In 2026, Waukee's new-restaurant story took four weeks to tell. LUX Asian Restaurant & Bar opened on Aug. 19. Mullets followed on Aug. 25 and The Huddle Sports Bar on Aug. 31. Pancheros Mexican Grill opened its new location on Sept. 8, and Charlotte's Kitchen opened on Sept. 15. That's five openings in under a month, according to a Des Moines Register roundup by Susan Stapleton.
The Register also said the new openings are clustering around the Kettlestone district and Grand Prairie Parkway. Four of the five sit on or right next to that corridor. Each one fills a different hour, so a single stretch of Waukee can now cover a full day out, from a biscuits-and-gravy breakfast to a Japanese Old Fashioned at 10:30 on a Saturday night. On Hickman Road, the big Waukee Towne Center project that gets most of the attention isn't scheduled to open until 2027.
So here is the corridor in the order you'd use it, from morning to late night.
Morning: Mullets at Pleasant View Drive
The day starts at Mullets, 1105 SE Pleasant View Drive, in the new strip center on the northeast corner of Grand Prairie Parkway and SE Pleasant View Drive. Business Record reported that Timbercrest Homes LLC is developing the building on nearly 6 acres. Mullets takes 5,565 square feet in the middle, with four other suites on either side.
Breakfast is the main draw here. The Register lists biscuits and gravy, chicken and waffles, country-fried steak, breakfast nachos, specialty hash brown plates and several breakfast burritos. The kitchen keeps going through dinner with burgers, po'boys and pub-style plates.
The building plans also tell you how it handles a crowd. The dining room seats about 140, and a covered patio seats about 40 more and looks out over a detention pond. The bar has big garage-style pass-through windows. If you've been to the original, you'll know the wood-paneled walls and exposed ceiling beams, which match the other locations. The original opened in 2010 on the downtown Des Moines riverfront along the Meredith Trail.
Mullets was originally expected in June and opened Aug. 25. Brunch here is a fall plan, which suits that covered patio.
Midday: Two Lunch Speeds a Few Blocks Apart
Lunch is where the corridor gives you a choice between quick and sit-down.
The quick option is the new Pancheros at 2980 Grand Prairie Parkway, Suite 100. According to the Register, it's built around speed. There's a drive-thru pickup window for digital orders and a second food-prep line just for mobile orders. Shelly and Tyson Robinson, longtime local franchisees, run it. It's the sixth Pancheros in the metro and the second in Waukee. The first Waukee location is still at 757 E. Hickman Road. So the burrito you already know now has a second Waukee location, and this one has a pickup window.
The sit-down option is LUX Asian Restaurant & Bar at 3150 Grand Prairie Parkway, Suite 150, which serves lunch daily from 10:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., according to Axios Des Moines' Oct. 7 "First bite" review. Axios reporter Jason Clayworth ordered three small plates: scallion pancakes for $8, chargrilled beef lemongrass skewers for $9 and Mama's Classic Egg Rolls for $8, served with nuoc cham. That comes to $25 for three plates, a reasonable way to try the menu at lunch before committing to a dinner.
Game Time: The Huddle in Kettlestone Central
Afternoon turns into game time at The Huddle, 2285 Grand Prairie Parkway, Suite 100, in the Kettlestone Central development. Business Record reported that it has 36 TV screens and a covered patio with fireplaces. It opened Aug. 31, in time for football season, and the fireplaces will keep that patio usable for a while after other patios close for the year.
The owners are familiar names in the western suburbs. The Huddle is run by Dark Side of the Spoon, the hospitality group behind The Breakfast Club, El Presidente, Rita's Cantina, Grimaldi's, 1908 Draught House, Shotgun Betty's and Wellman's Pub in West Des Moines. Michelle and Travis Tovrea founded it with Tom and Annie Baldwin. "Our vision is to create a fun, comfortable environment where families, friends and sports fans can come together over great food and drinks," Michelle Tovrea said in a release quoted by Business Record.
The Register describes it as an upscale sports lounge, not a bare-bones bar, and says the menu is built around the Huddle Burger. Developer Caliber Co. tied the opening to "the growing Grand Prairie corridor," and Axios used nearly the same framing for LUX weeks later.
Late Evening: LUX After Dark
The corridor's latest table is back at LUX. Axios reports that dinner starts at 4:30 p.m. and runs until 9:30 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and until 11 p.m. on Friday and Saturday. Of the hours printed for these five openings, that 11 p.m. weekend close is the latest.
The Register's roundup points to a dinner menu that goes deep into Vietnamese and pan-Asian cooking, with bone marrow pho and bún bò huế. On the drinks side, a Japanese Old Fashioned sets the tone. Axios reports that LUX was founded by three Vietnamese friends who formed LTJ Group after working in the nail salon business. Chef Raelynn Brockman has worked at Harbinger, HomeGrown and Cafe Trellis.
If you tried to go in early October and found it closed, here's why. Axios reported that a faulty thermostat in the hood system set off the fire-suppression system and flooded the restaurant. Staff spent three days cleaning and repairing, and LUX had reopened by the Oct. 7 report.
The Full Day on One Corridor
Put together, the corridor schedule looks like this. Hours are only listed where a source has printed them, so check before you head out.
| Time of day | Where | Address | What's on record |
|---|---|---|---|
| Breakfast and brunch | Mullets | 1105 SE Pleasant View Dr. | Breakfast through dinner; covered patio for about 40 |
| Quick lunch | Pancheros | 2980 Grand Prairie Pkwy., Suite 100 | Drive-thru pickup window for digital orders |
| Sit-down lunch | LUX | 3150 Grand Prairie Pkwy., Suite 150 | 10:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. daily |
| Game time | The Huddle | 2285 Grand Prairie Pkwy., Suite 100 | 36 screens; covered patio with fireplaces |
| Dinner and late | LUX | 3150 Grand Prairie Pkwy., Suite 150 | Until 9:30 p.m. Sun.–Thu., 11 p.m. Fri.–Sat. |
The LUX hours come from Axios's Oct. 7 report, and new restaurants often adjust their hours in the first few months.
The Fifth Opening, on SE University Avenue
Charlotte's Kitchen is the newest of the five and the one off the corridor list. Its Waukee page lists 1165 SE University Avenue, open Monday through Saturday from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. It's a standalone building with a dining room and a drive-thru, built around Nashville hot fried chicken sandwiches and plates.
Like most of this wave, it started in the metro. The Register reports that Michael Hanstad and Robert Doan launched Charlotte's Kitchen as a Des Moines-area food truck in 2019, named after Hanstad's grandmother. Their first permanent restaurant opened in February 2021 in a former Dairy Queen at 6150 Merle Hay Road in Johnston. Waukee is their fourth brick-and-mortar location.
That background is something nearly all five openings share. Charlotte's Kitchen grew from a food truck. Mullets began on the riverfront downtown. The Huddle comes from the group behind Wellman's Pub. Pancheros is run by franchisees who were already operating here. These are metro operators adding a Waukee location, and four of them chose Grand Prairie Parkway.
What Hickman Road Is Still Waiting On
Waukee Towne Center at East Hickman and Southeast Alice's roads has signed three restaurant tenants. Hampton Social, which Business Record describes as coastal-inspired with chef-driven food and cocktails, is one. The End Bar, a cocktail bar with shareable bites and sports viewing that Parker Hospitality is developing, is another. 30hop, with a large tap list and an elevated casual menu, is planned by the lake.
Business Record reported on Aug. 28 that the center's opening is slated for 2027. Those are signed leases, not open dining rooms. For now, and likely through this winter, Grand Prairie Parkway is the stretch of Waukee with a breakfast patio, a sports lounge with fireplaces and a cocktail bar open until 11 on weekends.
Adam and the Iowa Home Experts team at Adam Bugbee keep a close eye on the Grand Prairie corridor, from Kettlestone Central down to Pleasant View Drive. If a new spot out there has you wondering what's being built next to it, or what that growth means for your own house a few blocks away, reach out. We're happy to talk it through, ideally over that biscuits and gravy.
