Waterway Square's First Holiday Season With Its New Tables

Where do you sit down for dinner on a Friday in December once the 8:55 p.m. fireworks over The Woodlands Waterway are done? A year ago you would have answered with a different set of names. This season the answer depends on which of the new kitchens on Waterway Avenue is open that night.

In 2026, three restaurant spaces at 24 and 25 Waterway Avenue changed hands, and all three now have new operators. Lankford's opened in January. Bari Ristorante and Bar Bludorn opened within three days of each other at the start of fall. All three sit inside the same few blocks that hold the season's biggest free events. Those events land on Fridays and Saturdays, plus one Sunday in November. The new restaurants don't keep the same hours, so the order of a Waterway evening now depends on which door you're aiming for.

Three Addresses, Three New Operators

All of the changes happened on the same short stretch of Waterway Avenue next to Waterway Square.

Lankford's, which Community Impact reported as the brand's third location, took over the former Baja Cantina space. It brought a 12-tap self-serve beer wall, a milkshake bar, cocktails and wine, and burgers such as the Grim Burger and the Firehouse Burger, according to Visit The Woodlands.

Bari Ristorante is the second location from Bari Hospitality Group, the team led by Pedro Teyuca and Tommy Nally that also runs Georgia James. Its first restaurant is in River Oaks District. When Hello Woodlands reported the announcement in November 2025, the plan was a 200-seat room with Certified Master Italian Chef Renato De Pirro running the kitchen. Community Impact describes the space as 9,000 square feet.

Bar Bludorn is chef Aaron Bludorn's first restaurant outside central Houston. It was opened in partnership with Howard Hughes Communities in a space designed by Gensler, and it sits at the corner of Waterway Avenue and Waterway Square Place. "I feel like we've done all that we can in Houston for now, and we wanted to see our brand grow," Bludorn told PaperCity before the opening, adding that The Woodlands "was a great place to do that."

The Two Clocks That Matter This Season

The holiday calendar mostly depends on the hours at Bari and Bar Bludorn, because they keep almost opposite schedules.

Bari Ristorante is open every day. Its published hours are 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Friday and Saturday, and 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sunday. Weekend brunch runs 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday and started October 4. Reservations go through OpenTable from the Bari website.

Bar Bludorn serves dinner only. Its posted hours are 5 to 9 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday and 5 to 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday, and it is closed Sunday and Monday. There is no lunch or brunch. PaperCity reported that OpenTable reservations are accepted but not required and that bar seating is available without one.

Both schedules come from the restaurants' own sites as they stand now. Opening-season hours often change, and neither restaurant has posted holiday-week hours, so check the Bar Bludorn site and Bari's OpenTable page before you lock in a Christmas-week plan.

Laying the Calendar Over the Hours

This is where the two schedules start to matter. Here is the Waterway's holiday season in date order, with the new kitchens alongside each event.

• Friday, Nov. 20. The Woodlands Ice Rink opens at 2005 Lake Robbins Drive by The Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion and runs through Jan. 18, 2027. The Junior League Holiday Market opens the same day at The Woodlands Waterway Marriott, 1601 Lake Robbins Drive, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Both new restaurants are open that evening.
• Saturday, Nov. 21. This is the busiest day of the season. The Township's Lighting of the Doves runs 3 to 8 p.m. at Town Green Park, 2099 Lake Robbins Drive, and finishes with Santa arriving by sleigh down The Woodlands Waterway and a fireworks show. Holiday on The Waterway lights up the same day. Boni's 40th-anniversary Nutcracker has performances at 3 p.m. and 7 p.m. at the Pavilion. Bari serves brunch until 3 p.m. and stays open until 11. Bar Bludorn opens at 5 and closes at 10.
• Sunday, Nov. 22. The Holiday Market's last day runs 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Bar Bludorn is closed, and Bari is open for brunch and then until 9 p.m.
• Fridays, Dec. 4, 11 and 18. Waterway Winter Nights brings free live music to Waterway Square, 31 Waterway Square Place, from 7 to 9 p.m. A seven-minute fireworks finale over the Waterway starts at 8:55 p.m., weather permitting. All three Fridays fall on nights when both new restaurants are open late.
• Through Jan. 3, 2027. Holiday on The Waterway stays lit into the first weekend of the new year.

Laid out this way, Bar Bludorn's evening hours match the Friday Winter Nights, and so does Bari's 11 p.m. Friday close. A 5 p.m. table at Bar Bludorn finishes before the 7 p.m. music starts. On a Winter Nights Friday, both kitchens are still serving after the 8:55 fireworks, so the meal can come after the show. On Lighting of the Doves Saturday, the festival runs from 3 to 8 p.m., so the only seated meal before it on Waterway Avenue is Bari's brunch, which ends at 3. On that weekend's Sunday, Bari is the only one of the two that's open.

What Each Kitchen Brings to the Table

The menus matter as much as the hours for a holiday group, and the two restaurants are built for different evenings.

At Bari, Visit The Woodlands lists Fritto Misto, Pappardelle Bolognese, Scaloppine, the Bari pizzas, a tableside Branzino alla Griglia, Truffle Pasta and Bananas Foster. The 2025 announcement described the Truffle Pasta as finished in a wheel of Parmigiano Reggiano with freshly shaved truffles, carried over from the River Oaks District menu. Community Impact reported European cheeses, dry-cured meats, fish sourced from Europe and house-made pastas made with imported Italian flour.

At Bar Bludorn, the Houston Press named the signatures that came over from the original restaurant: steak frites, oysters four ways, the wagyu tavern burger, and fried chicken with peanut butter gravy. It also listed plates written for The Woodlands: lobster beignets, guajillo-crusted lamb ribs and dry-aged duck. PaperCity's preview showed a winter squash ravioli with brown butter, sage, aged balsamic and parmesan, and an ice cream sandwich dessert made with champurrado, cajeta churro and pecans. Bludorn told the magazine he wants a neighborhood restaurant where people can drop in for a drink or settle in with a burger. Bar seating without a reservation helps make that work on a busy Friday.

For office parties and family gatherings, the private rooms are close in size:

Bari is the one to call for a midday party, because Bar Bludorn opens at 5 p.m. For a Sunday gathering in December, Bari is the only choice of the two.

Getting Between the Square and the Lights

The lights run along the Waterway and the restaurants sit on the Square, so the walk between them is part of the evening. Visit The Woodlands notes that the illuminated tunnels are on the north side of the Waterway. You can walk through them or ride through on the complimentary Waterway Trolley. That stretch sits next to an active trolley path, so the site asks people to stay on the pedestrian sidewalk.

On Winter Nights Fridays, the Township invites guests to bring lawn chairs and blankets. On-site vendors, including Sorriso Modern Italian Kitchen, serve food and drinks on the Square. A group can eat from the vendors during the music and save the sit-down meal for after the fireworks, or book early and walk over by 7. Both plans work because both new restaurants are open late on Fridays.

The one gap to plan for is Market Street's own tree lighting. Visit The Woodlands lists Market Street in Lights from mid-November through Dec. 31, with a three-minute light-and-music show every hour from 5:30 to 9:30 p.m., but no 2026 kickoff date has been posted yet. Market Street's "Sing Off" is set for 6:30 p.m. on Thursday, Dec. 10. Bar Bludorn is open until 9 that night.

If you're weighing what this new stretch of Waterway Avenue means for a home or an investment property nearby, the team at Urban Access Properties can put the changes on the Square in a financial context. Schedule a free consultation with Sharlene Abghary and the team.