"COMING THIS WINTER." That's the only status on the Lado A Lado website right now. In July, when the restaurant was announced for the former Joyride Taco House building at 5202 N. Central Ave., ABC15 reported it would open "this fall." Lado A Lado hasn't opened, and the target has moved back a full season.
That small edit explains most of what's going on along Central Avenue between Park Central and Camelback this fall. Almost every "new" restaurant on this stretch is moving into a space someone else left. How quickly each one opens has less to do with buzz than with how much kitchen has to be built. A beer bar moved into one Uptown Plaza storefront within weeks. The projects built around wood fire, raw bars and rebuilt kitchens are the ones still behind construction paper, or opening later than first announced.
Here is the corridor stop by stop on the light rail, with what's actually open as of October 12, 2026.
The whole stretch at a glance
| Light rail stop | Address | What's there | Status as of Oct. 12, 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Thomas/Central Ave | 3112 N. Central Ave., Park Central | Cowboy Seafood | Public opening scheduled for Friday, Oct. 9 |
| Campbell/Central Ave | 5202 N. Central Ave. | Lado A Lado, replacing Joyride Taco House | Joyride closed Aug. 2; Lado A Lado says "coming this winter" |
| Central Ave/Camelback | 100 E. Camelback Rd. #160, Uptown Plaza | The Sleepy Whale, replacing Dynamite Beer Co. | Open since July 31 |
| Central Ave/Camelback | 100 E. Camelback Rd. #152, Uptown Plaza | DiMaggio's, replacing Lou Malnati's | Targeting late October |
| Central Ave/Camelback | 24 W. Camelback Rd. | Joy Lush Club, with Stoop Kid in the kitchen | Late-September reopening forecast; reopening not yet confirmed |
The stop names come from Valley Metro's station list. Park Central names Thomas/Central Avenue as its light rail station. For the other addresses, I matched each one to the nearest stop by cross street, not by measured walking distance. When I checked Valley Metro's rider alerts, there were no rail interruptions or station closures listed on this part of Central.
Uptown Plaza shows how fast a swap can go
Start at the north end, because Uptown Plaza at Central and Camelback has the clearest side-by-side comparison on the corridor.
Dynamite Beer Co. left its Uptown Plaza space in June after 15 months, Mouth by Southwest reported. The Sleepy Whale opened in that same space, #160, on July 31. Phoenix New Times covered it as the second location for a Chandler beer bar. Mouth by Southwest notes the Chandler original has been open since 2019. So the space went from one beer-focused tenant to another in less than two months.
The Sleepy Whale's Uptown page describes it as a beer bar and bottle shop. Posted hours are:
- Monday, 3 to 9 p.m.
- Tuesday and Wednesday, 11 a.m. to 9 p.m.
- Thursday through Saturday, 11 a.m. to 11 p.m.
- Sunday, 11 a.m. to 9 p.m.
A few doors down, #152 has been on a much slower clock. Lou Malnati's served its last day at Uptown Plaza on February 18, 2025, according to Phoenix New Times. The next tenant is DiMaggio's, a New York-style Italian restaurant run by partners Frank DiMaggio and Brandon Gioffre. Phoenix New Times described it as a popular Scottsdale restaurant expanding to Uptown. WhatNow Phoenix reported in mid-September that it "plans to open its second location in late October." PhoenixBites repeated that on September 25: "currently targeting late October 2026." If it hits that window, the former pizzeria space will have been dark for about 20 months. The beer bar next door turned over in about seven weeks.
A full-service Italian kitchen and a bottle shop with taps are very different build-outs. That gap shows up again everywhere else on this stretch.
Across Camelback, a kitchen rebuild stalls a reopening
On the other side of the street, Joy Lush Club at 24 W. Camelback Rd. closed for construction, with Stoop Kid lined up to take over the kitchen for burgers, fries and desserts. Phoenix New Times forecast a late-September reopening, plus new lunch hours. The same article included a progress update from Joy Lush's Instagram: "framing is up and electrical is almost complete," with drywall and tile still to come.
That was mid-September. I haven't found anything confirming the bar has reopened. Treat the Stoop Kid lunch as announced, and check Joy Lush's own channels before you walk over.
Campbell: the slip from fall to winter
One stop south, the former Joyride building is the most closely watched project on the corridor, and the clearest example of the pattern.
Joyride came to Uptown in 2013 as part of the Upward Projects cluster. Phoenix New Times describes that cluster as five signature restaurants on both sides of one block of Central Avenue. Joyride served its last diners on Aug. 2. The Gilbert original is still open.
The new tenant comes from a partnership between Upward Projects and the Chiwas Hospitality Group, the team behind Tacos Chiwas and Espiritu. Chefs Armando Hernandez, Nadia Holguin and Roberto Centeno are James Beard Award semifinalists. Phoenix New Times' fall preview says they're planning a wood-fired Mexican restaurant inspired by Sonora, in the midcentury building with the tree-shaded patio. The announcement promised open-flame cooking, a raw bar, a parrillada, and "familial shared meals of the Sonoran region."
Open fire plus a raw bar is about as heavy a build-out as a restaurant gets. As of today, the building has been dark for ten weeks, and the opening target has moved from fall to winter. The patio is still there. It just isn't serving anyone yet.
Farther south on Central, Blue Plate Co. ended its run in September, according to an October 1 Phoenix New Times roundup of recent closures. That roundup didn't give a street number or exact closing date. No successor had been announced in what I found.
Thomas: the big build that held its date
Park Central is where the pattern bends. Cowboy Seafood at 3112 N. Central Ave. is the most ambitious kitchen on this list, and it's the one that kept to its season. Phoenix New Times had it under "Still to come this fall" in mid-September. The restaurant's official site announced a public opening on Friday, Oct. 9, 2026. Hoodline reported the same scheduled date on October 7.
The difference may be that it isn't a swap. AZ Big Media reports the 5,000-square-foot space was designed together with Plaza Companies, the developer behind Park Central. It has an 80-seat dining room, a 22-seat island bar, a 12-seat community table and an 80-seat patio. The restaurant comes from fourth-generation restaurateur Christopher Collins and Common Ground Culinary. Phoenix New Times says that group already runs eight concepts around the Valley.
The October menu pairs a raw bar of oysters, shrimp, scallops, stone crab and lobster with St. Louis ribs, smoked pork and brisket. Posted hours are lunch daily from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. and dinner from 3 to 9 p.m. Sunday through Thursday, or until 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday. Happy hour runs daily from 3 to 6 p.m. Happy hour prices on the menu:
- Arizona draft beer, $5
- Brown-bag beer, $4
- Standard liquor with mixer, $7
- Wines and frozen drinks, $10
- Signature cocktails, $12
One caveat. My sources confirm the scheduled date, and the site banner still reads in the future tense. Check the restaurant's channels before making a Friday plan around it.
Park Central is also adding daytime traffic. In May, the campus announced that Dignity Health Medical Group signed a lease for a 25,330-square-foot outpatient cardiology center in the Burgbacher Building, with opening anticipated in "approximately 180 days." That's a forecast, not a confirmed date. Combined with a restaurant serving lunch every day, though, the south end of this stretch has a reason to stay busy before the dinner rush.
How to use the timeline from here
If you live near one of these three stops, here's what you can count on and what you can't:
- Count on it now: The Sleepy Whale at Central Ave/Camelback, which has been open since July 31.
- Probably open, but confirm: Cowboy Seafood at Thomas/Central Ave, scheduled for Oct. 9.
- Watch for late October: DiMaggio's at Uptown Plaza, pending its target date.
- Unconfirmed: Joy Lush Club with Stoop Kid, past its late-September forecast.
- Not before winter: Lado A Lado at Campbell/Central Ave.
On this stretch, the openings with lighter build-outs have kept their dates. The projects that need new kitchens are running on construction time.
I keep track of corridor changes like these because they shape daily life near each light rail stop long before they show up in a listing description. If you're curious how Central Avenue's shifting storefronts factor into a home near Thomas, Campbell or Camelback, schedule a consultation with Kelleigh Evans and we'll go through it one stop at a time.
