Since early September, the 200 block of Park Street in downtown Westfield has worked the way the city wants it to work for good, as a street people reach on foot. Cars can't get onto Restaurant Row while the City of Westfield rebuilds it. The Italian House and Nyla's are still serving dinner to anyone who parks nearby and walks the last block, and Broad Ripple Seafood North & Bar is down the same block. The rebuilt street the city has designed has flush curbs, brick pavers, parklets and a plaza joining the Midland Trace Trail. It is built around the same idea as this fall's closure, a block where you arrive on foot and stay a while.
The same block took two bets in one season
Two restaurants made opposite calls on Park Street this year, and they did it within a few months of each other.
Broad Ripple Seafood Market opened its second restaurant at 231 Park St. in late May, in the old Greek's Pizza building. It soft-opened May 26, the same month construction started, and held its ribbon cutting June 1. Current reported that it was the fourth restaurant on Park Street between Poplar and Mill streets, and that the Westfield location is four times the size of the original in Broad Ripple. Owner Todd Reisenbigler told the paper why he picked the block:
"The foot traffic that you get (on Park Street) is intense. There's so much foot traffic, there's so many people that want to be here and they want to eat in this local area."
He also said parking was a challenge while the south side of the street was under construction. Mayor Scott Willis was at the ribbon cutting and told Current, "We'll get through this summer, and then it's going get fantastic."
Four months later, the block went from four restaurants back to three. Chiba, the sushi restaurant at 228 Park St., announced on Sept. 29 that it was closing for good after about 10 years. Back in February, owner Keith Dusko had backed the project in the city's announcement, calling it "short-term pain for long-term gain." In its closing statement to Current, a Chiba spokesperson said the street had been expected to stay open during construction, and pointed to how hard it had become for customers to get to the restaurant. In his farewell post, Dusko wrote that "this is the end of Chiba on Park Street, it is not the end of the Chiba story."
Chris McConnell, Westfield's director of Parks and Recreation, gave the city's side to Fox59. "It's always unfortunate when you lose a small business," he said, adding that "we have to move forward with these projects." He also said that "although the road has been a mess since May, it technically has only been closed for the last four weeks." No plan for the former Chiba space has been announced.
Who is serving on and around Park Street right now
Here is who is open within a short walk of the barricades this fall. Some of these confirmations come from business websites that don't show a date, so check hours before you head out.
| Spot | Address | What it serves | Current notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nyla's | 211 Park St. | Steaks, seafood, chicken, pasta, salads, burgers | Dinner Tuesday through Saturday. The website labels its dinner menu "New Menu Starting October 8th." |
| The Italian House on Park | 219 Park St. | Classic Italian dishes | Dinner Tuesday through Saturday, plus online ordering |
| Broad Ripple Seafood North & Bar | 231 Park St. | Ethically sourced seafood, with a covered porch | Featured by Indianapolis Monthly on Oct. 7 |
| Something Splendid | 217 Mill St. | Gift shop, wine bar, wine garden, cocktails, food | Right beside the Park Street work, per Fox59 |
| Rivet Coffee Bar & Roastery | 337 Jersey St. | Coffee | Monday through Saturday, 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. |
The newest restaurant on the block is getting attention from outside Westfield. Indianapolis Monthly described Broad Ripple Seafood North as a "snug, outdoorsy" spot with a coastal fish-shack feel. The magazine recommends starting with the broiled Oysters Rockefeller, made with Delaware XL oysters, butter Parmesan sauce and herbed breadcrumbs.
Business on the side streets has been mixed. Fox59 found a steady line at Rivet, which sits across from The Grand on Main construction site. Cafe manager Marcel Grande told the station, "Thankfully, the community has just been phenomenal. We've maintained being busy." Erynn Neal, co-owner of Something Splendid, described a different fall. "When people don't come and visit any businesses around here, we're ultimately affected as well," she told Fox59.
Getting to dinner on foot
The city hasn't published a Park Street parking map since the full closure began. Its two most recent notices still list the same handful of lots and garages:
- The Union garage. The city's February project announcement says the first three hours are free.
- The temporary lot at the west end of Park Street. Also listed in the February announcement.
- Street parking on Mill, Jersey and Union streets. Mill and Jersey are also where Something Splendid and Rivet are.
- The library lot and the Park-and-Poplar lot. These were listed in the city's late-August parking notice for the Sept. 19 International Festival. That notice also said no shuttle would run because of the Park Street project.
The February announcement also said at least one lane would stay open and valet service would stop. Fox59's Oct. 1 report described a full closure, with the restaurants reachable only on foot. So use the February list as a guide to where parking used to be, not a promise of what's open tonight. The city keeps the latest project information at westfieldin.gov/parkstreet.
This fall is a rough version of the finished street
The street being built is meant to work the way people are getting to it now. The city's February announcement lists the main changes:
- Traffic will flip to run east to west instead of west to east, which the city says will improve downtown traffic flow and cut down on left turns.
- Flush curbs will make walking easier and make it simpler to set up for events.
- Brick pavers, new landscaping and trees will replace the old streetscape.
- Parklets will add seating and places to gather.
- Decorative catenary lights will hang over the street.
The city's economic development office says the project will also improve storm drainage and bury the overhead power lines. The bigger change comes in a later phase. A new plaza will connect Park Street to the Midland Trace Trail, and a parking garage is planned at Park and Poplar streets. Rundell Ernstberger Associates designed the project, and FA Wilhelm is building it. Current reports the improvement project at $6.2 million.
The city says the goal is a street "better suited to host future events and festivals." Flush curbs, parklets and a trail plaza all point toward a block where people arrive on foot or by bike and stay a while. This fall's barricades already push diners to come that way.
Three dates for one finish line
When the street will be done depends on which source you read, and the sources don't fully agree:
- Late spring 2027. That's the full completion estimate in the city's Feb. 18 announcement, for a project built in two phases.
- December 2026, then April 2027. The economic development project page says work started in May 2026 and should run until December, with contractors coming back in April 2027 to finish the landscaping.
- Dec. 1. That's the construction finish target in Fox59's Oct. 1 report.
Taken together, the street itself should be close to done around the holidays, with landscaping and the trail plaza coming later. Dec. 1 is about seven weeks from today. It is still a target, and it has not been confirmed.
What fills in around the block next
Park Street is one piece of a larger rebuild downtown. The Grand on Main is going up across from Rivet. It's a mixed-use project by Skender, which the city's project tracker describes as 113,000 square feet of residential, retail, office and restaurant space. As of the tracker's Oct. 6 update, the only tenant named is a general "restaurant user." WISH reported that it is expected to open in late 2027. At the Broad Ripple Seafood ribbon cutting, Mayor Willis told Current that in the next three years "we're gonna have about three to 5,000 people living in this downtown with office space that's alive."
One evening this month brings a crowd within a short walk of the barricades. Trick-or-Treating in the Plaza runs Friday, Oct. 23, from 4:30 to 8 p.m. at Grand Junction Plaza, 225 S. Union St. The city says more than 60 businesses and organizations will be handing out treats. Westfield's official neighborhood trick-or-treat hours are 5 to 8 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 31. Families heading to the plaza that Friday can walk over to Park Street afterward for dinner at Nyla's or The Italian House, or stop at Broad Ripple Seafood North.
At Meridian x Main, we keep track of what's opening, closing and being built across downtown Westfield, from Park Street to The Grand on Main. If you'd like to talk through how these projects could affect your part of town, we'd be glad to help. Schedule A Consultation.
