When did Scholar Way and Nexton Parkway start filling up? For anyone living within a few minutes of the I-26 interchange, the honest answer is the past three months. A dog park with a bar opened in late July, and a burrito counter, a bowl shop, a churro and cocktail spot and two wellness studios followed by early fall.
Those first arrivals have a lot in common. Most are places you order from at a counter or book an appointment with, and several are national or multi-location brands. The restaurants announced next are different. A Mount Pleasant Indian restaurant and a well-known Charleston deli are both coming to Nexton, and both are the kind of place people already drive across the region to visit. The town's planning document, adopted this month, points the same way. The commercial core around Nexton is set to keep expanding.
What's open now, by address
Here's what has opened since summer, with the details that matter on a weeknight.
| Business | Address | What it is | Hours on record |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dog Park Bar Nexton | 652 Scholar Way | Supervised, turfed off-leash park with a bar | Not published |
| Chipotle | 1275 Nexton Pkwy | Burritos, bowls, tacos, salads, quesadillas | Not published |
| CAVA | 124 North Creek Dr. | Mediterranean bowls, salads, pitas | Daily, 10:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. |
| Bodenvy | 651 Scholar Way | Non-surgical body sculpting and skin tightening | Tue to Sat, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. |
| Dulce Churros Ice Cream + Cocktails | 1264 Nexton Pkwy, Suite 201 | Mexican-style ice cream, churros, coffee, cocktails | Announced as 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sun to Thu, 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. Fri and Sat |
| The DRIPBaR Nexton | 1565 Rose Dr. | IV vitamin drips and wellness therapies | Mon to Thu 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Fri and Sat 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Sun 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. |
What's Up Summerville reported Chipotle, Bodenvy and CAVA all open by late August. That outlet said CAVA had opened sometime over the summer. The DRIPBaR held its grand opening party on Saturday, Oct. 17, so it's the newest name on the list.
Older announcements give Dulce's address as 1288 or 1262 Nexton Parkway. The business's own site, which marks the Summerville location "now open," lists 1264 Nexton Pkwy, Suite 201. Put that one in your map app.
The one that changes a routine: Dog Park Bar
Most of the new tenants offer a familiar thing in a closer spot. Dog Park Bar Nexton offers something new for the area: a monitored, turfed off-leash park with local beer and snacks on site. Its off-leash area opened July 29, 2026.
The pricing tells you who it's for. Here's what the operator's own page currently lists:
- Day pass: $19 for one dog and its owner
- Second dog: $12
- Monthly: $45
- Annual: $460
- People without dogs: free, with a signed waiver
Do the math against those day passes. One dog visiting three times a month costs $57 at the day rate, while the monthly membership is $45. So for a household within walking or short driving distance, the membership is the obvious buy, and the place works more like a neighborhood club than a destination. The annual rate brings the monthly cost down to about $38.
A few house rules are worth knowing before the first visit. Dogs need current vaccinations, and the page says dogs must be spayed or neutered by six months of age. Outside food and drinks aren't allowed. Anything you buy on site has to be eaten on the covered patio with dogs leashed. The page doesn't list hours or a food truck schedule, so check before planning a weeknight visit around dinner.
Who arrives next, and when
The next names are restaurants that already have followings elsewhere in the Charleston area. Neither has a firm date.
- Spice Palette Indian Cuisine. The contemporary Indian restaurant at 1220 Ben Sawyer Blvd. in Mount Pleasant confirmed a second location in Nexton on Sept. 12. What's Going On In Charleston reported that a representative expected it to open "within the next few months." The exact storefront hasn't been announced.
- Mozzo Deli. In July, the Post and Courier reported that the Italian deli's fourth location would open in December off Brighton Park Boulevard, with a chicken parmesan on a kaiser roll and an all-day bacon, egg and cheese bagel among the draws. A later WhatNow report, published in August, quoted owner Shannon Campbell projecting a January opening. It gave the address as 410 Brighton Park Blvd.
The Mozzo date has moved once already, from December to January, so treat both dates as estimates. The same goes for Spice Palette. A few months after mid-September could mean the holidays or early 2027.
What matters more is that these two exist at all. Spice Palette is a known Mount Pleasant name making its first move across the region. What's Going On In Charleston called it "another locally established restaurant" arriving in what it described as one of the area's busiest new dining corridors. Mozzo is choosing Nexton for its fourth store, after building a following elsewhere in Charleston. Both are betting on a sit-down or linger-over-lunch crowd, which takes a different kind of confidence than opening a fast-casual counter.
Why the corridor keeps growing
The town's planning has caught up with the storefronts. On Oct. 8, Summerville formally adopted the five-year update to its "Our Town, Our Future" comprehensive plan, the document that guides land use, infrastructure and development decisions.
Mayor Russ Touchberry spoke to Live 5 News about where the changes are focused. "Some of the changes that we made are closer to the Nexton and Interstate area; we increased some of the commercial footprint along some of our corridors," he told the station. Live 5 reported that pockets of downtown will also be rezoned. The update followed public input meetings and data collection that began in September 2025.
Put that next to the storefront list and the sequence makes sense. Fast-casual chains and appointment-based services are usually among the first tenants in new retail space, because they can make money on rooftops and traffic counts alone. Restaurants that have spent years building a loyal following elsewhere tend to come next, once a corridor shows it draws people back. Nexton is now at that second stage, and the town has just set aside more room near the interchange for what comes after.
A fall short list for Nexton
Here's how the new places fit an ordinary week this season.
Weeknight dinner without a plan: CAVA's daily 10:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. hours make it the most predictable option on the list. Chipotle sits just up Nexton Parkway at 1275.
Weekend mornings and late dessert: Dulce's announced hours start at 9 a.m. every day and run to 10 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays. Count on 2 described a menu that runs from coffee and churros to popsicles, cocktails and light bites, so the same counter covers an early start and a late night.
A dog that needs to run: Dog Park Bar at 652 Scholar Way is the only spot on this list built around one. Bring vaccination records on the first visit, and leave any outside snacks at home.
Appointments: Bodenvy sits right across Scholar Way from the dog park at 651, open Tuesday through Saturday. The DRIPBaR on Rose Drive is open seven days a week, with shorter hours on Sunday.
On the calendar: pencil in Mozzo at 410 Brighton Park Blvd. for around January, and watch for Spice Palette to announce its storefront.
If you live near Nexton and want to know what all this new activity means for the value of your home, Rose Gold Properties follows this corridor storefront by storefront. Request Your Home Estimate, and we'll show you how your street compares as Nexton keeps growing.
