If you have lived in Bexley for any stretch of time, East Main Street reads like a memory map. Rubino's has been slinging thin-crust pizza in the same storefront since 1954. Giuseppe's Ritrovo has been the anniversary spot for two generations. Cherbourg Bakery still pulls a Saturday morning line out the door for gluten-free pastry. The corridor changes slowly, and residents tend to like it that way.
This summer, though, the block between Drexel and Cassady is entering a genuinely new chapter. The scaffolding at 2200 E. Main is not another facade refresh. It is the arrival of a national-tier Cameron Mitchell concept inside the largest mixed-use project the neighborhood has ever seen, and it is going to reshape how the street reads for a long time.
What is actually going into 2200 E. Main
The address belongs to The Fitzgerald, an $85 million mixed-use development by Continental Real Estate Cos. Continental's Frank Kass is the developer of record, and the anchor tenant announcement landed in late spring: Hudson 29 Kitchen and Drink is coming to The Fitzgerald at 2200 E. Main St. The 5,500-square-foot restaurant will include 178 seats, including 42 on a covered and heated patio designed for year-round dining and gathering. A parking garage located behind the building will provide guest access, which matters more than it might sound in a walkable district where street parking on a Friday night has always been the friction point.
The timeline to circle: the restaurant is expected to open in spring 2027. That gives residents roughly a year of construction reality and about a year to enjoy the current pace of the block before it changes.
For anyone unfamiliar with the concept, Hudson 29 is not new to Central Ohio, just new to Bexley. Hudson 29 opened its Upper Arlington location at The Lane in March 2014. A second location opened in New Albany's Market and Main in April 2015. The Bexley restaurant will be the third. If you have eaten at either sister location, you already know the register: chef-driven American menu, weekend brunch, a polished but not stiff room.
The block it is joining
Before the Fitzgerald opens, it is worth taking stock of what is already there. Main Street's dining and retail mix is denser than most residents give it credit for, and a lot of it is genuinely independent. Here is a walkable slice, west to east:
| Business | Address on E. Main | What it is |
|---|---|---|
| Rusty Bucket | 2158 | Casual American tavern |
| The Fitzgerald / Hudson 29 (spring 2027) | 2200 | New mixed-use anchor |
| Zen Cha Tea Salon | 2396 | International tea salon |
| Piada Italian Street Food | 2585 | Fast-casual Italian |
| Rubino's Pizza | 2643 | Thin-crust institution, since 1954 |
| Hollywood Feed | 2656 | Natural pet supply, self-serve dog wash |
That list leaves out Giuseppe's Ritrovo, Cherbourg Bakery, Gramercy Books, Brassica, Katalina's, Harvest Pizzeria, and The Top Steakhouse, all of which sit within a short drive or walk. The city's own directory notes that Bexley is home to 100+ local, regional, national, and international restaurants, shops, cafes, and galleries. The point is not the count. The point is the ratio. Very few suburban main streets of this size can put an independent Italian restaurant, an independent bookstore, a 70-year-old pizza shop, and an incoming Cameron Mitchell concept inside the same half-mile.
"Each location has its own personality, and Bexley will offer a new take on the Hudson 29 experience while staying true to what makes the concept special." — David Miller, President and COO, Cameron Mitchell Restaurants
The specific phrasing there is worth pausing on. Cameron Mitchell tends to tailor its rooms to the neighborhood rather than franchise a template. In practice, that has meant different bar programs, different patio designs, and different art choices at Upper Arlington versus New Albany. Expect the Bexley room to lean into the corridor's slightly older, more residential feel rather than the shopping-center polish of The Lane.
A summer walk, west to east
If you want to actually see the shift in progress, the most useful thing you can do this summer is walk the corridor once a month. The construction envelope at 2200 will change quickly, and the businesses around it are worth revisiting anyway.
Start with breakfast. Katalina's remains the reliable Sunday move for pancake balls, and Stav's Diner is the counter-seat alternative if the wait feels long. From there, work east. Cherbourg is the mid-morning stop for a scone. Gramercy Books, a few doors down, is running its usual summer author events and remains one of the few independent bookstores on the east side of the metro that actually stocks new hardcovers deep rather than one-copy-face-out.
By lunch you are at Brassica for a pita bowl, or at Piada if you want the counter-service version of Italian. Both are on Main. Both are busy. Brassica in particular has become the default lunch spot for anyone working from home along the Drexel side of the neighborhood.
The afternoon belongs to Zen Cha. The tea salon has been quietly one of the more distinctive rooms on the corridor for years, and it is the kind of place a resident forgets about until an out-of-town guest asks where to go that is not a chain.
Dinner is where the corridor shows its range. Rubino's if you want the thing that has not changed. Giuseppe's if you want the thing that never should. The Top Steakhouse if you want the classic Columbus supper-club experience. Harvest Pizzeria for wood-fired. Once Hudson 29 opens, that list gets a fifth entry with its own gravitational pull, and the calculus of a Friday night in Bexley will shift.
What to watch between now and spring 2027
For residents, the interesting story is not the ribbon cutting. It is the two years leading up to it. A few things worth keeping an eye on:
- Construction staging on Main. Continental is building on an active commercial block. Expect lane restrictions and shifting sidewalk detours as the Fitzgerald's structure rises. The parking garage behind the building is part of the plan, which should ease pressure on curbside spots once open, but the interim period is going to be tight.
- Reservation demand at existing spots. The Upper Arlington Hudson 29 pulled a meaningful share of the surrounding dining traffic when it opened in 2014. If that pattern repeats, existing Bexley reservations at Giuseppe's, The Top, and Harvest will likely tighten in the six months before and after Hudson 29's open. Book earlier than you think you need to.
- The rest of the Fitzgerald tenant mix. Hudson 29 is the anchor announcement. The residential and remaining retail tenants of an $85 million project of this scale will meaningfully change foot traffic patterns on the block. Watch the city's development announcements through fall and winter.
- Patio season 2027. 42 seats on a covered and heated patio is a real number in a climate where outdoor dining has historically been a five-month season. If those seats work as designed, it is a genuine addition to Bexley's year-round options.
The through-line is this. Bexley's Main Street has always been a corridor where independents outnumbered chains and where the average storefront had been there longer than the average resident. That is still true. It will still be true in 2027. What is changing is that the corridor is now big enough, and confident enough, to absorb a polished national-tier concept without losing its character. The Fitzgerald is a bet that the same people who have kept Rubino's in business for 71 years also want a covered patio and a chef-driven menu two doors down. It is a reasonable bet.
If you have been thinking about how these changes might affect your block, your resale value, or what your street looks like five years from now, that is a conversation worth having with someone who watches the corridor closely. The team at Margot Laumann lives and works in this market, and we are always happy to talk through what a specific stretch of Bexley looks like today and where it appears to be heading. Let's connect.
