On August 27, the old Pflum's Atascadero Muffler & Auto Sales building at the northbound Traffic Way exit had green fencing around it, and crews were framing an addition on its front. Diagonally across the intersection, Mabel Lounge inside the Carlton Hotel had already been serving cocktails and small plates since its soft opening on May 13.

Both businesses were on the same list. In early March, the City of Atascadero named seven restaurants and retailers it expected to open downtown: Garden City Market, Momotaro Ramen, Beachin' Biscuits, Wendy White's Bakery, The Golden Fox Restaurant, The Golden Goose Sports Bar, and Mabel Lounge at the renovated Carlton Hotel, as Paso Robles Daily News reported on March 5, 2026. As of early October, three have opened, two are construction sites, and two have no public update that confirms where they stand. The order they opened in has little to do with when they were announced. It follows how much building each one needed first.

The three that opened needed a room, not a building

Wendy White's Bakery opened first, on April 3, at 5804 Traffic Way. KSBY covered the opening as a home-baking operation becoming a storefront. Co-owners Mercedes and Kyle White run it. The Tribune listed baked goods, coffee, breakfast items, ready-to-buy cakes and custom cakes. Its published March schedule was Wednesday through Friday 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., Saturday 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., and Sunday 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., which the bakery said could change.

Mabel came next, and it opened inside a hotel whose renovation was already done. The Tribune named general manager Rodnee Stillwell and the management company Everlygrove, and described a menu of small plates, entrees, wine, beer and cocktails. The Carlton's dining page lists it as a cocktail lounge and restaurant open daily from 5 to 10 p.m.

Momotaro Ramen & Izakaya opened in early July in Suite A at 6405 El Camino Real. Chef and co-owners Mateo Rogers and Brittney Yracheta serve ramen, izakaya share plates, Japanese beer and sake, according to New Times SLO. Reported hours are Tuesday through Thursday 5 to 8 p.m., and Friday and Saturday 5 to 9 p.m. It held a grand-opening open house on August 8. Its website said that day would not be regular dinner service.

All three opened into spaces that already stood: a storefront, a finished hotel, a suite on the main corridor. Between them, the openings that happened in 2026 give downtown a daytime bakery and two dinner rooms whose kitchens close by 9 or 10 p.m.

The two still waiting are construction projects

Beachin' Biscuits shows the other kind of opening. The Pismo Beach breakfast spot, which started in 2019 and operates at 800 Price St., is building its second San Luis Obispo County location at 5970 El Camino Real. The site faces Colony Deli and sits diagonally across from the Carlton. This is more than a tenant change. City planning records show the building was the longtime home of a muffler repair shop and used car dealer, and the project includes a new addition on the front. When The Tribune asked in late August, economic development manager Loreli Cappel said the city did not know of an opening date and that completion would depend on cooperation from the weather. Its menu of specialty biscuits, breakfast burritos, chicken-fried steak and French toast makes it the only breakfast restaurant on the city's March list.

The Golden Fox depends on a bigger build. La Moda is going up at 5670 El Camino Real, on the site of the La Moda theater, which was built in 1925 and burned in 1987. Developer Z Villages is rebuilding it as a three-story, 12,000-square-foot building with a replica marquee, a restaurant with a dining courtyard, and eight residential units above and behind. Cappel told The Tribune in September that the restaurant could potentially be the Golden Fox Steakhouse. That makes the Golden Fox a possible tenant for now, with no opening date announced. In March it was listed as a coming opening. Six months later, it is waiting on a building that is not finished.

Two names with no timeline

Garden City Market was the most specific item on the March list. In November 2025, The Tribune reported that Tom and Rebecca Nearing were renovating 6755 El Camino Real into a family-owned general store with local artisan goods and grab-and-go staples, and that they expected to open in spring 2026. The city still listed it as an anticipated downtown addition on March 2. No local reporting since then confirms an opening date, current hours or a delay. Its status is unconfirmed, and nothing found shows it opened or was cancelled.

The Golden Goose Sports Bar has even less on record. The city's March release names it and gives no address, operator, opening date or concept. No other public detail has appeared since.

The street is still under construction too

The businesses are waiting on construction, and so is the street they line. Phase I of the El Camino Real project was finished in 2025. It cut downtown, from Highway 41 at Colony Cinemas to Rosario Avenue at the police department, from five lanes to one lane in each direction, with a wide median that adds parking. Phase II includes gateway structures at both ends, near Colony Cinemas and near Rosario Avenue, paid for with a $1 million grant. It also includes brighter, possibly color-changing lights in the Sunken Gardens underpass toward Atascadero Avenue. In late July, Atascadero News reported that the city expected construction to start in the fall and finish by the end of the year or in the first quarter of 2027. Those dates are projections. The city's ECR project page still lists the gateway monuments as "coming soon," and no source confirms a contract award or start date. A separate city request for proposals this spring covers the Sunken Gardens holiday light display. That is seasonal decoration, not the underpass work.

So two of the remaining openings and the street's finishing work are all on construction timelines this fall, and none of them has a firm date.

Where to go downtown this fall

Using the published hours above, this is what is open on a given day:

• Wednesday through Sunday mornings: Wendy White's Bakery on Traffic Way, from 8:30 a.m. on weekdays and 9 a.m. on weekends, based on its spring schedule.
• Any evening: Mabel Lounge at the Carlton, open daily from 5 to 10 p.m.
• Tuesday through Saturday evenings: Momotaro, with the kitchen closing at 8 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday and 9 p.m. on Friday and Saturday.
• Between stops: Atascadero Vintage Market at 5850 El Camino Real, which Crystal Bergman founded and owns, marked its first anniversary in September. Its owners plan to hold a new Atascadero Flea Market each quarter.

Mondays are the gap. Momotaro is closed, and Wendy White's spring schedule did not include Monday. Mabel is the only one of the three that lists Monday hours.

Downtown growth in Atascadero is changing what nearby homes offer, from a walkable dinner on El Camino Real to a breakfast stop at the Traffic Way exit once Beachin' Biscuits opens. If you own a country property in Atascadero and are thinking about what it is worth as downtown fills in, Hertha Wolff-Arend can put together a personalized country-home consultation and valuation.