The Town of Cary built two parking decks downtown this spring. Over the summer, new businesses filled the blocks around them. A restaurant now sits on the ground floor of one deck and opens onto a rebuilt brick alley. Two independent bookstores opened on the same short stretch of East Chatham Street, and a 70-year-old service station started serving dinner. Most of downtown Cary's new places for 2026 sit between street numbers 107 and 253 on East Chatham, a few minutes' walk from a free parking space.
Here is the order it happened in:
- January 9: The Refreshery opens at 253 E. Chatham St., selling cold-pressed juice, coffee, tea and a small market.
- March 18: The Cedar Street Parking Deck opens at 136 E. Cedar St.
- April 11: The Academy Street Parking Deck opens at 206 S. Academy St.
- July 15: The Arcane Books & Speakeasy opens its bookshop in the historic Williams House at 210 E. Chatham St.
- July 28: Juliet Books (& Beautiful Things) opens at 200 Parkthrough St.
- August 26: Lloyd's Full Service opens at 107 E. Chatham St.
- August 29: K38 Baja Grill opens at 147 E. Chatham St.
The deck came first, with a storefront built in
The Cedar Street deck added 296 free public spaces, eight of them ADA-accessible. It also has 22 electric vehicle charging stations across its first three levels. Cars enter from East Cedar Street. Stairs and an elevator lead pedestrians out to East Chatham Street and Rogers Alley. The Town designed the ground floor with retail space facing East Chatham. It also rebuilt Rogers Alley with brick paver walkways, a brick-paved roadway, string lighting and outdoor seating. When the deck opened in March, the Town said those changes would "support a future restaurant space."
Ownership of the building is split. The Town operates the parking. Northwoods Rogers Condo, LLC runs the retail level under a condominium arrangement.
A few weeks later the Academy Street deck opened with 225 free public spaces, seven ADA spaces and 20 EV chargers. It belongs to the mixed-use Northwoods Jordan Building, also called Meridian Cary. The Town lists that project at 195 residential units and more than 80,000 square feet of retail and office space. No tenants for its retail suites have been publicly named yet.
The Town has asked downtown visitors to use the decks instead of parking in nearby neighborhoods or private lots. From either deck you can walk, or take GoCary's Downtown Loop to restaurants, shops and Downtown Cary Park.
The future restaurant space now has surfboards on the walls
The Town didn't name a restaurant in its March announcement. The ground-floor storefront facing the alley is now K38 Baja Grill, at 147 E. Chatham St. on the deck's ground floor. Real surfboards hang on the walls. The dining room opens onto the pedestrian alley toward Cedar Street, where there's more outdoor seating. In short, the restaurant space the Town planned is now a Wilmington taco shop facing the brick alley the Town paid for.
K38 started in 1993, and Cary is its seventh location. Most of the others are in Wilmington and Carolina Beach. It opened at Seaboard Station in Raleigh in December 2025. Brian Brennen is CEO of Live. Eat. Surf., the parent company. He said Cary "stood out because of its family-oriented feel and welcoming community." The menu covers tacos, enchiladas, quesadillas, salads, wraps and "rolls," which K38 describes as a tightly rolled burrito cut into bite-size pieces. At opening, hours were 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday.
There may be another shop on the way. Apex Outfitter and Board Co. was announced in June as a future ground-floor tenant next to K38, but no opening date has been given.
Forty numbers west, the corner that was already here
Lloyd's Full Service is at 107 E. Chatham St., on the corner of Chatham and Academy. It occupies a former service station that has been on that corner for more than 70 years. Lloyd's is run by Early Bird Night Owl, the hospitality group behind The Durham hotel and Cary's Mayton Inn. Chef Dennis Bernard leads the kitchen after years at Blackbird and The Publican in Chicago.
"Chef Dennis's bright, vibrant approach to cooking perfectly reflects our intention to carry on Lloyd's legacy as the cheerful place on the corner." — Craig Spitzer, founder and CEO of Early Bird Night Owl
The opening menu works from the classic American restaurant canon. It includes a seafood cocktail with some habanero heat, tomato and burrata with mint and pistachios, milk bread with salted butter, linguine with clams, and crispy pork schnitzel. There's also a "Breakfast for Dinner" plate with glazed pork belly, a poached egg and potato pavé. For something more casual, there's a burger with American cheese, pickles and aioli, and a shrimp po' boy. At opening, Lloyd's served dinner Wednesday through Friday and lunch and dinner on weekends. Weekday lunch was "coming soon," so check current hours before a midweek lunch.
Lloyd's and K38 opened three days apart. Their addresses are 40 numbers apart on the same side of the street.
Two bookstores, one summer, different hours on the clock
Two independent bookstores opened downtown within about two weeks of each other. They serve different kinds of readers.
The Arcane Books & Speakeasy is in the historic Williams House at 210 E. Chatham St. It pairs a fiction bookstore with cocktails, beer, food and events. The Cary Report describes it as part bookshop, part intimate cocktail bar and part gathering space. Its focus is adult fiction.
Juliet Books (& Beautiful Things) is in the old Tart's Barbershop at 200 Parkthrough St. Owner Marcie Montague spent five years as chief of staff to the CEO of a tech startup. She saw a For Rent sign on the barbershop and took it as her cue. The store stocks books for children through adults and sells gifts from local artisans. It also serves coffee, all of it local roasts. Upstairs, the children's area called the "Little Loft" has a mural by local artist Rachel Chelsea of Chello Designs. Downstairs, a "Dear Juliet" wall lets visitors leave letters, modeled on the one in Verona. Montague plans to order books weekly, so the shelves change with what people buy. Storytimes, yoga-and-stories sessions, children's book clubs and scavenger hunts are planned.
| The Arcane | Juliet Books | |
|---|---|---|
| Address | 210 E. Chatham St. | 200 Parkthrough St. |
| Building | Historic Williams House | Former Tart's Barbershop |
| Shelves | Adult fiction | Children's through adult, plus used books |
| Drinks | Cocktails and beer | Local-roast coffee |
| Opened | July 15, 2026 | July 28, 2026 |
Together they cover both ends of the day. Juliet suits a morning coffee and a storytime. The Arcane suits a novel and a cocktail after dinner at Lloyd's.
The east end had its opener in January
Before any of the summer openings, The Refreshery opened at 253 E. Chatham St. in January. It's in the Meridian East Chatham building, which is a different building from Meridian Cary on Academy Street. It sells cold-pressed juice, coffee and tea, plus a small grocery-style market. With The Refreshery at 253 and Lloyd's at 107, the whole East Chatham stretch now has something open from morning juice to a late cocktail at The Arcane.
What the stretch is busy with this fall
Downtown Cary Park has three evening events on its October calendar. A car parked at Cedar Street covers each of them, along with dinner on East Chatham.
| Date | Event | Where |
|---|---|---|
| Fri., Oct. 16, 5–9 p.m. | Cary Night Market with local makers, music, food and drinks | Downtown Cary Park |
| Fri., Oct. 23, 5–7 p.m. | Pumpkin Flotilla with live music, food trucks and floating jack-o'-lanterns | Bond Park Boathouse, 190 Bond Park Dr. |
| Sat., Oct. 24 | Downtown Scary Park: Haunted Hotel, with pumpkin carving and two outdoor movie screenings | Downtown Cary Park |
| Mon., Oct. 26, 6:30–8 p.m. | Free Diwali Celebration with music and dance | Great Lawn Pavilion, Downtown Cary Park |
| Nov. 6–Feb. 7 | Skate the Square outdoor rink, $18 general admission plus tax and fees | Fenton Square, 21 Fenton Main St. |
| Nov. 7 and 8 | New GLOW lantern-making workshops ahead of the winter lantern parade | Town of Cary |
The Night Market runs until 9 p.m. on a Friday, so an early dinner at K38 can come first. That's when Lloyd's serves dinner too, based on its opening schedule. Diwali on the Great Lawn falls on a Monday evening, and K38's opening hours had it serving until 9 that night.
Two spots in the table are outside downtown. The Pumpkin Flotilla is at Bond Park, and Skate the Square is at Fenton. Plan to drive to both.
If one of this year's East Chatham openings is still on your list, or you want to know which blocks of downtown Cary are changing next, the team at Spotlight Realty follows these openings closely and is happy to talk them through with you. Contact Us any time.
