Mills 50 Promised a Year-End Wave of Openings. What's Actually Open on Mills Avenue Now?

On the morning of Friday, Sept. 18, a new sign was going up over Pigzza at 1050 N. Mills Avenue, a few hours before the doors opened, Bungalower reported. Pig Floyd's had served its last meals at 1326 N. Mills on Sept. 6, after nearly 12 years there. It moved a few blocks south and combined with its sister concept. One of the biggest changes on Mills Avenue this fall was a familiar restaurant changing its address.

The summer headlines set a bigger expectation than that. In August, Spectrum News 13 listed 22 restaurants and businesses headed to Mills 50 and said most of them should open by the end of 2026. With about ten weeks left in the year, ten of those names are open and twelve are still to come. The open ten are spread up and down Mills Avenue. Nine of the twelve still waiting are bunched around the place where Mills Avenue meets Colonial Drive. So if the year-end wave does arrive, most of it will land on one intersection.

The Ten That Already Opened Are Spread Out

The businesses on the August list that are now open run from Thornton Avenue to the 1500 block of Mills. They also include a guitar shop and a Pilates studio, which are easy to forget about when a list is mostly restaurants.

Several of these grew out of businesses that were already running. Earth Grounds has served from the Spiral Circle Bookstore garden since May 1, which is its first semi-permanent home, according to Bungalower. Kapé Kaya is chef Clarice Lam's pastry program inside Kaya, open Saturdays from 9:30 a.m. to noon. Cowboy Curry opened after a series of pop-ups and trial runs inside Mills Market, Orlando Weekly noted. One address detail is still unresolved. An April report put Catchè at 1220 E. Colonial Drive, while the July roundup lists it as open at 709 N. Mills.

The Moves Between the Openings

Ngoc Ha appears on the August list, but it isn't a new restaurant. Bungalower reported that Z Cafe at 831 N. Mills had rebranded and said plainly that this was not a new opening. The bigger shifts in the middle of Mills Avenue this fall have been well-known names changing addresses:

• Pig Floyd's x Pigzza now serves Thomas Ward's barbecue together with Pigzza's pizza and pasta at 1050 N. Mills. It keeps Pigzza's full bar and its late-night walk-up window on Fridays and Saturdays, and it uses Pig Floyd's fast-casual ordering.
• Tako Cheena is leaving 948 N. Mills, across from Wally's Tavern, and going back to its original 2011 storefront a few doors down at 932 N. Mills. It plans lunch, dinner and late-night service, and as of Bungalower's Oct. 16 report it had not announced an opening date.
• Jay Lucy's moved into the space Plantees left at 1030 N. Mills.

Two storefronts in this stretch don't have new tenants named yet: the 948 N. Mills space Tako Cheena is leaving, and Pig Floyd's longtime home at 1326 N. Mills. Rews on Mills, a cocktail bar with a design inspired by 1960s architecture, is coming to 1322 N. Mills next door. Orlando Weekly gave it a target of "early next year," which is early 2027.

Nine of the Twelve Still Coming Sit Around One Intersection

The businesses still waiting are concentrated in three places near the corner of Mills Avenue and Colonial Drive. Each place has its own timeline.

The former 7-Eleven lot on Mills

Tiger Sugar and Kōri Bakery & Dessert are already open on the redeveloped former 7-Eleven site. Orlando Weekly's Sept. 28 fall roundup says these are joining them:

• Little Sister Dumpling at 713 N. Mills, next door to Tiger Sugar. It plans dumplings from classic to vegan, noodles, beer and wine, and late nights on weekends, with an opening expected "this year."
• Fan Hwa at 709 N. Mills, from Eric Jiang of Sushi Izuki and Jiang's Kitchen. It will specialize in tong sui dessert soups and bao, both sweet and savory.
• Krispy Rice at 729 N. Mills, a do-it-yourself Japanese teppanyaki concept that isn't on the August list.

Across the street at 714 N. Mills, in the former Royaltea space, Susuru and Juju chef Lewis Lin is opening Hayashi Tarō, an omakase bento shop. It will sell three bento boxes to go and offer a ceremonial tea service. Orlando Weekly reported on Oct. 9 that opening festivities with a matcha presentation were set for Oct. 25 and that the shop would open sometime after that date. It will have first-come, first-served bench seating for eight. Regular hours are planned for noon to 6 p.m., Wednesday through Sunday, and after those hours Lin plans to use a separate six-seat counter for nighttime omakase and special events.

Mills Market at 1110 E. Colonial

William Shen, the chef-owner of the two-Michelin-star Sorekara, already runs Zaru, UniGirl, Cowboy Curry and Okonomi inside Mills Market. His next project there is Unimart: Conbini Experience, a Japanese convenience store with snacks and fresh to-go food such as tamago sandos, konbini fried chicken and bento boxes. In the Sept. 28 roundup it was still listed as coming soon. Close by, Uji Matcha Cafe is still listed as coming to 1016 E. Colonial Drive.

Headway Plaza, the bb.q Chicken strip

The strip on East Colonial anchored by bb.q Chicken is getting a new facade, and three concepts are lined up behind it, Orlando Weekly reported in August:

• Udon Fifty at 1222 E. Colonial, Suite B, in the old Dochi space, from Sonny Nguyen of Domu and Tori Tori
• Nomori at 1232 E. Colonial, in the former Saigon Market, from Akasaka and Tapanomi chef-owner Dong Shin. It will serve either Japanese food or Korean tapas.
• Wavy Baby at 1242 E. Colonial, in the former LA Boiling Seafood Crab & Crawfish space. It plans Filipino-inspired breakfast and lunch sandwiches, pastries and nonalcoholic drinks, with a target of late 2026 or early 2027.

Neither Udon Fifty nor Nomori has a target opening date. The August report also gave no schedule for the facade work. Jiang's Kitchen may land in this area as well. A May report placed it at 1111 E. Colonial Drive with a projected November opening, but the September roundup grouped it with the tenants on the 7-Eleven lot.

Only three of the twelve pending names are outside this corner. Robin's Creamery is going into the old Smoker's Safari space at 926 N. Mills. Top Chef Season 3 winner Hung Huynh's Pomelo is headed to 1632 N. Mills. Oza Kai, an expansion of the Central Florida Parkway izakaya, is going to 1821 E. Colonial.

The Street Plans Trail the Restaurants

The City of Orlando is designing a mid-block crosswalk on Mills Avenue at Canton Street. It will have a pedestrian refuge island in the middle of the road, curb extensions, ADA ramps and rectangular rapid flashing beacons. Mills Avenue is a state road owned by FDOT, so the project needed more coordination than the city's Quick Build program could handle. The project page lists final design for September 2026 and the start of construction for winter 2026/2027.

Jeff Dry, board president of Mills 50 Main Street, told Spectrum News 13 that the crosswalk site is "where some of the new restaurants are opening, so it will help. But a couple more would be great." In the same report, the city's proposal for a seven-story parking garage near Mills Avenue and East Colonial Drive came up. It could add hundreds of spaces, but no construction schedule was given. Dry called parking "one of the major complaints we get," and pointed out that overflow cars end up on neighborhood streets.

The order matters. If the restaurants on the 7-Eleven lot, in Mills Market and at Headway Plaza open on the timelines they've announced, a cluster of new counters and dining rooms near Mills and Colonial will be open before the crosswalk breaks ground. The garage still has no schedule at all.

The Weeks Between Now and the Deadline

Most of these timelines will become clearer between now and New Year's. Hayashi Tarō has an opening window that starts after Oct. 25. Little Sister Dumpling is aiming for this year, and Jiang's Kitchen's earlier projection was November. Wavy Baby and Rews on Mills have already given targets that reach into 2027. A few blocks east in the Milk District, The Nook on Robinson at 2432 E. Robinson Street closes Saturday, Oct. 31, after more than eight years, Bungalower reported.

The neighborhood calendar has some good reasons to check on progress along the way. The third annual Florida Coffee Festival is on Sunday, Nov. 15, according to the Milk Mart organizers. Ivanhoe Village's Jingle Eve runs from 4:30 to 9 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 21. It's free except for the 12 Wines of Christmas walk. Holiday Milk Mart takes over the Milk District from noon to 6 p.m. on Sunday, Dec. 20, with 300 local artists, food trucks and live music. That's the Sunday before Christmas, less than two weeks before the year-end deadline Spectrum News 13 reported in August.

If you're wondering how this growth around Mills and Colonial could affect a home nearby, Rayneshire Realty is glad to talk through the details with you, block by block. Let's Connect.