Walk down South Main Street this month and the building at number one looks finished. The brick and multi-color panels are up, the sidewalk work the town and developer spent months coordinating is done, and a barber pole spins outside a storefront that opened its doors this past spring. Two doors down, a pizza counter does brisk takeout business. But three of the storefronts still have paper in the windows, months past when their food was supposed to be on plates.
That gap between what's open and what's still coming marks a clear opening sequence. If you live in Natick Center, it tells you something worth knowing about how this stretch of South Main is filling back in after three years of construction fencing.
The businesses that didn't wait
The building is called The Block, developer Stuart Rothman's project at 1 South Main Street. It replaced a structure destroyed by a 2019 fire, broke ground in 2023, and was still 80 to 90 percent complete as of mid-2025. The first tenants opened while the block around them was still finishing up.
Maverick's Men's Grooming Center became the first business at The Block to actually open, on May 27, 2026, more than two years after the developer broke ground. Owner Carl Cwiok, who also manages Roosters Men's Grooming in Wellesley, brought on Daniel DaSilva as managing barber for the two-chair shop. Cwiok's barber pole had been visible outside the storefront for nearly a year before the shop itself was ready. A barber shop doesn't need evening foot traffic or a liquor license or a kitchen buildout. It needs a chair, a mirror, and regulars who'll drive to a specific person for a haircut regardless of what's next door.
Blue Square Pizza followed within a matter of weeks. The chain had originally hoped to welcome Natick guests in April 2026, and by late June, the Natick location was confirmed open at 1 S Main Street. This is the Hopkinton chain's third location, after Hopkinton itself and Northborough, and it's a takeout-focused operation serving Detroit-style, grandma-style, Chicago cracker-thin, and New York-style pies. Founded in 2022 by Troy Sproul, Blue Square has climbed Pizza Marketplace's Top 100 Movers and Shakers list and won Pizza Today's Startup Pizzeria of the Year in 2023. A pizza counter, like a barber shop, doesn't depend on the block around it feeling complete. People order ahead and pick up.
Burning Wheel Yoga & Fitness rounded out the sequence, with a July 2026 opening in Natick Center.
The three businesses opened within about ten weeks of one another in late spring and summer 2026.
The three that are still waiting
The three restaurant concepts still behind paper have not yet opened.
North Shore restaurateur Sa Nguyen signed on for three concepts at The Block: Nhậu, San Sushi Bar, and Bún + Bao, a takeout-focused Asian street food concept that shares a kitchen with San Sushi Bar through a pass-through window. All three were originally expected to open this spring. In a January 2026 report, WhatNow quoted Nguyen describing heavy delays; no new opening date has been announced since.
In 2025, Natick Report quoted Rothman on the relationship between retail and restaurants:
"One of the reasons Wellesley has been successful is that the retail and restaurants feed off of each other."
The delayed concepts include full-service restaurants and a takeout-focused concept, unlike the barber shop and takeout-focused pizza counter already open.
Two blocks over, later openings
The Block isn't the only place with openings still ahead. Two other businesses, both outside the building itself, have later target dates.
Tsuru, a Japanese restaurant from owner Jack Sy, is taking shape at Stonegate's mixed-use development at 45 East Central Street, across from St. Patrick Catholic Church. It's a bigger commitment than anything at The Block so far, with room for nearly 100 seats, 68 inside and 31 on a patio, live weekend music planned, and a grand opening built around a full tuna cutting. Sy is targeting a late-summer 2026 soft opening, which puts the debut somewhere in the next several weeks from today.
Across from TCAN at 21 Summer Street, Epilogue Books & Wine is adding another storefront. Owner Mai Hoang secured four licenses at the June 10, 2026 Natick Select Board meeting for a roughly 2,300-square-foot space with 25 seats, split between a 13-seat bar and a 12-seat cafe. The concept is a bookstore by day that becomes a wine bar at night. WhatNow reported that Hoang described it as a place for people to linger and socialize. David Lavalley, TCAN's executive director emeritus, spoke at that same hearing and encouraged the team to build a formal relationship with the arts center next door. Epilogue is targeting a fall 2026 opening, with the licenses in hand.
Here's where things stand as of today:
| Business | Status | Location |
|---|---|---|
| Maverick's Men's Grooming Center | Open (May 27, 2026) | 1 South Main St |
| Blue Square Pizza | Open (confirmed by late June 2026) | 1 S Main St |
| Burning Wheel Yoga & Fitness | Open (July 2026) | Natick Center |
| Tsuru | Targeting late-summer 2026 soft opening | 45 East Central St |
| Epilogue Books & Wine | Targeting fall 2026 | 21 Summer St |
| Nhậu, San Sushi Bar, Bún + Bao | Delayed past original spring 2026 target | 1 South Main St (The Block) |
The one thing that hasn't waited for any of this
While all of the above has unfolded, one fixture on the Common hasn't paused for a single permit hearing. The Natick Farmers Market, founded in 1996 by Natick Center Associates, runs every Saturday from 9am to 1pm, year-round, and is a program of the Natick Center Cultural District. From May through September it sets up on the Natick Common itself, then shifts to Common Street in October and moves indoors to the Common Street Spirituality Center from November through April. It's been the steady weekly anchor for this stretch of town through three years of a building sitting half-finished across the street, which is worth remembering the next time a new storefront takes longer than its sign suggested it would.
What this actually means if you live here
If you're deciding what to do, the answer right now is Blue Square Pizza for a slice, Burning Wheel for a class, or the Farmers Market if it's a Saturday morning. If you're the kind of person who tracks these things, the coming months are where it gets interesting: Tsuru's tuna-cutting opening, Epilogue's first night as a wine bar across from a TCAN show, and, eventually, whatever comes of Nguyen's three delayed concepts.
The businesses opened in a clear sequence: Maverick's, Blue Square Pizza, and Burning Wheel were open by summer, while the other concepts are delayed or have later target dates.
Several of the listed businesses are targeting openings in the coming months. For now, you know exactly what's actually open, what's close, and what's still on paper, which is more than most roundups of this block can tell you.
If you're watching this corner of Natick change and wondering what it means for property values or timing a move here, that's a longer conversation, and it's the kind Kristen Meleedy has with Natick buyers and sellers every week. Reach out anytime to talk through what a changing Natick Center means for your own plans.
