For years, a night out at The Star meant one of two things: a booth at a big-format restaurant built for groups, or a walk-up window for ice cream between games. That second option, Cow Tipping Creamery, closed its space at 3685 The Star Blvd. this year. What's replacing it tells you more about where Frisco's flagship district is headed than any single restaurant opening usually does.
The new tenant is The Imperial Room, a cocktail lounge from PILF Restaurant Group that seats 25 to 30 people. That's not a typo and it's not a soft-launch footprint meant to grow into something bigger. It's the whole plan. Founder Jay Jerrier put it plainly: the space "gives us the opportunity to build something completely different." Different, in this case, means small on purpose in a district built for crowds.
That single swap is the clearest signal yet that The Star isn't just adding restaurants this fall. It's splitting into two different kinds of nights out, and residents who've treated the district as one thing for years are about to notice the difference.
A District Built for Groups Is Making Room for Two People
Before The Imperial Room, the closest thing to an intimate dining reset at The Star was Musume, the Japanese and sushi concept from Dallas-based Rock Libations Restaurant Group that opened in September 2025 at 3625 The Star Boulevard, Suite 315. Musume runs 6,000 square feet, which sounds anything but small until you see what it's competing against. The operator's claim to fame is holding what it describes as the region's largest sake and Japanese whisky selection, a detail aimed squarely at people looking for a slower, more deliberate evening rather than a table to split appetizers at before kickoff.
Put Musume and The Imperial Room next to each other and a pattern starts to show. Both are operator bets that Frisco has enough demand for quiet, curated space that a district built around Tostitos Championship Plaza and game-day crowds can support a 25-seat cocktail room a block from where fans used to line up for ice cream cones.
The Restaurant That Used to Require a Drive to Plano
The other half of the split is happening in the opposite direction, toward concepts that used to skip Frisco entirely.
Chubby Skewers, a Chinese barbecue chain specializing in Northeastern Chinese street food, picked Frisco for its first Texas location. The format is interactive: customers cook their own skewers of meat, seafood, and crispy bites tableside, a style of dining that until recently meant a drive to Plano or Carrollton if you wanted it in North Texas. The Frisco location will take roughly 4,000 square feet at 9180 Warren Parkway, Suite 170, with an opening planned for 2027.
That timeline matters less than the decision behind it. Restaurant operators don't pick a debut market by accident, and a culturally specific, interactive concept choosing Frisco over every other city in the metro says something about who they think is already living here and looking for exactly this kind of night out.
Big Isn't Going Anywhere Either
The split isn't small replacing big. It's both scales expanding at the same time, which is easy to miss if you only track one side of it.
Moxies, the Canadian fine-dining brand that already operates in Southlake and Plano, is planning a nearly 13,000-square-foot restaurant at 3680 The Star Blvd., in the space that used to house City Works. A filing with the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation puts construction at roughly $800,000, with completion targeted for spring 2027. That's not a boutique bet. It's a full-scale flagship investment a few doors down from a 30-seat cocktail lounge.
Here's the lineup so far, side by side:
| Concept | Format | Address | Timeline |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Imperial Room | Cocktail lounge, 25-30 seats | 3685 The Star Blvd. | Opened early September 2026 |
| Musume | Japanese and sushi, 6,000 sq. ft. | 3625 The Star Blvd., Ste. 315 | Open since September 2025 |
| Chubby Skewers | Interactive Chinese BBQ, ~4,000 sq. ft. | 9180 Warren Pkwy, Ste. 170 | Planned 2027 |
| Moxies | Canadian fine dining, ~13,000 sq. ft. | 3680 The Star Blvd. | Spring 2027 |
Four concepts, four sizes, four completely different nights out, all within walking distance of the Ford Center.
The Season Turned Over the Same Week the Walls Did
Riders Field closed its 2026 home schedule with a six-game series against the Amarillo Sod Poodles that ran from September 1 through September 6, the RoughRiders' last chance to play in front of a Frisco crowd before the regular season wrapped. That homestand ended the same week The Imperial Room's doors opened a few miles away. One calendar closed while another one, built around smaller and quieter plans, was just getting started.
That overlap is a useful way to think about the fall ahead. The big, loud, plan-a-group-outing occasions haven't disappeared. They've just moved to a different set of dates.
What Actually Fills a Frisco Weekend This Fall
Two events anchor the next six weeks, and they sit at opposite ends of the same split showing up in the restaurant lineup.
- Frisco Oktoberfest at The Star returns for its sixth annual run on Saturday, October 3, 2026, from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Admission is free, and the day includes stein-hoisting competitions, keg rolling, a brat-eating contest, and live German and local music. It's the district's biggest single-day crowd draw of the fall, built for exactly the kind of group outing The Star has always specialized in.
- DFW Fall Fest lands at Frisco Fresh Market on Saturday, October 17, 2026, with pumpkin decorating, petting zoos, face painting, and free parking, aimed squarely at families looking for a low-key Saturday rather than a night out.
Neither event needs a reservation or a plan beyond showing up. Both work exactly like the district always has: big, open, built for whoever wanders in.
Reading the Split Correctly
The mistake would be treating any one of these openings as the story. Cow Tipping Creamery closing isn't a loss. Musume opening a year ago isn't old news just because a new lease signed after it. Moxies breaking ground doesn't cancel out a 25-seat cocktail lounge two doors down. Each one is a data point in the same trend: The Star is no longer a single kind of destination. It's becoming two, and which one you're heading to now depends on what kind of Tuesday or Saturday you're actually planning.
If you're picking a spot for a quiet dinner with one other person, Musume's sake list or a seat at The Imperial Room's bar makes more sense than it did a year ago. If you're organizing a group before a game or planning a Saturday with kids, Oktoberfest and the fall festival calendar haven't gone anywhere. The district finally has room for both plans on the same weekend, sometimes on the same block.
That's worth knowing before you default to the same three restaurants you've been rotating through since The Star opened. The map changed. It's just not obvious unless you're looking at the whole lineup at once.
Want more of what's actually changing in Frisco and the neighborhoods around it, from new construction to what a home here is really worth this fall? Joseph Bazan tracks the market the same way he tracks the restaurant lineup: closely, locally, and without the guesswork.
