For years, the shorthand for Uptown Plain City was a daytime one. You came for the Der Dutchman buffet on a Sunday after church, you wandered the antique shops on a Saturday afternoon, and by the time the sun was low over the Big Darby, most of the sidewalks had emptied out. If you already live here, you know the rhythm. Weeknights belonged to porches and Pastime Park, not to Chillicothe Street.
That rhythm has shifted, and it happened without much fanfare. The single biggest reason is a chef-driven American restaurant that moved into the base of the old clocktower building on South Chillicothe. It is open until nine most nights and ten on weekends, it has a biergarten strung with lights in the back, and it has given people who already live in town a reason to walk Uptown after dinner instead of before it.
The Clocktower Changed the Clock
The Clocktower Kitchen + Bar sits at 101 South Chillicothe Street, describing itself as chef-driven, locally sourced, and upscale-casual American in a relaxed, modern setting with a nod to the history of the community. The hours are the part locals notice most. Tuesday and Wednesday it runs 3 to 9, Thursday it opens at 11 and closes at 9, Friday and Saturday it stretches to 10, and Sunday it winds down at 8, with Monday dark. That is a schedule built for the after-work hour, not the tour-bus hour.
The restaurant opened in the space beneath the town's 1902 clock, a timepiece crafted by the same makers behind Philadelphia's Independence Hall clock.
The provenance matters because it explains why the room feels the way it does. The concept comes from Benjamyn Greig, formerly of High Bank Distilling Co., together with Shane and Chelsea Whitacre of Chef's Table Columbus, and the building carries an upstairs venue for private dinners, weddings, and culinary events, plus an outdoor biergarten adorned with string lights. Three operators with Columbus pedigree, one historic building, and a back patio that reads more like a small-batch beer garden than a chain patio.
If you have not been in since spring, walk over on a Friday around seven. The biergarten fills first, then the main dining room, and by eight the noise inside is the kind of low-and-full that Uptown used to only get during the Steam Threshers or a car show weekend.
A Weeknight Map That Didn't Exist Two Summers Ago
Once you accept that dinner Uptown is a real option now, the rest of the food scene rearranges itself around it. Here is what a normal summer week actually looks like for a Plain City household that eats out one or two nights and grabs coffee on Saturday.
- Tuesday. Clocktower opens at three, so it is the quiet night to grab a bar seat without waiting. If Clocktower feels too much for a Tuesday, Jan & Tony's Pizza is the fallback that everyone in town already has on speed dial.
- Wednesday. Same Clocktower window, plus the biergarten is usually easy to walk up to. Buckeye Barbeque and Pizza runs the other direction if you want brisket instead of a cocktail.
- Thursday. Clocktower's first lunch service of the week starts at eleven, which is the day to actually try the menu before committing to a Friday reservation. Siete Catrines is the standing Thursday move if you want tacos and a margarita instead.
- Friday. The biergarten is the answer. Get there before seven or plan on the upstairs bar.
- Saturday. Morning is The Red Hen Cafe & Bakery or The Grainery. Afternoon is antique shops and Pastime Park. Evening is Clocktower again, or a pizza night at Jan & Tony's.
- Sunday. This is still Der Dutchman's day, and it is still worth planning around the crowd.
The point of the map is not the individual restaurants. It is that a week now has an evening spine Uptown that it did not have in 2023, and the spine is walkable.
What Still Belongs to the Daytime
The daytime Uptown is not going anywhere, and if you have lived here more than a few years you already know the players. Der Dutchman is still the anchor, and it is worth remembering that on holidays the schedule shifts. The Dutchman Hospitality group has confirmed a July 4th, 2026 opening from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m., which is the practical answer to the annual question of whether the buffet is on for the Fourth.
The morning geography is its own thing. The Red Hen Cafe & Bakery handles the sit-down breakfast crowd, The Grainery handles the counter-service morning coffee, and Der Dutchman handles the country-breakfast tourists who drove in from Marysville or Dublin. Between those three, you can eat breakfast Uptown seven days a week without repeating yourself.
What has actually changed in the daytime is not the roster. It is the traffic pattern around the Clocktower building. On Saturdays the biergarten now spills prep and pickup activity into the alley by mid-afternoon, which is a small thing but a real one if you park behind the block.
Why the Biergarten Matters More Than the Menu
Uptown Plain City has never had a proper outdoor drinking room. The Amish-country identity of the town, the bus-tour daytime rhythm, and the modest footprint of the historic block all pushed against it. A patio with string lights, seating that turns over slowly, and a food menu behind it is the first version of that room the town has had at scale.
For residents, that has two practical effects. The first is that Uptown becomes a place you can suggest to friends who are driving out from Dublin or Upper Arlington without having to caveat the invitation with "if the weather is nice we can walk the park after." The evening has its own destination now. The second is that Saturday-night reservations get harder in July and August than they did in April, which is the kind of friction that only shows up when a small town's food scene actually gets busy.
If you are the kind of resident who has been eating dinner in Dublin or Powell on Friday nights because Uptown "closed too early," it is time to recheck the assumption. The closing times have moved.
A Few Practical Notes for the Rest of the Summer
A few things worth putting on the calendar or the fridge:
- Reservations for the biergarten. String-light patios in central Ohio have a roughly ten-week peak window from mid-June through August. Book Friday and Saturday a week out if you want the outside seats.
- The upstairs event space. If you have a graduation dinner, an anniversary, or a small wedding on the horizon, the Clocktower's upstairs is a legitimate new option Uptown that did not exist a year ago. Ask about it before you default to a Dublin venue.
- The Fourth. Der Dutchman is open 7 to 5 that day, which means the town's biggest breakfast room is available before the parade and its biggest dinner room is closed by the time fireworks start. Plan accordingly.
- The Sunday shift. Clocktower closes at 8 on Sundays, which is the earliest weekend close of the week. Sunday dinner Uptown is a real option, but it is an early one.
None of this is a reason to move to Plain City. Nobody who already lives here needs to be sold on the town. The reason it is worth writing down is that the pattern of a week here has genuinely changed in the last twelve months, and the people who know the change first are usually the ones who live within walking distance of the clocktower. If you live a mile or two out, in one of the newer subdivisions off Route 42 or on the west side of the village, this is the summer to relearn the walk.
Uptown at seven on a Friday does not sound like it used to. That is worth knowing.
If you have questions about how Plain City's Uptown revival is shaping the way homes in the village trade, or you want to talk through the parts of town that are quietly benefiting from a walkable evening scene, Allie Beebe is always happy to compare notes. Let's Connect.
