"We're anxious. We can't wait to open up." That's what Mirror Twin Brewing co-owner Mike Sobolak posted last fall about the second taproom he and co-founder Derek deFranco were building at 4379 Old Harrodsburg Rd, right next to Freshie's Ice Cream & Soda Fountain. He'd been hoping for a September opening. A permitting delay, a stalled search for a general contractor, and pricing that didn't pencil pushed that date back, and Sobolak stopped naming a new one.
Around the same time, another business on the same stretch of road made a similar promise and actually followed through, even if it ran a little late too. On June 11, 2026, Graeter's Ice Cream held a ribbon cutting at 3957 Fountainblue Lane in the Palomar Springs shopping center, its third Lexington location and the first new Graeter's shop to open in the city in a decade. The company had originally been quoted as targeting "early 2026," so June came a few months past that window. But it came with a firm date and a ribbon, which is more than Mirror Twin's second taproom has managed to produce since its own delay.
If you live anywhere around Palomar, Beaumont, Wellington, or The Glades, you've probably seen both of these treated the same way on Nextdoor or a neighborhood Instagram account: new business coming to Fountains at Palomar. But an announcement and an opening are two different events, and this corner of Harrodsburg Road right now is a pretty clean lesson in telling them apart. Here's what's actually happened, business by business, versus what's still just a plan on paper.
What's Open Right Now
Graeter's new shop is a 2,500-square-foot building next door to Bella Cafe & Grille, and it has something the brand's two older Lexington locations in Chevy Chase and Hamburg don't: a drive-thru, alongside dine-in seating and an outdoor patio. If you've been picking up a scoop with kids already buckled in the back seat, that's a real difference, not just a nice-to-have.
Bella Cafe & Grille has been the area's anchor since it opened at 3901 Fountain Blue Lane in fall 2023, well before most of the current wave of tenants signed a lease. It's the sure thing while newer names get their footing.
Playa Bowls opened its first Fountains at Palomar location in summer 2025, and it did well enough that owner Dee Smith opened a second Lexington location that September at 2573 Richmond Road, closer to UK and downtown, for people who didn't want to make the drive south. That's worth sitting with for a second: the corridor's earliest bet on this stretch of Harrodsburg Road paid off well enough to expand somewhere else in the city entirely. Smith has also talked about the sense of community among the center's business owners, singling out Omakase, the restaurant next door, as one of the closer relationships.
None of this happens in a vacuum. A nearly 56,000-square-foot Publix opened on Fountain Blue Lane in the summer of 2025, and it's the kind of anchor tenant that tends to pull smaller operators toward a shopping center rather than away from it.
What's Been Announced But Isn't Confirmed
Here's where the timeline gets messier, and where the difference between a press release and a ribbon cutting actually matters if you're planning around any of these.
| Business | What was announced | Where it actually stands |
|---|---|---|
| Nothing But Noodles | Opening early 2026 in the newly built Ethington Shops at 4257 Harrodsburg Road | No public opening date has followed the original announcement |
| Firebirds Wood Fired Grill, Palomar location | Second Lexington location planned for 2026, alongside a first location in Hamburg | Still unannounced as of a May 2026 update, even after the Hamburg site moved forward and was teased through a social media ad |
| Mirror Twin Brewing, second taproom | Hoped to open in September 2025 at 4379 Old Harrodsburg Rd | No new date given since the delay, according to the owner's own account |
A delay doesn't automatically mean trouble. Nothing But Noodles is new to Kentucky entirely, with locations only in North Carolina and Alabama up to this point, and first-to-market openings for an out-of-state chain often run behind their own press releases simply because build-out logistics are unfamiliar territory.
The Firebirds situation is the more interesting one. Both Lexington locations, Hamburg and Palomar, were announced together, in the same breath, at the same time. One proceeded on something close to schedule. The other has produced no further public word in the months since. Same company, same press cycle, two very different outcomes, which tells you the company itself is choosing its own pace rather than following whatever it originally told a reporter.
The Corridor Isn't Done, But Nobody's Named What's Next
Fountains at Palomar sits on 16.25 acres at the corner of Man O' War Boulevard and Harrodsburg Road, developed by Greer Companies since the firm first got involved back in 2018. Company president Lee Greer has said the goal from the start was bringing in tenants that complemented each other rather than competed for the same customer. Two pad sites remain available within Palomar Springs, with lease options running between 2,000 and 10,000 square feet, meaning the build-out is genuinely ongoing and not close to finished.
VisitLEX President Mary Quinn Ramer has pointed to this same intersection as one that's reshaped the southwest side of Fayette County, drawing not just local traffic but visitors coming through for Keeneland, downtown arts and entertainment, and the Kentucky Bourbon Trail. That's a bigger audience than just the neighborhoods immediately around it, which helps explain why operators keep circling this particular stretch of road even when one of them stumbles on the way in.
The practical takeaway is that more names are coming to those two remaining pad sites. Nobody, including Greer Companies, has said who yet. Which means the next round of what's-coming chatter is going to run through the same cycle you just watched: an announcement, then either a ribbon cutting or a long silence.
What This Means If This Is Your Corner of Town
A few things worth knowing if your daily loop already runs through this part of Lexington:
- Graeter's is open now, seven days a week, with the drive-thru up and running. That one's done.
- Don't plan an evening around the second Mirror Twin taproom yet. The most recent word from the owner himself was that there's no new date.
- Bella Cafe & Grille remains the dependable option next door while the newer additions settle in.
- If you want the earliest read on what's coming to those two open pad sites, watch for commercial permit filings with the city rather than waiting on a social post. That's exactly how the Mirror Twin taproom news became public in the first place, months before the delay was ever announced.
None of this changes anything about what your house is worth or when you should list it. It's just what's actually true right now about a shopping center a lot of Palomar, Beaumont, and Wellington households already drive past every week, and it's a decent reminder that "opening 2026" on a storefront window is a hope, not a fact, until there's a ribbon and a date attached to it.
If you're keeping an eye on how this side of Lexington keeps changing, from new storefronts to what it means for the neighborhoods around them, Jess Noto tracks that kind of thing closely as part of working this market every day. Let's Connect if you ever want the read on a specific pocket of town.
