Doylestown's Storefront Shuffle: What Moved Into the Familiar Spaces This Year

"We want to get things done the right way," Joy Grafenstine told the Bucks County Herald in September. At the time, brown paper still covered the big windows at 50 N. Main St., the former Waters Edge Winery & Bistro. She and her husband, Michael, had hoped to open their restaurant there earlier in the summer. Renovations ran long, and the new target is a late-October launch for the two-level spot, now called Tusk.

That papered window is the clearest picture of Doylestown's 2026. Almost every opening this year happened in a building that was already standing. New places came in by going up onto a roof, back into an alley, down a flight of stairs, or into a bigger room a few blocks over. Only one site on the year's list is truly new ground, and it's on the former Intelligencer property.

Up: A Rooftop Over Main Street Marketplace

The biggest new space downtown this year sits on top of something that was already there. Will Wister's Main Street Sport & Social added a 2,700-square-foot rooftop at Main Street Marketplace, with a grand opening set for June 19. It has cabanas, firepits, TVs and lounge seating, and the drink list focuses on Pennsylvania-made beer, wine and spirits. It expands the existing third-floor venue, so no new tenant moved in.

The building's footprint stayed the same and the business got more room by building upward. Every other opening on this list follows some version of that move.

Back: The Still on State and Its Alley Bar

The Doylestown Inn at 18 W. State St. found its extra room in a former storefront and the alley beside it. The Still on State is the inn's new Irish-pub-inspired bar. It took over the old Philly Pretzel Factory space next to The Hattery, which is still open. Advance stories gave both Sept. 5 and Sept. 6 as opening day. By the time The Philadelphia Inquirer ran its fall restaurant roundup in mid-September, the bar had been open a few days.

General manager Billy Gilbo has run the inn for seven years and was a chef for 26 years before that. He called it a two-year project. The room makes use of the building's history:

• The bar itself. The inn's original 19th-century mahogany bar anchors a roughly 35-seat room with leather banquettes and a jade-and-turquoise palette.
• The wall. A black-and-white mural by artist Kenneth Restrepo honors a bartender from the inn's old Jug in the Wall bar.
• The alley. Outside, a 10-seat bar sits in the alley beside the inn, along with high-tops and tables. Accordion doors and heaters are planned to keep it usable all year.
• The still. Distiller Tom Gallen runs The Tilted Brim, the on-site micro-distillery. Clear spirits were expected by late September. Whiskey needs about three years to age.
• The menu. Fish and chips, house-smoked wings, rotating barbecue specials, and drinks built around Pennsylvania-made wines, beers and spirits.

As of early October, the inn's own page for The Still lists hours of 3 to 10 p.m. Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday, and 3 to 11 p.m. Friday and Saturday. It's closed Monday and Tuesday. Seating is first-come, first-served with no reservations. That page doesn't list any Tilted Brim spirits on the menu yet, so the first house-made pour may still be on its way.

Down: Tusk's Two Floors on North Main

The Grafenstines are adding capacity at 50 N. Main St. by using two floors. When Tusk is finished, the downstairs dining room will seat 30 and the street-level restaurant about 35. The bar will hold 20 to 25 more, and the business has a full liquor license. Joy Grafenstine describes the feel as a "modern steak house." Tusk's website calls the food seasonal, upscale American comfort food. It recommends reservations for the dining room and says walk-ins will be welcome at the bar and high-tops.

This will be the couple's third restaurant, after Roberts Block in Glenside and Bonnet Lane Family Restaurant, a diner in Abington. Waters Edge closed in September 2025, so a late-October opening would end more than a year of the windows sitting dark on that block. So far it's a target date only, and the Herald's Sept. 17 update is the latest dated report on it.

Over: Bigger Rooms a Few Blocks Away

Some businesses grew by moving, and their old spaces opened up for someone else.

Wizarding Ways and More closed its small East State Street shop on June 8. It reopened on June 25 at 22 E. Oakland Ave., in the former Board and Brush storefront. Owner Jason Coffman said the store had outgrown its old space, according to Patch. The new shop is 1,500 square feet, three times the size of the old one, with more room for Harry Potter merchandise and related stock.

The Philly Pretzel Factory story is easy to mix up. A new shop opened at 7 a.m. on June 17 at East Street Center, behind McDonald's and next to 7-Eleven, and held a grand opening on June 19. The franchise owners are the Coughlins and the Lewises. The Herald describes the two men as retired Philadelphia police officers who opened the shop with their wives. The older Philly Pretzel Factory at the Doylestown Inn had closed "some time ago," according to the Herald, and it was a separate shop, so this wasn't a relocation. The East Street menu has soft pretzels, twists, pretzel dogs, cheesesteak pretzels, rivets and minis.

The year's largest dining room also reopened under new owners. The Station at 194 W. Ashland St. seats 400. Restaurateurs Gent Mema, Joshua Friedberg and Orbelin Bitraj took it over after Station Tap House closed in March. The building has been a nightclub and a tap house. It now serves dinner with a raw bar and Italian-influenced dishes, and it opened in early April.

Here's who is in each space now:

New Ground: The Old Intelligencer Site

The bottom row is the exception to the pattern. 333 N. Broad St. is an apartment development on the site of the former Doylestown Intelligencer, and its ground-floor shops are new space. Dollop Frozen Yogurt was open by late June. It's self-serve, with 10 flavors, more than 20 toppings, vegan and sugar-free options, frozen-yogurt sandwiches and pup cups for dogs. Degree Wellness was the other first tenant and was expected to open May 23, and its Doylestown location page now lists the 333 N. Broad address and hours.

Those two businesses fill two of the building's four retail spaces. As of Central Bucks News' June update, the other two were still being leased. Those two storefronts are the only spaces in this year's openings that have never had a tenant.

Outside the borough, the Juice Pod opened its first Bucks County location at Barn Plaza in Doylestown Township in May. Owners Jaylah Adolphues and Sophia Layer serve juices, smoothies, wellness shots, toasts and bowls.

What to Watch Through Late Fall

Three items are still open as of Oct. 3:

1. Tusk's opening day. When the brown paper comes off 50 N. Main St., reservations for the dining room should follow. The bar and high-tops will take walk-ins.
2. The first Tilted Brim pour at The Still. The clear spirits were expected in late September. A Tilted Brim listing on the bar's menu will mean they're out.
3. The other two storefronts at 333 N. Broad. They were still being leased as of the June update. Whoever signs there will be the first tenant those spaces have had.

The Still's alley bar is also worth checking on as the weather turns, since the planned accordion doors and heaters are meant to keep it open through winter.

This year, a mahogany bar from the 1800s got a new room, a rooftop became a lounge, and a dark dining room is getting a second floor of seating. Reading what an older building can become is a big part of how Steven Dome looks at property, and it applies to houses as much as to storefronts. If you're wondering what your own space could hold, or what it's worth as it stands, let's connect.