On Monday, Aug. 31, Yard House opened its first Northern Nevada location at the Outlets at Legends, according to the Reno Gazette-Journal. Four weeks later, on Sept. 27, Burger NV planned to close its Victorian Square restaurant for good, a little over a year after it opened. Those two dates frame Sparks dining in 2026. New restaurants opened where the city has spread out. The old downtown kept its job as the place Sparks gathers for events.
Five New Addresses, and Where They Are
Here are the 2026 restaurant openings in Sparks that local reporting or the businesses themselves have confirmed:
| Restaurant | Address | Part of Sparks | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pizzava, third location | 670 E. Prater Way | Prater Way | Opened June 1, 2026 |
| Guthrie's Golden Fried Chicken Fingers | 6107 Golden Triangle Way | Off Vista Boulevard | Open by early July 2026 |
| Yard House | 1160 Scheels Drive | Outlets at Legends | Opened Aug. 31, 2026 |
| Land Ocean | 137 Los Altos Parkway | Off Pyramid Highway | Open as of September 2026 |
| Breakfast Club at Midtown | 685 E. Prater Way | Prater Way | Listed as coming soon, no date |
The list has a pattern. Three of the five sit near the routes that carry traffic to newer parts of Sparks: the Legends retail district, Vista Boulevard and the Pyramid Highway corridor. The other two sit across the street from each other on Prater Way. None has a Victorian Avenue address.
Most of these are proven brands coming to Sparks for the first time. Guthrie's started in Haleyville, Alabama, in 1965 as a drive-in that sold burgers, and its founder added chicken fingers in 1978. The Golden Triangle Way restaurant is the chain's first in Reno-Sparks and its second in Northern Nevada, after the Carson City location that opened last year. Yard House is a California-based casual upscale chain known for its long draft beer list. Land Ocean's Los Altos Parkway restaurant is the brand's second in Northern Nevada. It runs as a steakhouse and seafood room with lunch, brunch, happy hour and dinner menus, and it takes reservations. 2News had predicted Land Ocean would open in February 2026. The restaurant's own site now lists it as open, with booking dates through the holidays.
Prater Way Is Growing One Block at a Time
The Prater Way pair matters most if you live closer to central Sparks. On June 1, Pizzava opened its third location at 670 E. Prater Way. In August, the Reno Gazette-Journal reported that Breakfast Club at Midtown, a California chain, had applied for a City of Sparks building permit for a Sparks location. The chain's site puts that location at 685 E. Prater Way and calls it coming soon, with no opening date.
Prater runs parallel to Victorian Avenue, a short distance north. So the closest new restaurant activity to downtown is one street over, on a commercial strip with ordinary parking lots, not on the plaza.
Victorian Avenue's Last Two Years
Burger NV is a useful case because the Victorian Square space was a step up for the brand. It held its grand opening there on April 26, 2025, and the Sparks restaurant was its first full-size location. Burger NV is keeping its stall at the Reno Public Market, where it has operated since the food hall opened in January 2023. The announced closing date has passed, but we haven't seen a follow-up report confirming the last day, so treat Sept. 27 as the planned closing.
Burger NV's closing follows earlier ones on the avenue. In June 2025, KRNV reported that the Cantina had closed nearly two years before, and that Ranch House and Paddy & Irene's had closed more recently. In the same story, Patrick Dalton, regional director for Great Basin Brewing Company, explained part of how the street works. Each building on Victorian Avenue has its own landlord, and each landlord sets its own rent. Dalton said a friend's Reno bar faced a 40% increase on a new 10-year lease, and he named that kind of increase as part of the reason Great Basin got out of its production brewery. With separate owners and separate lease renewals, the avenue doesn't fill or empty all at once. It changes one storefront at a time.
There is also one possible opening to watch. Edible Reno-Tahoe reported that the family behind Camaron Pelado hoped to open in the former Cantina Los 3 Hombres space before the end of 2025. We haven't found a report confirming that it opened.
Sparks City Councilman Donald Abbott described what he wants for the district in that 2025 interview:
"Personally, I'd love for the downtown to have that vibrant downtown where people can come, not just for a concert or Hot August Nights. They come down here on a Tuesday morning, you know, maybe hit a coffee shop, maybe hit a restaurant."
At the time, Abbott also listed the after-concert stops still open on the avenue: Oski's, Blind Onion, Victorian Saloon, Great Basin and a new tequila bar. His Tuesday-morning goal is the harder one. The new restaurants that came to Sparks in 2026 went to Legends, Vista, Los Altos and Prater.
The Calendar Still Runs Through the Plaza
The new restaurants went to the edges, but the big shared events haven't moved. Great Basin Brewing at 846 Victorian Ave lists Oktoberfest for Oct. 2 through 4, and the last day is today, Sunday. The city's biggest holiday weekend is also set for downtown. The 2026 Sparks Hometowne Christmas Parade marks its 39th year with the theme "Home for the Holidays," and the City of Sparks has published the schedule:
- Thursday, Dec. 3: 39 North Pole opens from 4 to 9 p.m. with light displays, entertainment and an outdoor Christmas market.
- Friday, Dec. 4: The tree lighting runs from 6:30 to 7 p.m. next to the large gazebo at Victorian Avenue and Victorian Plaza Circle East. Mayor Ed Lawson lights the city's permanent living Christmas tree, a 60-foot Giant Sequoia. Living Stones Church serves free hot chocolate, and 39 North Pole is open again from 4 to 9 p.m.
- Saturday, Dec. 5: Santa photos run from 11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. and from 2:30 to 3:30 p.m. The parade steps off at 1 p.m. from Pyramid and travels down Victorian Avenue to Victorian Plaza Circle West. 39 North Pole stays open until 9 p.m.
Volunteers from Living Stones Church, Hot August Nights and the Boys and Girls Club help put the weekend on, and the city says local businesses present the parade. The parade's route is the same street the new restaurants skipped.
One familiar downtown event isn't confirmed yet. The PumpkinPalooza organizer's page still reads "2024 DATES TBA." Check back before you plan around it.
Sparks' Fall Dates Outside Downtown
The rest of the fall schedule follows the same split as the restaurants, with Sparks Marina and the Pyramid Way corridor hosting most of it:
- Oct. 9 to 11: The second annual Sparks Biggest Little Ultra runs from 9 a.m. Friday to 9 a.m. Sunday at Sparks Marina, 300 Howard Drive. Runners and walkers can enter fixed-time or fixed-distance races.
- Oct. 10 and 11: The Sparks United Methodist Church Harvest Festival & Craft Fair runs from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. both days at 1231 Pyramid Way, at the corner of Pyramid and Oddie.
- Thanksgiving, Nov. 26: The City of Sparks' Scheels Turkey Trot, a 2-mile run and walk, starts at 8:30 a.m. from the Sparks Marina Gazebo.
One weekend in mid-October works as a single outing. The Harvest Festival on Pyramid Way and the ultra at the Marina overlap on Oct. 10 and 11, and Land Ocean's brunch menu on Los Altos Parkway is a short drive up the same Pyramid corridor.
For the rest of the year, the new places to eat are at Legends, on Golden Triangle Way, on Los Altos Parkway and on Prater Way, and the tree lighting is still at the gazebo on Victorian Avenue on Dec. 4 at 6:30 p.m.
The Faught Group team follows Sparks openings and closings address by address because they affect how each part of town feels day to day. If you're weighing how close you want to be to Legends, Pyramid or the plaza, Hadley Faught can walk you through it street by street. Schedule a Meeting.
