For years the honest answer to "where do you actually go in Lewis Center on a Saturday?" was Polaris, then home. The retail center of gravity sat two exits south, and the neighborhood functioned as a very pleasant bedroom for it. That answer is quietly changing this summer, and the change is concentrated on a single stretch of Evans Farm Drive.
The updates below are not a roundup of unrelated openings. They are pieces of the same shift: Evans Farm is finishing the transition from master-planned residential pocket into a walk-to town center with its own Saturday routine, its own brunch spot, its own scoop shop, and a 56-acre park on its western edge.
The thesis in one line: as of summer 2026, you can plan an entire weekend inside Evans Farm without getting back in the car for Polaris.
The address doing the most work: 5915 Evans Farm Drive
Johnson's Real Ice Cream, the Bexley-founded brand that opened in 1950, is bringing a new scoop shop to 5915 Evans Farm Drive in spring 2026, its tenth Central Ohio location. That address matters for two reasons.
First, it is the same block that anchors The Market at Evans Farm on Saturdays, which means the ice cream shop is being dropped directly into the community's highest foot-traffic morning. Second, Johnson's has tripled its footprint in recent years and opened three shops in 2025 alone, so choosing Evans Farm over another Polaris-adjacent strip is a read on where the daytime population is heading.
The shop will carry the full lineup: classic and seasonal flavors, sundaes, ice cream cakes, novelties, and grab-and-go pints. For residents, the practical translation is a walk-home dessert stop that did not exist last summer.
Saturday morning has a new center of gravity
The Market at Evans Farm reopened for the season on June 20 with a Summer Kickoff from 9 a.m. to noon, and it continues Saturdays through the growing season. The scale is worth pausing on: 40 to 50 vendors each week, rotating produce, cut flowers, baked goods, boutique clothing, jewelry, and artisan accessories.
For context, that vendor count puts The Market in the same weight class as more established Delaware County markets, but it sits inside a walkable residential grid rather than a downtown square. Residents in Evans Farm proper can leave the driveway alone. Residents from the wider Olentangy corridor now have a Saturday destination that is not the Worthington Farmers Market or a drive to Powell.
A few notes from the calendar worth writing down:
- Every Saturday, June through October. The rhythm is weekly, not monthly, which is the difference between a market and an event.
- Themed kickoff and seasonal dates. The June 20 opener leaned on a summer theme, with the season stretching to at least October 24 based on published dates.
- Free and open. No ticketing, no gate. Parking is inside the development.
Brunch stops leaving the neighborhood
Another Broken Egg Café is taking the former Panera Bread space at 8823 Owenfield Drive, making it the chain's second Central Ohio location after Easton Town Center. The menu leans Southern-inspired brunch with a chef-driven twist, and the interior treatment carries a modern farmhouse aesthetic with an outdoor patio.
Two things are quietly interesting here. One, this is a reuse of a former Panera rather than new-construction retail, so the timeline to open is shorter than a ground-up build. Two, it fills a specific hole in the Lewis Center map. Weekend brunch capacity in the immediate area has been thin enough that residents routinely drove to Powell, Worthington, or Easton. A dedicated brunch operator sitting less than a mile from Evans Farm's residential core removes that drive from the weekend.
The category math also matters. Between the market, Johnson's, and Another Broken Egg, three of the classic Saturday errands — groceries, brunch, dessert — now sit within a short walk or a two-minute drive.
The 56-acre backyard most people have not walked yet
Jennings Sports Park opened in spring 2025 on the western edge of the Evans Farm development. The scope is larger than most residents realize:
| Feature | Count / Detail |
|---|---|
| Total acreage | 56 acres |
| Soccer and multi-sport fields | Multiple full-size fields |
| Baseball and softball diamonds | Yes |
| Batting cages | On-site |
| Central structure | Multi-level pavilion |
| Location | Western edge of Evans Farm, off Lewis Center Road |
For a household whose kids play travel soccer or Little League, this changes the weekly gas bill. For a household whose kids do not, the pavilion and open fields function as an oversized neighborhood green.
Combined with the trails and nature access at Highbanks Metro Park and Alum Creek State Park a few minutes away, the outdoor inventory inside a ten-minute radius has genuinely leveled up in the past twelve months.
The weekday piece people forget
Weeknight programming is what separates a town center from a Saturday-only district. Two spots are quietly doing that work in Lewis Center right now:
- Keystone Pub Lewis Center hosts Chris Logsdon every Wednesday from 6:30 to 10 p.m., with rotating performers on other nights. Acoustic rock, low key, walkable from parts of the development.
- Aficionado's runs classes and tastings through the season, including a Smoked Old Fashioned masterclass in April 2026 and Mother's Day bubbles-and-bouquets in May. Their calendar reads more like a small-town social club than a bar.
- Standardized Brewing on Orange Point Drive keeps a rotating weeknight event schedule for residents looking for a low-lift Tuesday or Thursday out.
Add the ice cream shop's evening hours once it opens, and the neighborhood's weeknight footprint gets meaningfully longer.
Where the week goes now
For a resident trying to feel out the new pattern, here is a rough map of what the week can look like without leaving the immediate area:
| Day | Anchor | Where |
|---|---|---|
| Wednesday evening | Live acoustic music | Keystone Pub Lewis Center |
| Thursday | Tasting or class | Aficionado's |
| Saturday morning | Farmers market | The Market at Evans Farm, 5915 Evans Farm Dr |
| Saturday brunch | Southern-inspired menu | Another Broken Egg Café, 8823 Owenfield Dr |
| Saturday afternoon | Fields, cages, pavilion | Jennings Sports Park |
| Any evening | Scoop shop | Johnson's Real Ice Cream, Evans Farm |
None of these lines existed on the same map two summers ago.
A short routing plan for out-of-town guests
If family visits in July and asks what there is to do in Lewis Center, the honest answer used to require a drive south. This summer, the answer stays close:
- Morning: Walk the market. Coffee, flowers, a bakery box for later.
- Late morning: Brunch at Another Broken Egg. The patio if the weather cooperates.
- Afternoon: Highbanks Metro Park for the ravine overlooks, or Jennings Sports Park if the kids want to run.
- Early evening: Scoop from Johnson's on the way back.
- Night: Aficionado's if the guests are adults, Keystone Pub if the vibe is casual.
The whole loop sits inside a three-mile radius.
One road note before you plan around it
Orange Township's construction schedule shows Lewis Center Road closed in Genoa Township between State Route 3 and South Old 3C Highway from April 6 to May 26, 2026 for road reconstruction and culvert work. Depending on your approach to the development, that closure has shifted traffic patterns this spring. Worth checking the township road-closure page before a first-visit guest tries to plug an address into their phone.
What this shift means if you already live here
A few observations, offered without hyperbole:
Foot traffic patterns are moving. When a market pulls hundreds of Saturday visitors and a brunch operator opens on the same block, the walking routes through the development change. That is generally a good thing for the density of small talk with neighbors, and something to keep in mind if your front porch faces a main pedestrian line.
Everyday errands are compressing. The distance between "I need eggs, coffee, flowers, and a birthday gift" and "done" is shrinking to a Saturday morning inside the neighborhood.
The definition of Lewis Center is quietly widening. For most of the last decade, "Lewis Center" in casual conversation meant Polaris-adjacent housing plus Olentangy schools. As of this summer, it also means a working town center with its own weekly market, its own brunch spot, and its own 56-acre park. That is a real change, not a marketing one.
If you live in Evans Farm or elsewhere in the Olentangy corridor and you are curious how these shifts show up in day-to-day home life, or if friends have started asking you what it is really like out here, the team at Ayana Realty Group is happy to talk through the neighborhood in specifics. Contact Us when you want a local, no-pressure conversation.
