If you've tried to keep a mental list of what's new to eat in Reno this year, you've probably given up. The city has added, closed, relocated, and reopened restaurants fast enough that the tracking itself has become the local pastime. But underneath the churn, two distinct things are happening, and they are not the same thing dressed up differently. One is about old buildings getting their names called again. The other is about brand-new developments filling up faster than anyone expected. Knowing which one you're looking at changes what you should expect walking in the door.
The Building That Sat Behind Chain-Link for Five Years
Drive along South Wells Avenue and you'll pass 1555, a building that's been part of Reno's dining memory since 1977, when Rapscallion opened as a seafood house and steakhouse and spent more than four decades collecting Reno's Best Seafood titles and regulars who never needed a menu. When the pandemic hit in 2020, Rapscallion closed, and the property sat empty behind fencing for years while Midtown grew up around it.
This past January, the lights came back on. Marcolino's Italia, the fine-dining restaurant and catering operation started by owner Marco Brown, closed its downtown location at 254 W. First St. on New Year's Eve and reopened inside the old Rapscallion building on January 10, serving lunch at 11 a.m. and dinner at 5 p.m. that first Saturday. The move has a longer arc than it looks. Brown's business began as a food truck, and in its first five months on the road it pulled in $280,000 in revenue, enough to justify opening a full downtown restaurant in April 2023. Two years later, he had the keys to one of Midtown's most recognizable addresses.
That kind of jump, from truck to storefront to landmark building, is the slowest version of restaurant growth in Reno right now. It takes proof of concept, patience, and a building that happens to come open. It's not the version most of the city's new restaurants are following.
Ghost Buildings Are Waking Up Elsewhere Too
Marcolino's isn't the only operator moving into a space that used to belong to somebody else's memory. Cook'd, the sports bar and grill concept from Minden owners Bryan and Lavinia Miller, opened its second location on May 4 in the space on South Virginia Street last occupied by Napa-Sonoma. The Millers said Reno customers had been asking for a second storefront for a while, and after renovations that started in December, they brought over the same menu as their Minden original, with an expanded, more ambitious wine list layered on top.
Downtown, the same pattern is playing out at a very different scale. The Mint, a retro-inspired bar, opened as the first foothold of the long-anticipated Revival project inside the old Harrah's Casino site, taking over the storefront where a Starbucks used to be. By this January it was already being referred to locally as The Mint Casino, a sign that the small gaming component originally planned for a later phase had moved up alongside the bar itself. Three different buildings, three different histories, three operators betting that a familiar shell with a proven location beats building from the ground up. It's a slower path to a new restaurant, but the ones taking it seem to be betting the address itself does some of the work.
Across Town, a Different Kind of Opening Is Happening
Head over to Midtown's Reno Experience District and the story flips entirely. There's no ghost building here, no five-year vacancy, no landmark waiting for its second act. Squeeze In MidTown, the newest location of the Truckee-founded breakfast chain, held its grand opening on June 27 at 2020 Red Drive, Suite 6, in the RED Development, seating more than 70 people and adding a large outdoor patio directly across from the Cinemark Century movie theater. It's owned and operated by Whitney and Mike Goldwater, who also run the Carson City Squeeze In, and Whitney grew up in Northern Nevada, which is part of why the RED Development felt like the right next step for a business she'd already helped grow once.
Three weeks later, on July 18, El Patio Street Eats held its own grand opening in the same development. Two unrelated restaurants, two grand openings, twenty-one days apart, same address. That's not a coincidence of timing. It's what happens when a master-planned commercial district fills its available leases in sequence rather than waiting for any single building to become available. The RED Development doesn't have one landmark story. It has a rotation.
One story is a single kitchen finally getting its building back. The other is a developer filling an entire block before most people notice construction started.
Downtown's Version Is the Same Idea, Just Bigger
The Revival project at the old Harrah's site is the district model taken to its largest scale in the city right now. The full plan, developed by Ahlquist LLC with Las Vegas-based Fine Entertainment handling the food and entertainment lineup, covers 1.2 million square feet across two city blocks and is meant to eventually include 282 market-rate apartments and 390 hotel rooms alongside the restaurants and bars. At full build-out, the project is expected to employ 500 to 600 people.
The Mint got there first. PKWY Tavern, an entertainment-forward concept with bowling, darts, pool tables, and 400 beers on tap, and BLVD Grille, a steak-focused dining room built around live music and cocktails, were both expected to open by the end of the first quarter of 2026. As of this writing in mid-August, neither opening has been confirmed in local coverage, which is worth knowing if you've been holding off a visit waiting for the rest of the lineup. Beyond those two, Fine Entertainment has also announced Smelly Cat for karaoke, George's Sportsmen's Lounge for sports viewing, and future plans for a speakeasy, a country bar, an underground nightclub, a burger concept, and a Mexican restaurant, though none of those have opening dates attached yet.
Revival is proof that the district model scales. It's also proof that district timelines move in phases you can't always predict from the outside, which matters if you're the kind of person who likes to actually plan a night out around a specific opening date.
What Closed While All of This Opened
Growth in one direction rarely means everything else holds steady, and Midtown has lost some familiar names this year even as new ones moved in. A few worth knowing if you haven't been by in a while:
- Sugar Blvd, Midtown's bright pink ice cream shop, announced its closure earlier this year
- The Par, Parlay 6 Brewing Co.'s Midtown restaurant, announced it is closing
- Polo Lounge closed after 20 years in business earlier this year, having passed from original owner Frank Perez to Nicholas Dismang along the way
- Bella Italia closed suddenly in June, with eviction notices posted on the doors
- Black Rock Desserts closed in June, though owner Marlon Salazar sold the business rather than stop making ice cream altogether
- Garden of Reno, the florist and coffee bar on Wells Avenue, closed on April 13
None of these closures are tied to the openings above. They're simply the other half of a food scene that's genuinely in motion, not one that's only adding without ever losing.
How to Actually Keep Up
If you're the type who wants to catch the next landmark building getting a second life, the buildings to watch are the ones that have sat quiet and empty for years, not months. Reno doesn't have many of those left standing, which is part of what made the Rapscallion building's return feel like news instead of just another opening.
If you'd rather see the fastest-changing corner of the city, walk through the RED Development every couple of months. Leases there seem to turn over in weeks, not years, and the next grand opening is probably already under construction while the last one is still finding its regulars.
Either way, the map is moving. Knowing whether you're watching a comeback or a build-out tells you what to expect when you finally get a table.
If you're curious how neighborhood changes like these tend to show up in property values and buyer interest around Midtown and downtown Reno, that's a conversation I have often. Mirie Linton keeps a close eye on what's opening, what's closing, and what it means for the neighborhoods she works in every day. Let's Connect.
