The last time you walked the Square on a Friday in early fall, the rotation was probably the same one you've had memorized since 2022. Harvest Bar to Rick's to Sugarbacon, or a walk down to Cadillac Pizza, and maybe a stop for a cider inside Landon Winery on the way back. Nothing wrong with that loop. But three of the operators who have opened around downtown in the last twelve months are the kind of resumes that don't usually land in a small-town square, and they are quietly changing which nights the Square is worth walking on, not just which weekends.
That is the thing to know before the Oktoberfest tents go up. The 19th annual festival is still the fall anchor, and the dates are locked. What's different in 2026 is the calendar around it.
The new operators are the story before the festival is
The most consequential change on the Square is a restaurant called Centro on the Square, at 112 E. Louisiana St., directly across from the McKinney Performing Arts Center. It's a collaboration between Brian Dunne, owner of Mexican Bar Company in Plano, and George Stergios, owner of Knife Steakhouse Plano. That pedigree matters. The two spent six-plus years as neighbors in the restaurant district at The Shops at Willow Bend before deciding to pool their expertise and open a new concept together in McKinney. Willow Bend is a fine-dining address. McKinney's Square, historically, has not been. When operators at that level pick 112 E. Louisiana over another Plano tower or an Uptown storefront, they are betting the foot traffic they see on Kentucky and Louisiana on a Saturday afternoon is now sustained enough to feed a steakhouse-adjacent concept.
In their own statement, Dunne and Stergios said they've always been drawn to the energy of Historic Downtown McKinney, and watching the foot traffic and activity on the Square during construction reinforced their decision, calling the Square "truly unique" with "a pulse of its own." That is the interpretive line: they were not banking on Oktoberfest weekend. They were banking on the fifty other weekends.
University Drive is doing something the Square isn't
Two other openings this year sit a few miles west, along the University Drive corridor, and they are worth pairing because they answer different demand than the Square does.
Barrio, an Ohio-based build-your-own taco chain making its Texas debut, opened in McKinney on Thursday, March 5, 2026 at 9401 W. University Dr. #150. It has 23 locations across the United States and is open for dinner service only, 3–11 p.m. weekdays and 3 p.m.–midnight Friday–Saturday, with brunch plans in the works. That midnight close is meaningful. Almost nothing on the Square runs that late outside of a festival weekend.
Down the road, Oak & Stone, a Florida-based beer-centric restaurant, made its Texas debut in the same corridor at 8575 W. University Dr., Suite 150, in a development that also houses Kura Revolving Sushi Bar, Paciugo Gelato Caffe, and Velvet Taco. The 6,000-square-foot space seats 200, with an "open, social" layout and a tech-driven tap wall that lets guests pour their own pints. Opening day was Tuesday, May 19, 2026.
The Square is now the place where the operators have Plano fine-dining pedigrees. University Drive is where the concepts have national reach and late hours. Those are two different fall dining rotations, and McKinney is one of the only DFW suburbs where you can toggle between them in fifteen minutes.
Oktoberfest, with the times you can actually plan around
The festival itself is the closest thing McKinney has to a citywide holiday, and 2026 is the 19th year. Here are the anchor times so you can plan the babysitter, the dog walk, and the parking radius before you leave the house.
- Friday, September 25: 5 p.m.–11 p.m., with the official opening beginning with the annual Keg Tapping Ceremony at 6 p.m., followed by the Oktoberfest Parade through the streets of Historic Downtown McKinney.
- Saturday, September 26: 11 a.m.–11 p.m., with Meet the Brewmaster sessions where you can sample specialty beers directly from the brewmaster.
- Sunday, September 27: 12–5 p.m.
The 19th annual fills Historic Downtown with bratwurst, schnitzel, strudel, Hofbräu and TUPPS craft beers, three entertainment stages with polka bands and folk dancers, weenie dog races, a beard and mustache competition, an Arts and Crafts Marktplatz, and a family carnival. If you have out-of-town family visiting that weekend, the Sunday afternoon window is the least crowded and the easiest one for grandparents and small kids.
One useful piece of context if you have never been: the "beer garden" covers a total of 14 blocks throughout Historic Downtown, so almost every restaurant on the Square becomes a de facto extension of the festival. That is part of what makes Centro's opening timing so pointed. A new fine-dining room across from the Performing Arts Center will absorb the parent-and-in-law crowd that wants to be near the tents without eating from them.
The rest of the fall calendar is not just Oktoberfest weekend
Two other recurring things on the calendar are worth knowing about if you live here.
Chestnut Square Heritage Village hosts a recurring first-Saturday event series through November 2026, combining the weekly farmers market with heritage programming, guided village tours, and community activities. Chestnut Square also offers guided tours Thursday and Saturday at 11 a.m. That first-Saturday combo is one of the better low-effort morning routines in the fall, especially when the heat finally breaks in mid-October.
TUPPS Brewery hosts a free-admission Country Fair featuring inflatables, face painting, carnival games, a petting zoo, axe throwing, a climbing wall, mechanical bull riding, and live Texas music. If you have kids in the 5–10 range and Oktoberfest feels a little too crowded for them, the TUPPS event tends to fit better.
For late fall, the city's official calendar keeps two dates that residents plan around: the Trick or Treat Trail at Towne Lake Park, and Home for the Holidays, traditionally held Thanksgiving weekend. If you have hosted family for Thanksgiving before, you know Home for the Holidays is the single easiest Saturday afternoon on the Square for guests who have never been to McKinney. This year that afternoon will look different because of what's opened in the twelve months since.
What's changing about the Square by December
One more opening will land before the year is out. Chuy's is set to open its first McKinney location in late 2026, with fresh, made-from-scratch Tex-Mex, signature margaritas, and its jalapeño sauce, in the West Grove development. Chuy's is a national brand, and its arrival at West Grove sits on the opposite end of the operator spectrum from Centro on the Square. Together they bracket the year: a Plano fine-dining team at 112 E. Louisiana in one corner, an Austin-founded national at West Grove in the other, and Barrio and Oak & Stone filling the University corridor in between.
The old read on McKinney was that the Square was a weekend destination and University Drive was where the everyday errand dinner happened. The read to hold for the rest of 2026 is that the Square is no longer only a weekend room. Centro is betting on Tuesday nights. Barrio is betting on late Friday. Oak & Stone is betting on a Sunday afternoon self-poured pint. Oktoberfest still puts fourteen blocks under a canopy for one weekend in September, but the reason the rest of the fall matters is that the operators around the festival are finally sized to the foot traffic the festival has been generating for nineteen years.
If you have lived here for a while, that is the shift worth walking into. A Friday-night rotation you had memorized in 2022 is now missing three rooms, and one of them is directly across from the Performing Arts Center.
If you're weighing what all of this activity around the Square and the University corridor means for values in your specific pocket of McKinney, or you're thinking about the timing of a move within town, Stefany Nau is happy to walk your block with you and talk through it. Your next move starts Nau.
