Order a flat white at Loona's on a Saturday morning and you're standing about ninety seconds from where you'll end up that same night with a cocktail in hand. Same owner. Same block. Together, these nearby businesses offer residents options from morning into evening.
If you've been in the neighborhood long enough to remember when Grille on Main felt like the only reservation worth making, you've watched something unusual happen here. Most town centers add restaurants the way a bookshelf fills up: one owner here, another there, a rotating cast of independent operators testing the market. The Village has seen a recent run of openings from one local group, spanning options from morning through evening over a five-month stretch and expanding its dining options. Another restaurant is planned for the neighborhood.
Three Openings, One Name
Start with Whit's Frozen Custard on Main, which opened in March of 2025. Then, just ahead of the neighborhood's Fourth of July fireworks, The Providence Bar threw open its doors, an elevated cocktail spot with a sommelier-curated wine list and a patio built for exactly the kind of evening Providence residents already knew how to have. A few weeks later, its sister cafe Loona's landed next door at 20 Town Center Drive, an Australian-inspired brunch spot with rattan chairs and a mascot Australian Shepherd named Loona who has become something close to neighborhood royalty.
All three came from the same source: Providence Hospitality, led by partner Ryan Colvin. When WHNT spoke with Colvin about the timing, he described the gap he was filling rather than a menu he was chasing.
"The need was that there are no cocktail bars on our side of town, at least no cocktail bars that aren't franchises."
Colvin described a gap in cocktail-bar options in the area. The nearby businesses offer brunch, cocktails and dessert within a few storefronts of one another. Three concepts, one operator, one continuous stretch of Town Center Drive.
The Village's dining scene has developed over time through a mix of independent operators and small regional chains. Its earlier tenants included Charrito's Mexican Grill, Mellow Mushroom, Phuket Thai, Moe's Original Bar-B-Que, Edgar's Bakery and Cafe, and The Brick House Sports Cafe. Grille on Main, which Chef James Boyce took over in 2021, added a fine-dining option to that mix. More recent openings have added further choices, including concepts from Providence Hospitality.
How Providence's Walkable Design Shapes Dining
This only functions because Providence was built to be walked, not driven between stops. The town's design pedigree traces back to the same firm behind Seaside and Rosemary Beach on Florida's Panhandle, and the DPZ project page still points to the density of its town center as the thing that sets it apart from typical suburban infill. A resident can lap the entire core in about ten minutes on foot, which means three storefronts under one ownership group can fit into a convenient itinerary.
The Providence Creek Trail extends that same logic outward. It starts behind the Homewood Suites and follows the creek for roughly a mile and a half through the neighborhood, giving people a reason to walk off brunch before they've committed to an evening plan. Layer in The Providence Market, which runs Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. and Thursdays from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. through the market season, and you get a week with built-in punctuation. A Thursday evening market visit naturally spills into dinner. A Saturday morning market run naturally spills into brunch. The nearby market and restaurants make it easy to combine several stops in one outing.
That walkability is one reason first-time visitors may find Providence easy to spend a whole day in. The town's design makes it simple to combine stops, and the nearby restaurants and market offer options throughout the week.
Another Restaurant Planned for the Village
Here's where it gets interesting for anyone paying attention to what's coming. In early 2026, word surfaced that a new Italian restaurant called Dolce Amore would open at 20 Town Center Drive NW, Suite 2101, the same address cluster where Loona's and Providence Bar already sit. This one isn't Colvin's. It's backed by four partners, Kenneth Bethune, Carter McNeil, Andrés Jimenez, and Alonso Garcia, with Executive Chef Randall Baldwin leading the kitchen. Baldwin's résumé includes time as Chef de Cuisine at Chez Fonfon and Kitchen Manager at Highlands Bar and Grill, two of Birmingham's most respected kitchens, and according to Rocket City Now's coverage, the restaurant is built around Baldwin's plan to blend Italian tradition with the Gulf Coast ingredient instincts he grew up with.
Dolce Amore is planned for the same stretch of Town Center Drive as Providence Hospitality's restaurants. Four Birmingham-connected partners are planning another dinner option for the Village.
Its reception will show how residents respond to another restaurant in the Village's evening dining scene.
What This Means If You're Already Here
None of this changes your Saturday morning coffee order. But it does change how you should think about the next twelve months in the Village. Watch how Dolce Amore fits into an evening alongside Loona's brunch and Providence Bar's cocktails. Watch whether Grille on Main's reservation book gets any harder to land now that there's a second white-tablecloth option two blocks away. And if you're the kind of resident who already treats a Thursday market run as the unofficial start of your weekend, pay attention to how the market and nearby restaurants fit into your plans.
The Village of Providence's dining scene continues to evolve, with another restaurant planned alongside its existing businesses. It's a development worth watching if you plan on being here for the next round of it.
If you're weighing what a neighborhood like this is worth right now, whether you already live here or you're watching from a few streets over, Amanda Wasenius tracks these shifts as part of daily work in Huntsville and Madison. Reach out anytime you want a local read on what a changing block actually means for your address.
