After ten years inside The Streets of Brentwood, Alyssa and Anthony Roost had two options for Vine + Grain. They could renovate the space they had, or they could tear it out and start over. "We needed new digs, plain and simple," Alyssa told Better in Brentwood in a spotlight published Aug. 29, 2026. Around that time, the center's new owners were drawing up a central gathering space called The Patio, and they asked the couple whether they would move the bar there. Vine + Grain reopened as a larger cocktail bar during the first week of August, just outside AMC. The center's directory now gives its spot as the "New Patio area facing AMC."
That move is a good picture of the whole redevelopment. The businesses have been arriving in an order nobody planned. Tenants opened first, the event calendar filled up next, and The Patio, the lawn all of it was supposed to face, is the piece still waiting on a firm finish date.
A deadline that kept slipping
CenterCal Properties bought the center at 2455 Sand Creek Road in late 2024 and held a groundbreaking on Tuesday, July 15, 2025, as The Press reported. The schedule for The Patio has changed several times since then:
- July 2025. Scott Bohrer, CenterCal's vice president of development, told The Press the patio and plaza work would be finished before the 2025 holiday season.
- January 2026. CC Spin reported that the plaza had been delayed and was now expected in spring.
- June 16, 2026. CenterCal's own update said the repositioning was "set to open later this year."
The plan itself has stayed the same. The redevelopment adds three new buildings, 8,154 square feet in all, to a 360,000-square-foot center anchored by Sprouts and AMC Theatres. Contra Costa News described The Patio as a large lawn for events, with shade structures, seating and an olive grove. The idea is to get people to stay longer. CenterCal marketing manager Dana DuRee told CC Spin she described the area as previously "dormant" and hoped families and neighbors would make memories at The Patio.
What mattered for Brentwood is that the tenants stuck to their own timelines while the lawn's schedule slipped.
The tenants that opened ahead of the lawn
The tenant list arrived in stages. On Nov. 17, 2025, CenterCal's leasing announcement named American Eagle, Handel's Ice Cream, FACE FOUNDRIÉ, Pandora, Lovesac, Slice House by Tony Gemignani and the Vine + Grain move to The Patio. Eleven months later, most of that list is open. Here is where things stood as of late October 2026:
| Business | Location | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Dutch Bros Coffee | 2345 Sand Creek Road, in front of Sprouts | Open |
| Handel's Ice Cream | The Streets, 2455 Sand Creek Road | Open since spring 2026 |
| Vine + Grain | 2511 Sand Creek Road, The Patio facing AMC | Reopened first week of August |
| Face Foundrié, Pandora, Chutneys, Lovesac | The Streets | Listed by the center as newly opened |
| Slice House by Tony Gemignani | 2523 Sand Creek Road | Grand opening was scheduled for Oct. 17 |
| American Eagle | The Streets | Listed as opening soon |
| Escapology | The Streets | Listed as coming soon |
Handel's came first among the new food tenants. An April 29, 2026 announcement said a Brentwood-native family had opened the shop at The Streets. Earlier plans had put it in the renovated central plaza alongside Vine + Grain, so the ice cream shop and the cocktail bar were both meant to surround the lawn.
Vine + Grain made the biggest change of any tenant. It started in 2015 as a wine bar with the slogan "Sip, Eat, Relax." In the new space it is a cocktail bar with a new menu and caviar service, and it kept the pork sliders from its original 2015 menu. Before the move, the bar was near Barnes & Noble. In the November 2025 announcement, Alyssa Roost called the relocation "a chance to reimagine the experience for our guests."
Slice House, the newest arrival
Slice House by Tony Gemignani set its grand opening for Saturday, Oct. 17, at 2523 Sand Creek Road, according to Contra Costa News and Pizza Today. It is a fast-casual spot with 26 indoor seats and 20 on the patio, plus takeout, online ordering and delivery, and it is open seven days a week. The menu covers pizzas, pasta, wings and salads.
The seat count shows what kind of place it is. With 46 seats split between inside and out, Slice House is built for a quick slice before or after a movie at AMC. In the 2025 announcement, Gemignani called the location "a new gathering place for the Brentwood community to connect." With Vine + Grain and Handel's open and Slice House scheduled to join them, the center has a drink, a dessert and a casual meal within a short walk of the theater. The Patio was designed to join those three.
Still coming
Two more businesses are still listed as on the way. American Eagle was in the November 2025 announcement, and the center's own event page still lists it as "opening soon." Escapology's Brentwood page still says "Coming Soon." The city's September 2026 Brentwood Buzz newsletter also listed Escapology Brentwood among its new and coming-soon businesses.
Two larger projects are planned for the eastern part of the site. In a July 21, 2025 release, the City of Brentwood said Sutter Health medical offices and a La Quinta hotel would break ground in 2026. No groundbreaking date for either one has been announced publicly, so for now both remain plans. Those two buildings would change the east end of the property more than any single storefront. The medical offices would bring weekday daytime visits, and the hotel would bring overnight guests to a center that today mostly fills up on evenings and weekends.
CenterCal already runs two well-known centers nearby, The Veranda in Concord and Bay Street in Emeryville. Brentwood Economic Development Manager Ricardo Noguera told The Press to "think of the Streets of Brentwood as another downtown."
The fall calendar is doing The Patio's job
A gathering space is supposed to give people a reason to show up when they don't need to buy anything. Until the lawn is finished, the center's event calendar is filling that role. Three dates are coming up:
- Saturday, Oct. 31. Halloween Silliness, a family event, runs 1 to 3 p.m., and a Teen Glow Party runs 5 to 7 p.m.
- Saturday, Nov. 7. "Welcome to the Neighborhood" runs 6 to 9 p.m. and celebrates the center's newly opened businesses.
- Sunday, Nov. 1. Away from the Streets, the free Brentwood Diwali Mela fills Brentwood City Park from 3 to 8 p.m. with performances, food trucks, vendors and a kids zone.
The Nov. 7 event is the most interesting of these, because it is set up to walk people from one new business to the next. Visitors pick up a game card at The Streets of Brentwood table in front of AMC. If they get it validated at every participating store, restaurant, bar and service on the card, they can trade it for a cowboy or cowgirl hat with a $40 retail value. No purchase is needed, you get one hat per completed card, and cards are handed out and redeemed only between 6 and 9 p.m. Southern, soul and R&B line dancing with professional dancers runs during the event, and anyone can join in.
The card's route moves people from Face Foundrié to Pandora to Chutneys to Lovesac to the Vine + Grain bar facing AMC, all in one evening. The event was rescheduled to Nov. 7, and the center's page says more details are coming.
Watch two things over the next few months. The first is the date The Patio's lawn, shade structures and olive grove officially open. The second is whether American Eagle and Escapology turn from "coming soon" into open storefronts. When both happen, the center will finally match the plan CenterCal showed Brentwood in July 2025, with the lawn in the middle and the bar, ice cream shop and pizza counter around it.
At Chris Strange, we follow Brentwood changes like the work at The Streets because a neighborhood center that's filling up affects what the homes around it are worth. If you'd like to talk through what the redevelopment could mean for your property, reach out and start building your East Bay home wealth.
