The newest places in Wake Forest this year opened on two sides of town, and they're on two different timelines. Along NC 98, the newest restaurants are serving now. On Rogers Branch Road in Heritage, most of the new names are signs in windows and entries on a town permit list, and their opening dates run from this month to "coming soon." These two clusters are about four miles apart, and they're at different points in the same build-out cycle.
NC 98 has mostly finished filling in
Grove 98, the shopping center on Durham Road and NC 98, has spent the past year adding its last big pieces. The Wake Forest Business & Industry Partnership already listed a long roster there in May: Five Guys, Piada Italian Street Food, BIBIBOP, Dave's Hot Chicken, Summer Moon Coffee, Sweathouz, O2 Fitness, Lee Nails Spa and VIO Med Spa. The two sit-down steakhouses opened after that list came out.
Outback Steakhouse at 680 Richland Grove Avenue was the first. When The News & Observer reported the plans in May, the company said the restaurant could open "as early as this summer" but hadn't set a date. Outback's official location page now says "Now Open," with posted hours and online ordering.
Firebirds Wood Fired Grill at 1311 Grove Village Road came next. In September, the Wake Forest Business & Industry Partnership said the restaurant expected to open by the end of that month. It described a scratch kitchen with wood-fired steaks, seafood and craft cocktails. The restaurant hasn't posted an official first-service date, but as of today, October 12, the Firebirds Wake Forest page takes reservations and online orders.
A little way down the same highway, Whataburger opened at 489 Dr. Calvin Jones Highway at 9 a.m. on Thursday, March 26, 2026, according to The News & Observer.
What the NC 98 side has now:
- Two full-service steakhouses that both opened within roughly the past few months
- A fast-casual row with national and regional brands that were already there
- Fitness and personal-care businesses mixed in with the restaurants
- A coffee shop, Summer Moon, which comes up again below
If you live near NC 98, nearly everything on this list is open now. Most of it is national or regional chains, and the construction stage there is mostly over.
Rogers Branch Road is earlier in the cycle
Across town, the retail center on Rogers Branch Road shows up in official sources as both Wheatfield Shopping Center and Wheatfield Shopping Plaza. Summer Moon's location page places it off Rogers Road and Forestville Road, next to Harris Teeter. The Town of Wake Forest says the Rogers Branch Road extension to Forestville Road was built in partnership with Wheatfield. That gave the plaza a second way in before many of its new tenants had arrived.
Some businesses there are already open. Cape Fear Seafood Company at 3612 Rogers Branch Road posts current service hours on its Wake Forest page. Summer Moon runs its Heritage location at 3600 Rogers Branch Road, Suite 104. Summer Moon is the one name in both clusters, with a shop at Grove 98 and another at Wheatfield, so it's an easy reference point if you're comparing the two sides of town.
Most of the activity on Rogers Branch Road is still on the way, and it's more varied than the restaurant row along NC 98. The pipeline includes a Southern breakfast spot, a juice bar, a cigar lounge, an indoor golf studio, a barre fitness studio and a European-style bistro. Unlike Grove 98's mostly food-and-fitness lineup, this mix covers morning coffee and smoothies through workouts and evening golf or cigars.
How to read the Town's new-business list
Much of the Rogers Branch news comes from the Town's running list of new businesses coming to Wake Forest. The page explains that its entries are businesses that received permits to operate in a given month. A listing doesn't mean a business has opened. Between a permit and an opening day, there's still build-out, hiring and inspections, so a July permit doesn't mean a business opened in July.
Here's where each Rogers Branch newcomer stands as of October 12, 2026, based on the latest official or published source for each:
| Business | Address | What it is | Latest status |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Swing Bays | 3615 Rogers Branch Rd | Indoor golf with six simulator bays | Business page says "Coming Soon," with an October 2026 opening |
| Anstead's Cigar Barn | 3605 Rogers Branch Rd, Ste. 106 | Cigar shop | Scheduled to open November 16, 2026 |
| Biscuit Belly | 3601 Rogers Branch Rd, Ste. 101 | Biscuits and gravy, breakfast | Permit listed September 2026; official page says "Coming Soon" |
| Barre3 | 3605 Rogers Branch Rd | Barre fitness studio | Permit listed August 2026 |
| Pulp Juice & Smoothie Bar | 3605 Rogers Branch Rd, Ste. 105 | Juice and smoothies | Permit listed July 2026; official page says "Coming Soon" |
| Modern Tasty Food | 3604 Rogers Branch Rd, Ste. 101 | Restaurant | Permit listed July 2026 |
The same July list also includes Holistic Vitality Center and 4Ever Young at nearby addresses.
The Swing Bays is the one most likely to open this month. Its Wake Forest page lists Trackman technology, PGA coaching, practice areas, fitness programs, event bookings, and beer and refreshments. After that, the next firm date is Anstead's on November 16, according to the company's locations page.
The 3604 question
One address is still unclear. In July, WhatNow reported that chef Artem Blauta planned to open Vira Bistro at 3604 Rogers Branch Road, in the former Cha House space. The report said the bistro would serve breakfast, lunch and dinner, with dishes like shakshuka, tuna carpaccio and duck leg, and was expected to open in August. The Town's July permit list shows "Modern Tasty Food" at 3604 Rogers Branch Road, Suite 101. It's the same storefront, but no published source says whether the two names belong to the same project. Until a menu or an opening announcement goes up, both names are attached to that address.
The permit list also covers other parts of town
Rogers Branch has the busiest stretch of the list, but other spots appear too. In June 2026, the Town listed Rivera's Pupusas Restaurant at 927 Durham Road, Suite 107, and Warehouse BBQ at 12281 Capital Boulevard. Like the Rogers Branch entries, these are permits, not opening announcements. Durham Road runs through the NC 98 side of town, so even the area that has mostly filled in still has a few smaller places on the way.
The Dunn Creek Greenway now crosses NC 98
The biggest non-restaurant addition outside downtown this year was the Dunn Creek Greenway. The Town opened Phases 3 and 4 on Friday, May 8, 2026. According to the Town's Dunn Creek Greenway page, Phase 3 adds 1.8 miles, running from the old trail end north of NC 98/Dr. Calvin Jones Highway toward Ailey Young Park and Traditions. Phase 4 adds 0.62 miles and connects the trail to Flaherty Park, Orchards at Traditions, Flaherty Farms and Del Webb.
Before this, the trail was a 1.0-mile original section plus a 0.3-mile Phase II connector. Adding the new phases brings the total to roughly 3.72 miles by our math. The Town lists each segment's length but doesn't publish a combined total. That means the trail is now almost three times as long as it was before May.
Getting on the trail:
- South end. The Town lists parking at the original trail access at Smith Creek Soccer Center, 690 Heritage Lake Road.
- North end. The opening ceremony was held near Flaherty Park Playground, 1100 N. White Street, at the Phase 4 end of the trail. The Town hasn't said whether there's separate greenway parking there, so it's best to treat Flaherty Park as a park with trail access, not a dedicated trailhead.
The south-end parking is on Heritage Lake Road, the north end reaches Flaherty Park, and the newest section crosses north of NC 98. So the trail now links neighborhoods across the area where most of this year's new businesses landed.
What changes next
Over the next five weeks, here's how it's scheduled to go. The Swing Bays plans to open in October. Anstead's Cigar Barn is scheduled for November 16. Biscuit Belly and Pulp Juice & Smoothie Bar are listed as coming soon with no announced dates, and 3604 Rogers Branch Road is still unresolved. On the NC 98 side, nothing on the published calendar compares to the Outback and Firebirds openings, because both are already serving.
If you're on the Heritage side and wondering what this new mix means for your home's value, or you're near NC 98 and curious how all the recent openings show up in what buyers will pay, Carmelina Hall can walk you through it. Let's connect for a free home valuation or a buyer consultation, and we'll start with the street you live on.
