South Kennewick's New Restaurants Are Mostly Familiar Names in New Rooms

Robert Jacobs spent a lot of his childhood at Canyon Lakes Golf Course. He told the Tri-City Herald that the course's previous owners, the Lundgren family, were childhood friends, and that their son was in his grade. On Aug. 21, 2026, Jacobs and three partners, his brother Daniel among them, opened Birdie Run Bar & Kitchen on that same property. Its patio looks out over the 18th hole.

That small homecoming fits the pattern across south and west Kennewick this year. A café is building a bigger space around the corner, a bistro moved out of a market hall, a food truck moved after its longtime host property sold, and a Yakima taproom bought a lot by the roundabout. Most of the recent openings are local operators with a following who moved somewhere bigger or better suited. Only one is a chain arriving from outside the region.

Canyon Lakes Gets a Kitchen Run by People Who Know the Course

Birdie Run is at 3700 W. Canyon Lakes Drive. It's open to anyone, golfer or not. Its beer comes from Bombing Range Brewing in Richland. The Herald reported that the brewery was the "natural" choice because it already supplies some of Jacobs' other restaurants. His other restaurants include Amendment XXI Bar & Grill in Richland.

About two weeks after opening, Birdie Run added brunch from 8 to 11 a.m., Friday through Sunday. The Herald's follow-up listed biscuits and gravy with two eggs and toast at $17.99, and a short stack of pancakes with eggs and meat at $16.99. The same story said Birdie Wings had been the top seller so far.

The Tri-Cities Area Journal of Business September update lists these hours:

• Monday through Thursday, 11 a.m. to 10 p.m.
• Friday and Saturday, 8 a.m. to 11 p.m.
• Sunday, 8 a.m. to 9 p.m.

Those hours were published Sept. 10. No source covers fall or winter changes yet, and a golf-course restaurant's schedule can follow the course's season. It's worth checking Birdie Run's own pages before planning a weekday dinner there in November.

The 27th Avenue Roundabout Is Turning Into a Dining Cluster

The biggest concentration of change is the short stretch of Southridge around the roundabout at West 27th Avenue and South Union Street. Three businesses are open or in progress within a few blocks, and none of them is a chain.

Café Magnolia has spent close to a year getting ready to move. Owners Nena and Chad Langford announced in late 2025 that their European dessert café would leave its spot in the Cynergy building at the roundabout for The Falls on 24th Avenue. In its October 2025 story, the Herald described the planned space as about 4,300 square feet, with more seating, a bigger kitchen and menu, a pizza oven, a bakery, a patio and room for private events. As of the Herald's Sept. 24 report, the Langfords were booking private events for the new space. It was still under construction and had no announced opening date. Until that changes, the café's listed address is still 4309 W. 27th Place, where Visit Tri-Cities describes it as a European-style patisserie serving small brunch and lunch plates.

Sifithu Pizza and Bar opened a second location at 4112 W. 24th Ave. earlier this summer. Its hours are 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday and noon to 8 p.m. Sunday, and it's closed Monday, according to the Journal of Business July update.

The Kiln Taproom is the newest piece and the furthest from opening. The Yakima taproom, about six years old, announced in September that it will build a family-friendly location at 2605 S. Williams Place. The site is near the Gesa Credit Union branch and Café Magnolia's current spot, close to the roundabout. The Herald reported that the Yakima location has 30 Pacific Northwest beers on tap, a menu of pizzas, kiln sandwiches and pastas, and a big outdoor area with picnic tables where it hosts live music and bingo. For now the Williams Place lot is just grass. Co-owner Shayna Koch gave the Herald a best estimate of summer or early fall 2027 for completion.

Here's where each spot stood as of the most recent reporting:

Two Moves Out of Shared Spaces

The roundabout businesses are moving by choice to get more room. Two others in south and west Kennewick moved out of spaces they had shared with other businesses.

Antojos 509 Bistro used to operate inside the Kennewick Public Market. By the Journal of Business July update, it had its own address at 5453 Ridgeline Drive, open 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday and closed Monday. Visit Tri-Cities lists the address as Suite 140 and describes a Venezuelan menu with arepas, cachapas, desserts, coffee, cocktails and handmade pizzas. With its own storefront, it can now serve breakfast coffee and late cocktails from the same space.

Casa Rosita didn't pick the timing of its move. The Mexican food truck spent six years at The Flower Farm in Kennewick, and when the farm sold in May, it went looking for a new spot close to the old one. As the Herald reported in September, it landed at Summer's Hub of Kennewick, 6481 W. Skagit Ave., with the same hours as before. Owner Mike Chavez told the paper the business "eventually evolved to showcase Mexican food in a way that honors the process and how much labor is involved, how much love there is for the food, to showcase our traditions through food." The family also recently opened Casa Rosita Taquería, a storefront at 618 9th St. in Benton City.

Summer's Hub is a food-truck court with indoor and outdoor seating. Its website says it has room for up to 28 trucks, plus taps, local wine, live music and weekend events. Brady's Brats and Burgers operates indoors. The Hub lists general hours of 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily, but each truck keeps its own schedule. The truck roster on the site dates from April, so it's safest to confirm who's parked there before heading over.

The Chain Arrival, and One Truck Leaving

The one newcomer from outside the region is going into a familiar building. Burgerville, the 65-year-old Pacific Northwest chain, is converting the former Sonic Drive-In at 8600 W. Gage Blvd., near Costco. That Sonic closed in September 2022. According to the Herald, building plans filed with the city show a $650,000 project that adds an indoor dining area and a hallway so the restrooms can be reached from inside. This will be the first Burgerville in the Tri-Cities and part of the chain's expansion beyond the Interstate 5 corridor. As of Sept. 24, no opening date had been announced.

One familiar truck is about to stop serving. Fast & Curryous owners David Stenoien and Kavita Patel-Stenoien plan to serve their last meal from the truck just before Thanksgiving this year, after almost 10 years of Indian-inspired cooking. They're shifting to their retail line and cooking classes. Their four simmer sauces, Tikka Masala, Saag, Korma and Creamy Coconut, are sold at the Yoke's Fresh Market stores in Richland and at Tri-Cities Food Co-Op. Their classes run through Experience 46 Degrees, and the next one with tickets left is in February. That leaves about six weeks from today, Oct. 12, to order from the truck one last time.

Planning Meals Between Now and the Holidays

Three of the places in this post have published hours right now: Birdie Run, Antojos 509 on Ridgeline and Sifithu on 24th Avenue. Café Magnolia's current café on 27th Place is still serving while its new space is being built. Café Magnolia's new space at The Falls is the next one to watch, since the owners are already booking private events there. That makes it a realistic option for holiday party planning even before a public opening date is announced. Burgerville's opening on Gage depends on the renovation schedule. The Kiln Taproom's lot near the roundabout is likely to stay grass well into 2027. Fast & Curryous has a hard end date just before Thanksgiving.

When established local businesses commit to bigger spaces within a few blocks of each other, the area around them changes too. If you own a home near Canyon Lakes, Ridgeline or the Southridge roundabout and want to know how changes like these figure into your home's value, Shana Brown Real Estate can walk you through it. Get your free home valuation.