Has anyone actually eaten up there yet?
If you live within walking distance of Vernon Street, you have probably asked some version of that question this year, maybe while walking past the scaffolding at 320 Vernon, maybe while reading a neighbor's post that says the same thing you're thinking. The rooftop in question belongs to Old Town Pizza's new flagship, going into the old post office building downtown. As of this week, the honest answer is: almost, probably, we'll see.
That's not a jab at the restaurant. It's the fourth timeline this project has carried since the company bought the building back in September 2024. And the more interesting fact, the one that actually matters if you live down here, is that downtown Roseville quietly stopped needing this particular grand opening to have a full autumn.
A 91-Year-Old Building That Keeps Missing Its Own Deadline
The building itself is worth knowing about regardless of what eventually opens inside it. Constructed in phases between the 1930s and 1960s, it's been described by Old Town Pizza's team as the only remaining WPA project left in Roseville, a small piece of Depression-era public works sitting just steps from City Hall. OTP paid $1.75 million for it and has put the total renovation cost at roughly $8 million, turning the former post office into a three-level restaurant with a ground-floor dining room, a rooftop bar, and eventually a basement venue.
What it hasn't done yet is open on the date it announced. Here's the timeline, laid out plainly:
| Target announced | When it was announced | What happened |
|---|---|---|
| End of 2025 | November 2024, shortly after the building purchase closed | Came and went with no opening |
| March 2026 | Reported as a delay from the original target in early 2025 | Also passed |
| June 2026 | Reaffirmed by co-owner Reese Browning in both October 2025 and January 2026 | Construction continued through the summer, no ribbon cutting |
| Late September 2026 | Current target, posted to social media in June and reconfirmed by Downtown Roseville's own site in mid-August | Still pending as of this week |
Four dates in under two years is not a scandal. Old buildings fight back, and Browning has been candid about it, telling ABC10 last winter that weather impacts on the project were more significant than the team had planned for. But if you've lived through all four of those dates as a resident, you've probably learned the same lesson twice-delayed downtowns everywhere teach: don't build your Saturday night around somebody else's ribbon cutting.
What You'll Actually Get, Once It's There
Worth knowing what's coming, delays aside. The rooftop is designed to seat up to 300 guests with its own full bar, a first for a brand that has historically run on beer and wine only. It'll have a solid roof with roll-up glass walls so it can stay open through weather rather than shutting down at the first cold snap, plus heaters, evaporative cooling, and a cornhole area worked into the layout. Guests get their own elevator to the upper level, separate from the service elevator staff will use to run food up from the kitchen. Phase one also brings Slice Beer Co. onto the main floor alongside Old Town Pizza. The basement, envisioned as a speakeasy-style event space with a stage for music and comedy, is pushed to a second phase that Browning has said is likely a 2027 build-out, not this year's.
None of that is a reason to be annoyed at the wait. It's a reason to stop treating the wait as the story.
The Calendar That Never Needed the Rooftop to Show Up
While the post office project has slipped four times, Vernon Street Town Square has kept running its own schedule without asking anyone's permission. This Saturday, September 19, is Roseville's Fall Family Fest at Vernon Street Town Square, the same lot that also hosts a Concerts on the Square date that evening. Neither of those events checked in with a contractor before locking a date.
Food Truck Mania runs the same pattern. It already happened once this month, on September 10, and it's back on October 8 and again November 12, all at 311 Vernon St. If you've never gone, it's the simplest kind of downtown night: a cluster of food trucks in the square, no reservation, no cover.
Downtown also already has places to sit down with a drink that don't require anyone to finish a renovation first. Monk's runs a patio just off Vernon Street where a craft beer or a glass of wine gets you a front-row seat to the street's evening foot traffic. A new breakfast and lunch spot from two longtime veterans of the local restaurant scene, Lisa and Peter, opened downtown this summer, has already picked up a run of five-star reviews, and runs its own shaded patio with a ceiling fan built for exactly this stretch of the calendar, the weeks when the heat breaks but it's still warm enough to eat outside, according to Downtown Roseville's own August roundup of the neighborhood's patio scene.
Put the Actual Dates on Your Calendar
If you live downtown and want a plan for the next two months that doesn't depend on anyone's construction schedule, here's what's already locked:
- September 19: Fall Family Fest and Concerts on the Square, both at Vernon Street Town Square
- October 8: Food Truck Mania, 311 Vernon St
- November 12: Food Truck Mania, same location
- Ongoing: Monk's patio and the new Lisa-and-Peter breakfast spot, both open now, both outdoor-seating options while the weather holds
If Old Town Pizza's rooftop lands on its late-September target, treat it as a bonus, not the headline. Follow the restaurant's own social accounts for the real opening date rather than a news article, since that's where the actual announcement has landed each time so far. If it slips again, downtown's calendar won't notice, and neither should you. The building was never the thing keeping Vernon Street busy this fall. The calendar was.
If you've been watching this stretch of Roseville change and you're curious what any of it means for your own street or your own plans, Jamie Pierroz is always glad to talk through it over coffee. No pressure, no pitch, just a neighbor who happens to also sell real estate. Book Your Consultation whenever the timing is right for you.
