Walk south from California Avenue on a warm August evening and Midtown looks familiar. Cluckers is still slinging fried chicken sandwiches, Great Full Gardens is still full, Craft Wine & Beer's patio is still packed. Keep going another block and something has shifted. The old Junkee building has a firepit out front. A cabaret sign glows next door. Across Martin Street, a juice bar is finishing out the space Local Beer Works vacated. This is not the Midtown of even eighteen months ago.
The thesis of this post is simple: Midtown's summer 2026 openings are not scattered. They cluster. If you live in Reno and you have not walked the stretch from Bibo Coffee down to the roundabout since May, you are missing an evening loop that did not exist last year.
What Actually Opened, And Where
Most of the new activity sits inside a six-minute walk. Here is the shape of it.
| Spot | Address | Opened |
|---|---|---|
| The Matchbox (seasonal cocktail yard) | Behind Bibo Coffee, 717 S. Center St. | May 23, 2026 |
| Drink Coffee Do Stuff | 960 S. Virginia St. | May 16, 2026 |
| The Selden | 960 S. Virginia St. | May 2026 |
| Alioto's Focacceria | The Sticks (old Jus space) | July 11, 2026 |
| Marcolino's Italia (relocated) | 1555 S. Wells Ave. | 2026 |
Behind Bibo Coffee and Gelato at 717 S. Center St., a seasonal bar called The Matchbox opened on May 23 in a shaded yard decorated with lavender and grapevines, serving a short list of summer cocktails alongside almost as many mocktails. The Matchbox is open on weekends, including Mondays to accommodate the industry crowd. If you have ever wanted to walk into a bar and order oolong tea and ginger without explaining yourself, this is the spot.
Two blocks west and one block south, the old Junkee building at 960 S. Virginia has done a full turn. The regional coffeehouse Drink Coffee Do Stuff, which already runs locations in South Lake Tahoe, Incline Village, Truckee and South Reno, opened its Midtown store on May 16 near the roundabout in the former Junkee Clothing Exchange building, with a front patio featuring Adirondack chairs and a firepit. In the same development, Reno's newest LGBTQ bar, The Selden, also opened in May, owned by Tyler Colton, who owns The Emerson.
That last detail matters. The Emerson sits a block north on South Virginia. Colton now operates two bars inside a three-minute walk of each other, which is the kind of density Midtown has been threatening for years without quite delivering.
The Juice Bar That Explains The Corridor
If you want a single project that shows how tight this stretch has become, it is Jugo Juice Bar. Ricardo Bravo, owner of Miches Vatos michelada bar at 538 S. Virginia St., and his brother Esteban are converting the former Local Beer Works into Jugo, which will land at 955 S. Virginia St., a few doors down from The Emerson and directly across Martin Street from Craft Wine & Beer.
Read that address list again. Miches Vatos at 538. The Emerson at roughly the same block. Jugo at 955. Craft Wine & Beer across the street. Drink Coffee Do Stuff and The Selden at 960. The Matchbox behind Bibo at 717 S. Center, one block east. Six operators, one loop, walking distance the whole way.
When operators start opening second locations near their first, and outside owners choose the same six-block corridor for their expansion, the market is telling you something specific about where Midtown's center of gravity has moved.
The Newer Italian, And Where To Find It
The other notable summer arrival sits a short walk east of the corridor above. Alioto's Focacceria opened in the old Jus location in The Sticks in Reno's Midtown on July 11, from Chef Alexander Alioto, who also owns The Kitchen Table. Alioto is a descendant of the famous Alioto family from San Francisco, which means Midtown now has a focacceria with a lineage most Bay Area transplants will recognize.
Marcolino's Italia is the other Italian story. The locally owned Marcolino's has moved into a new, larger Midtown location at 1555 S. Wells Ave., offering pasta, meat, and seafood dishes in a setting bigger than its previous footprint could hold.
The Weekly Rhythm Underneath It All
New openings are the headlines. The standing calendar is what turns an August Tuesday into something worth walking outside for.
- Food Truck Friday runs from 4 to 9 p.m. through the summer at Idlewild Park, 2055 Idlewild Drive, with more than 50 food and drink vendors rotating. It is the largest weekly street food event in the region.
- Live music runs at Locomotion Plaza in Midtown through August, part of the summer concert rotation that keeps the district active on weeknights.
- The Wheyfarer, the specialty cheese and food shop at 24 California Ave., was named a finalist in the 2026 Reno Food and Drink Week, ranking second in the Showcases category. If you have not built a Saturday afternoon around one of their cheese plates, this is the summer to fix that.
The Small Openings That Add Up
A few smaller updates worth putting on your mental map:
Pho 777 II has opened at 303 W. Third St., on the ground floor of the 3rd Street Flats building, from the same owners as the long-established Pho 777 on East Second, serving traditional Vietnamese dishes and open seven days a week. It is not Midtown proper, but it is close enough to belong in the same weekend rotation.
EZ Pot & Skewers Bar is opening at 681 S. Virginia St. in the space left vacant by Finbomb Sushi Burrito and Poke Bar, owned by Qianwen Liu, Zewen Qing, and Chanpong Tan. Watch the storefront on your next walk down Virginia.
The Reno Vegan Chef Challenge wrapped on May 31, with La Mint Vietnamese Restaurant taking the golden spatula, Great Full Gardens winning best overall menu, and Sage Leaf named Diner's Favorite. All three are places you already knew about. Now you have a specific reason to pick between them the next time three people cannot agree on dinner.
Reading The Corridor In August
August in Reno belongs to Hot August Nights whether you attend or not. Over 800,000 visitors descend on Reno-Sparks for classic cars, cruise nights, and rock and roll during the world's largest nostalgic car event, which is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year. If you live in Midtown, that means two things. The first is that your side streets fill up. The second is that the new openings on the 900 block are the easiest way to spend an evening without competing with an out-of-town crowd for a downtown table.
That is the practical case for walking your own neighborhood this month. The new operators have made the trip shorter than it used to be. A cocktail at The Matchbox, a light dinner at Alioto's, coffee and dessert at Drink Coffee Do Stuff, a late drink at The Selden or The Emerson, home before ten. That itinerary was not available in May.
What This Means For The Neighborhood
The pattern behind the openings is worth naming. Operators with an existing Reno footprint are the ones expanding fastest. Tyler Colton is running two bars a block apart. Alexander Alioto is running two restaurants. Ricardo Bravo is opening a second concept across the street from his first. Drink Coffee Do Stuff crossed the state line from Truckee and picked Midtown over anywhere else in Reno.
Read together, these choices tell a story about which stretch of the district owner-operators believe in. The 900 block of South Virginia is the answer for now. If you live within walking distance, you already have a shorter list of reasons to drive anywhere else on a summer evening.
If you have been thinking about your own place in this part of town, whether that means selling a home you have loved for a decade or finding one closer to the walk you actually want to take, Sandra Striker knows this stretch of Reno the way locals know it, block by block and operator by operator. Let's Connect.
