagan's Irish Pub sits in the heart of West Broad Village at Short Pump, offering a full menu of Irish American cuisine, a pub for all ages and any occasion. If you're rotating a Wednesday-night group through a few local spots, Keagan's is the one that reliably absorbs a party of ten without a reservation. Park Lane Tavern, across from the future farmside-kitchen parcel, plays a similar role. Bonefish Grill has held its lease near I-64 since the early days of the development.
None of these are trendy. All of them are useful. That mix is what makes the neighborhood function as a place to live rather than a place to visit, and it is the reason the recent turnover in the flashier spaces has not changed the character of the block much.
What the jewel boxes will change
Back to the parcel. It is worth being specific about what the four planned buildings actually do, because "new retail" can mean a lot of different things.
The three 1,500-square-foot storefronts are small by shopping-center standards. That footprint typically pulls in specialty tenants, not another big-box. Think an ice cream shop, a florist, a small boutique, a paint-and-sip. The 2,500-square-foot restaurant with a 1,000-square-foot patio is a mid-sized room, closer in scale to a Foxtail than a Fogo de Chão. Charlotte-based Southwick Architecture + Interiors is designing the new buildings.
Two effects for residents to watch:
- The sight line from Old Brick Road toward Park Lane Tavern will shorten. The buildings sit at the eastern end of the parcel, which changes how the concert lawn reads from the north side.
- The parking calculus during events gets tighter. More storefronts mean more evening foot traffic even on non-event Saturdays. If you have been able to grab a Whole Foods space during a concert until now, that habit may not survive the buildout.
Neither of these is a reason to be against the plan. They are reasons to know your favorite bench and your backup parking spot before construction starts.
How to spend the rest of this summer
A short list, because at this point you know the neighborhood better than any blog post can tell you:
- Pick two Saturday concert dates off the property calendar and put them in your phone now.
- Try one of the two restaurants that opened while you weren't paying attention. Emmy Squared if you like pizza, Ford's Garage if you like a themed room with a solid burger.
- Walk the lawn once at dusk, before construction fencing goes up on the eastern edge. You will want to have looked at it.
- Save Fogo de Chão for the guests who insist Short Pump has no personality.
The West End has been building outward for fifty years. West Broad Village was Richmond's first serious attempt at building inward, and the pedestrian scale of Old Brick Road is the reason a lot of you moved here. The new buildings will not undo that. But summer 2026 is the last one where the middle of the neighborhood is still one uninterrupted piece of green, and that is worth walking through with a coffee before it changes.
When you're ready to talk about what's happening on your block, whether that's a listing question, a value check, or just a market read, Cowan Realty is here for the conversation. Work with Us.
