New central Ohio restaurants opening in 2025

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) -- A Brazilian steakhouse's first Ohio location, an elevated Italian eatery at Easton Town Center and the return of Logan's Roadhouse are among the new restaurants opening in central Ohio in 2025.

View prominent restaurants that will begin welcoming Columbus guests this year below.

Ampersand Asian Supper Club

• The ramen spot is opening a second location this year in Westerville's Uptown. The new eatery will occupy the ground floor of a new building at 21 W. College St., located behind Graeter's Ice Cream and across College Avenue from the main City Hall parking lot.

Bar Italia

• Bar Italia will open its first Columbus location in 2025 at Easton Town Center. The Italian concept currently has two Ohio locations, with one in Lakewood and one in Beachwood. It also has two restaurants in Florida, with eateries in Winter Park and Sarasota.

Big Chicken by Shaquille O'Neal

• A chain of chicken sandwich eateries founded by Hall of Fame basketball star Shaquille O'Neal announced in 2023 it is planning to open more than 35 restaurants in Ohio, beginning in Columbus.

Del Taco

• The chain is opening at 8787 Owenfield Drive between Powell and Lewis Center, inside a former White Castle that closed in June of last year. 

Firebirds Wood Fired Grill

• The steakhouse is opening a central Ohio location for the first time in more than a decade at 6036 N. Hamilton Road west of New Albany. The location will add to the chain’s more than 60 restaurants across 20 states, including Firebirds’ Polaris Fashion Place grill at 8760 Sancus Blvd.

Fogo de Chão

• The international chain announced in August it signed a lease agreement to open a new restaurant at 1425 Polaris Parkway. The 7,245-square-foot location will add to the steakhouse's rolodex of nearly 100 restaurants in Canada, Brazil, Mexico, the Middle East, the U.S. and more.

Hunan Lion

• Located at 2038 Crown Plaza Drive, the restaurant caught on fire in October 2023 and has since been unable to reopen. A recent social media post said the Hunan would welcome patrons back "very soon in the new year."

Johnson's Real Ice Cream

• The Bexley-based ice cream shop will begin welcoming customers in early spring to the new location at 4290 Home Road in Powell. The 1,400-square foot shop will include indoor seating and a covered patio, and will open as the chain is celebrating its 75th anniversary in 2025.

Logan's Roadhouse

• The steakhouse acquired the property home to the shuttered O'Charley’s at 1657 Stringtown Road in May. The new restaurant will mark Logan's Columbus return, after the chain’s Easton location and Dublin restaurant both closed around 2016 when the chain’s previous owner filed for bankruptcy.

Mastro's Restaurant

• An upscale steakhouse chain, the eatery will take over McCormick & Schmick's Easton Town Center location at 3965 New Bond St.

Prim Mason

• Orange Umbrella Restaurant Group, the owner of Local Cantina and seven other central Ohio names, announced plans for Prim Mason to open in the Franklinton development Gravity. The restaurant was scheduled to open in 2024 but has since been delayed for 2025.

RaceTrac

• The Georgia-based convenience store is readying to build a gas station in Delaware along U.S. 36/State Route 37 at Davidson Lane. The 6,008-square-foot location has been in development for several years and received unanimous approval from Delaware City Council in August 2023.

Slim Chickens

• The southern fried chicken chain is opening as many as 25 restaurants in Columbus, Cincinnati and Dayton within the next five to 10 years. The new Ohio locations are part of a deal with restaurant operator Big Star Chicken, which is also developing Slim Chickens eateries in Texas.

Smith & Wollensky

• The steakhouse will return to central Ohio with a new Arena District location in a fully renovated first-floor space at the Hyatt Regency Columbus Hotel at 350 N. High St. In January 2023, the Smith & Wollensky location in Easton Town Center closed its kitchen after 20 years in business.