"It showed me a restaurant doesn't have to be a massive undertaking, it's just the importance of good food." Chef Michael Lawson said that in March, when he announced plans for The Elephant Lounge at Parker Square. He opened the restaurant on Tuesday, September 29, at 5 p.m. It sits in the space where Vieux Carré served French food until it closed in 2025.
Most of Flower Mound's 2026 openings look like this one. Look at what opened between June and September and nearly all of it went into a suite that already had a sign over the door. A Korean kitchen took over a Korean fried chicken spot. A wine bar replaced a wine lounge. A frozen-treat chain is coming back to the same shopping center it opened in back in 2009. The way to keep up with what's new in town this year is to know the old addresses.
Parker Square kept its French restaurant, with a new chef
The Elephant Lounge serves Italian dishes plus some French cuisine. The space was a French restaurant before, so the change is smaller than the new name suggests. The March announcement said only minor renovations were underway, and it expected the restaurant to open before June 1. It took until the end of September.
The name has two sources. One is a small New York wine bar called The Elephant, run by a husband and wife, that Lawson kept going back to while he studied at the Culinary Institute of America. The other is the "elephant pants" worn by the Texas A&M Corps of Cadets, which Lawson served with in college. He has cooked at Eataly in NorthPark, Sachet and Gemma. Here he says the focus is quality food and service rather than glitz.
Dinner runs Tuesday through Thursday from 5 to 9 p.m., and Friday and Saturday from 4 to 10 p.m. Parker Square has more going on than the restaurant. Bell Health & Wellness was listed as open at 700 Parker Square #140 in July.
One Robertson's Creek suite, five tenants
Dolsot Korean Kitchen opened at Robertson's Creek Shopping Center at the end of June. Its suite has one of the longest histories of any opening this year. Here's the order, as the Cross Timbers Gazette traced it:
- Penn Station East Coast Subs, where President George W. Bush stopped in Flower Mound in 2014
- CH Chicken, Korean fried chicken
- KO Chicken, also Korean fried chicken
- Dolsot Korean Kitchen, open since late June 2026
Korean food has been coming out of that kitchen for years, and Dolsot widens the menu. The name comes from the Korean word for a pot-like piece of cookware. The menu includes tteokbokki, which is rice cakes in a spicy, sweet and savory sauce. It also has kimchi fries, rolled omelets, Korean pancakes, Korean barbecue, soups and rice dishes, plus lunch boxes with bulgogi or spicy stir-fried pork.
Robertson's Creek has a second turnover. Plaid Fox Resale closed in June 2025. PT Solutions, a physical therapy chain, was reported in June as moving into the old Plaid Fox space, with construction expected to wrap up in early September.
On FM 2499, new tenants kept the same kind of business
Some of the swaps along Long Prairie Road kept the space's purpose and changed the owner. Champagne and Cake opened in September on FM 2499 near Churchill Drive. It's a custom bakery and wine bar in the space that Soupçon, a wine lounge, opened in January 2022. The new tenant brought cake into a wine room. It serves curated wines, charcuterie boards and boutique cakes, and it offers cake tastings. Hours are 4 to 9 p.m. Wednesday and Thursday, 4 to 10 p.m. Friday, 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Saturday, and 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Sunday.
A little farther along, GreenBird changed its suite's use completely. The business, with golf simulators and food, was reported open in July at 5701 Long Prairie Road, Suite 200. That suite used to be Peek's Floor Co., which closed in 2025. A flooring business's suite now has golf simulators.
Big-box stores on the corridor are going through the same thing. Bed Bath and Beyond Seasonal Living was announced in June as the rebrand of Kirkland's Home at 5801 Long Prairie Road #140. Mainstream Boutique, at the same address, was reported closed in September. Nordstrom Rack was announced in 2025 for the former Market by Macy's space at 6101 Long Prairie Road.
Three suites at The Pines are changing hands
The Pines of Flower Mound, along Flower Mound Road, is where this year's turnover is most concentrated. Three suites are in some stage of changing hands.
SIMPoint, an indoor golf and pickleball simulator studio, is open at 1221 Flower Mound Road #140. The Town approved it in February. GreenBird opened on Long Prairie in July, so Flower Mound picked up two simulator businesses within a few months of each other.
At 1201 Flower Mound Road, Rita's Italian Ice & Frozen Custard is coming back. Rita's first opened in this shopping center in 2009. The new location will take over the former Salad and Go across from Fiori Italian Bar & Restaurant, and it will have a drive-thru. Salad and Go closed on September 19, 2025. Rita's offers a rotating lineup from more than 95 flavors of Italian ice, made fresh daily at each location. As of the mid-September announcement, it had not set an opening date.
At 1121 Flower Mound Road, Suite 590, Dum N Grill plans an Indian fusion restaurant in the former Café India space. Café India closed in early 2026. As of August 27, no opening date had been announced.
Every 2026 swap in one place
Address | Previously | Now or next | Status as of late September 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|
Parker Square | Vieux Carré | The Elephant Lounge | Opened Sept. 29 |
Robertson's Creek | KO Chicken | Dolsot Korean Kitchen | Opened end of June |
FM 2499 near Churchill Dr. | Soupçon | Champagne and Cake | Open since early September |
5701 Long Prairie Rd. #200 | Peek's Floor Co. | GreenBird | Open since July |
2400 Lakeside Pkwy. #160 | Rush Bowls | VIVO Pizzeria | Open |
2321 Cross Timbers Rd. #405 | Alma Mexicana | Silver Sea Sushi | Open since spring |
1201 Flower Mound Rd. | Salad and Go | Rita's Italian Ice & Frozen Custard | No opening date announced |
1121 Flower Mound Rd. #590 | Café India | Dum N Grill | No opening date announced |
VIVO Pizzeria at Lakeside belongs on this list too. It was announced in June as VIVO Eatery with a mid-July target, and by August 10 it was open and serving wood-fired pizza. The space is built mainly for takeout and delivery and has limited seating.
Cross Timbers Road added coffee, boba and maybe pretzels
Twisted Goat Coffee opened on Tuesday, September 15, at 4151 Cross Timbers Road, Suite 110. It serves specialty drinks, bagels, avocado toast and macarons. It was first expected in spring 2026, so September is a few months behind that plan. Down the road, CC Mango has served boba tea at 2701 Cross Timbers Road, Suite 238, since July. Local coverage didn't say what was in either suite before.
A combined Wetzel's Pretzels and sweetFrog location was announced for 2500 Cross Timbers Road #110, with an opening planned for Friday, September 25. We haven't found confirmation that it opened on schedule. Several openings this year ran well past their first targets, including The Elephant Lounge, Twisted Goat and VIVO, so the posted hours are worth checking before you go.
The one ground-up project this year is a park
The biggest brand-new place to open in Flower Mound this year has no menu. Peters Colony Memorial Park held its grand opening on June 11 at 3201 Peters Colony Road, just west of the Flower Mound Public Library. The 3.3-acre park has a veterans plaza, memorial elements, a water feature, a playground and native landscaping, plus paths that connect to the library.
Pair it with any of the openings above for an easy fall evening. A few that work right now:
- Walk the park and library paths, then get coffee and a macaron at Twisted Goat on Cross Timbers Road.
- Book a simulator bay at SIMPoint or GreenBird on a weeknight, then get takeout pizza from VIVO at Lakeside.
- Go to Champagne and Cake for a Saturday cake tasting, since it opens at 11 a.m. that day.
- Have a Friday dinner at The Elephant Lounge, where the kitchen starts at 4 p.m.
- Order tteokbokki or a bulgogi lunch box at Dolsot for a midday break at Robertson's Creek.
The next openings to watch are at The Pines, where Rita's and Dum N Grill had no announced opening dates as of their latest coverage.
The Miranda Realty Team follows Flower Mound's storefront changes the same way we follow its home sales, address by address. If you've wondered how a few years of changes at your nearest shopping center might affect what your own home is worth, ask for your free home valuation and we'll go over your street with you.
