Waukee's West-Side Restaurant Row: What's Actually Open Along Grand Prairie Parkway This Fall

Between mid-June and mid-September 2026, six restaurants opened along Waukee's Grand Prairie Parkway and the streets around it. Most of them come from the Des Moines metro. They include a fried chicken brand that started as a food truck in 2019, a breakfast bar that has been feeding Des Moines since 2010, and a sports lounge from the group behind The Breakfast Club and Wellman's Pub. The newest Asian fusion spot is run by a chef whose résumé includes Harbinger.

That's a change from the first wave of restaurants on this side of town. For most of 2024 and 2025, the new names near Hickman Road and SE Alice's Road were chain brands opening near the Target. This summer, the operators were mostly local, and they picked Grand Prairie Parkway.

How the first wave arrived

Here is the order of openings, oldest to newest:

The Alice's Road group grew around the anchors of what will become Waukee Towne Center. As of late August 2026, the Business Record listed Target, Freddy's, Olive Garden, Hyper Energy Bar and LOF Xpress Oil Change as open there. Wayback Burgers took the longest to arrive. In March 2025, the Des Moines Register forecast a September 2025 opening, and the doors actually opened on April 10, 2026.

The summer the local operators showed up

Look at the bottom half of that table. Nearly every opening after June comes from a company with roots somewhere else in the metro, and each one picked Waukee as its next location.

Mullets opened on Aug. 25 with breakfast through dinner. According to the Des Moines Register's September roundup, the original opened in Des Moines in June 2010 with views of the downtown skyline and Principal Park. John Royer bought it in 2016, started franchising, and opened in Ankeny in 2024. Waukee makes five Iowa locations, four of them in the metro. The menu centers on biscuits and gravy, chicken and waffles, breakfast nachos and hash brown plates, plus burgers and po'boys.

Charlotte's Kitchen opened on Sept. 15 as a standalone restaurant with a dining room and a drive-thru. Michael Hanstad and Robert Doan started it as a food truck in 2019 and named it after Hanstad's grandmother. Their first permanent location opened in February 2021 in a former Dairy Queen at 6150 Merle Hay Road in Johnston. Waukee is location number four, and it serves the same Nashville hot chicken sandwiches and plates.

The Breakfast Club and The Huddle both sit at 2285 Grand Prairie Parkway, and the same company runs both. The Breakfast Club opened at Kettlestone Central in June, according to Axios Des Moines. The Huddle followed on Aug. 31. It comes from Dark Side of the Spoon, the local group behind The Breakfast Club and Wellman's Pub, and it has 36 TV screens and a signature Huddle Burger. In early September, the Business Record still described The Huddle as about to open. The Register's later roundup put the opening at Aug. 31.

Pancheros is a franchise, but local franchisees Shelly and Tyson Robinson opened this one. It's their 2,600-square-foot store on Grand Prairie Parkway, the sixth Pancheros in the metro and the second in Waukee. It has a drive-thru window for picking up digital orders and a second food-prep line for mobile orders. Axios Des Moines reported hours of 10:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily.

Two of the newest openings, Charlotte's Kitchen and Pancheros, are built around drive-thru service. The Register's write-up suggested Charlotte's drive-thru will likely draw heavy weeknight traffic.

The one that changes the question

Des Moines dining writer Wini Moranville reviewed the corridor on Sept. 29 in her newsletter, Dining Well in Des Moines. She counted the familiar names, including Pancheros, Olive Garden, The Breakfast Club, Charlotte's Kitchen, Mullets and Freddy's, plus Wayback Burgers and Hawaiian Bros, which are newer to the metro. Then she asked the question below.

"That's a lot of restaurants. But does this abundance make this stretch of Waukee an actual dining destination?"

Her answer was that one newcomer might: LUX Asian Restaurant & Bar, at 3150 Grand Prairie Parkway, Suite 150.

LUX opened in mid-August and is the only restaurant on this list with no earlier location anywhere. Three friends from the nail-salon business started it as the LTJ Group, and they wanted the chef, not themselves, to be the public face. That chef is Raelynn Brockman, an Iowa Culinary Institute graduate who has worked at HomeGrown, Cafe Trellis and Harbinger. Moranville reported that Brockman appears to have left a well-trained kitchen carrying out her vision. The Register noted early diners ordering the bone marrow pho and bún bò huế, and the bar's Japanese Old Fashioned.

LUX serves lunch and dinner daily, and the number is (515) 209-9999. It closed temporarily on Sept. 29 because of what it called an "unforeseen emergency." A restaurant update dated Oct. 1 said it was back in business and open for dinner at 4:30 p.m. that day. Check the restaurant's Facebook page for the latest hours before you go.

What spring 2027 adds on top of this

The next wave is already on the calendar. Waukee Towne Center is a 62-acre project by Pierson Companies at Hickman Road and Alice's Road. Construction is underway, and the full grand opening is targeted for late spring 2027.

The signed tenants announced in August, sorted by what you'd go for:

• Eating and drinking: Hampton Social, a coastal-themed restaurant; The End Bar, a separate concept from Parker Hospitality; and 30hop, planned by the lake
• Shopping: L.L.Bean, Arhaus, Williams Sonoma, West Elm, Pottery Barn and Marshalls
• Entertainment and services: Game Show Battle Rooms and Noir Nail Bar
• Expected soon, as of late August: Dutch Bros, Crisp & Green and Jersey Mike's

Moranville reported that Hampton Social is set to open in spring 2027 and admitted she's curious about it even though it's a chain. The full list of Towne Center restaurants leans toward sit-down dining and bars. That puts the 2027 openings in a different category from the drive-thru and breakfast spots that filled Grand Prairie Parkway this summer.

Where the rest of October happens

The west side has the new restaurants, but Waukee's October calendar still runs mostly through its established parks and downtown. Here's what's ahead from today, Oct. 4:

1. Waukee Walkers, Tuesdays Oct. 6, 13, 20 and 27, 5 to 5:45 p.m., at Triumph Park, 700 NW Douglas Parkway, according to the City of Waukee calendar.
2. Wauktoberfest, Saturday, Oct. 10, 3 to 9 p.m., the Waukee Area Historical Society's annual nonprofit fundraiser. The organizers say to grab your dirndl or lederhosen. The ticket page lists both the Waukee Downtown Triangle and Centennial Park as the venue, so confirm the location before you go.
3. Timberline West Haunted Hall, Fridays and Saturdays in October at 31635 Ashworth Road. The city listing says the first hour is toned down for younger visitors.
4. Movie in the Park, Friday, Oct. 23, a free screening of Hotel Transylvania at Centennial Park, 1255 Warrior Lane, starting around 6:30 p.m.
5. Trick or Treat Night, Saturday, Oct. 31, 6 to 8 p.m.

If you're picking up dinner on the way to Movie in the Park, Charlotte's Kitchen and Pancheros both have drive-thrus. And if a Tuesday walk at Triumph Park runs late, The Huddle and its 36 screens are a short drive away on Grand Prairie Parkway.

Lynn has been watching this corridor fill in, one storefront at a time, from her home base in Waukee. If you'd like to know how all this new activity along Grand Prairie Parkway and Alice's Road affects your part of town, Lynn Harder is happy to talk it through. Your next move starts here.