If you moved into Cimarron three years ago for the mountain views and settled for driving to Mesa Street whenever you wanted a real dinner, that math has quietly flipped. The Westside's newest walkable district is no longer a promise on a leasing brochure. It is a working stretch of restaurants, coffee bars, and a Saturday market you can reach on foot from most of the Hunt-built streets north of Paseo del Norte.
Here is the argument, up front: the arrival of a Michelin-starred kitchen at 7470 Cimarron Market Ave in January 2026 is not a novelty booking. It is the signal that The Canyons at Cimarron has crossed from "convenient retail" to a chef-driven weekend district worth building a Saturday around.
The Kala tell
Three Michelin-starred chefs opened Kala BajaMed at 7470 Cimarron Market Ave, Building 5, Suite 100, with public service beginning Friday, January 30, 2026. BajaMed is the Baja California-Mediterranean hybrid that put Tijuana's dining scene on international lists a decade ago. It landing on the Westside, next to a diner and a farmers market, is the kind of tenant a developer earns after the foot traffic is already there.
A quick baseline for how the center is drawing operators: The Canyons is the gateway into the Cimarron (Hunt) residential community of over 1,800 homes built or under construction, laid out with a main street, roundabout, walking paths, and connected bike trails. The project also sits adjacent to a 200-unit apartment complex, which is the density number that matters when a restaurant is deciding whether to sign a lease.
The three centers, and what each one is actually for
Cimarron residents tend to blur "Canyons," "Four Corners," and "West Towne" into one shopping trip. They are not the same place, and knowing which one to point out-of-town guests toward will save you a loop through the roundabout.
| Center | What it is | Anchor tenants worth the drive |
|---|---|---|
| The Canyons at Cimarron (7460 Cimarron Market) | Walkable open-air lifestyle center by EP Riverbend | Kala BajaMed, AJ's Diner, Grove Brunch Cafe, Cafe Italia Cimarron, Sunny's Sushi, Gyu-Kaku, Aurellia's Bottleshop & Brewhouse, Cafe Parisian |
| Four Corners at Cimarron | Newer pad-site development across Paseo del Norte | West Texas Chophouse (Cimarron location), Dutch Bros Coffee (opening), a second Chophouse concept coming |
| West Towne Marketplace | Larger big-box and quick-service corner at U.S. 54 area | Freddy's Frozen Custard & Steakburgers, Matteo's Authentic Mexican Food (under construction) |
The Yelp roster for the Cimarron Market strip currently reads Grove Brunch Cafe, China Town, Sunny's Sushi, Cafe Parisian, Cafe Italia Cimarron, Gyu-Kaku Japanese BBQ, Aurellia's Bottleshop & Brewhouse, and Curry among the top ten as of April 2026. That is a deeper bench than most Westside centers had at the same age.
A Saturday, walked from your driveway
The most useful thing to know about The Canyons is that it was designed to be crossed on foot, not lapped by car. Here is an order that works.
9:00 a.m. — Grove Brunch Cafe. Open early, and the reason Sunday brunch reservations at other Westside spots have loosened up in the last year. Order coffee, sit on the shaded patio, do not rush.
10:00 a.m. — Upper Valley Artist & Farmers Market. The market runs at The Canyons at Cimarron, 7460 Cimarron Market, from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. Over 100 local small businesses set up in one place, and you can eat and shop with your favorite vendor. The market itself is worth the trip. What locals underrate is how it programs the rest of the center: the diners and coffee shops around the perimeter get their busiest four hours of the week from the same crowd.
"The Northwest Market at The Canyons at Cimarron ... a walkable sequence of first-to-market or proprietor-driven shops and restaurants," is how the operators describe the setup, and the phrase "first-to-market" is doing real work there.
12:30 p.m. — Lunch, family version. AJ's Diner captures a 50s rock and roll theme with a dedicated kids' play area, and signature dishes include burgers topped with green chile sauce and pineapple. If the kids are with grandparents, cross to Cafe Italia Cimarron or Sunny's Sushi instead.
5:30 p.m. — Dinner, date-night version. Two roads split here. West Texas Chophouse at 7723 Paseo del Norte for a straightforward steak night. OpenTable's data ranks West Texas Chophouse at Cimarron among El Paso's most-booked restaurants, so reserve in advance. Or Kala BajaMed for the ceviche-and-tasting-menu route.
9:00 p.m. — Nightcap. Aurellia's Bottleshop & Brewhouse for a local pour, or the wine hour at the bookshop and coffee bar in the center. The bookstore-coffee-wine concept opened with a soft launch and a children's reading corner, with wine service starting shortly after opening.
You can do all of this without moving your car.
The coming-soon list is longer than most residents realize
Cimarron's tenant pipeline over the next twelve months is what will separate it from every other Westside subdivision that got a strip mall.
- Los Aguachiles. A third El Paso location of the Mexican seafood restaurant is opening at The Canyons at Cimarron, a Las Cruces-born concept started by two brothers from Juarez and twin sisters from Las Cruces, known for made-from-scratch recipes and aguas frescas.
- Chick'n Cone. A locally owned franchise serving chicken in a waffle cone, next door to Los Aguachiles at The Canyons.
- Dutch Bros Coffee. Nearly complete and almost ready to open at Four Corners at Cimarron, next to an empty lot with a West Texas Chophouse coming-soon sign.
- Matteo's Authentic Mexican Food. Under construction at West Towne Marketplace, a Las Cruces transplant with a strong local following.
- Freddy's Frozen Custard & Steakburgers. Recently welcomed at West Towne Marketplace.
- Amazon and possibly Costco. Word is Amazon has plans to build a shipping and receiving facility at 7850 Paseo Del Norte, and rumor has it Costco is looking at the area for a possible second El Paso location. Treat the Costco line as rumor until a filing appears, but the Amazon site is worth watching.
The pattern in that list matters more than any single name. Two of the coming tenants are Las Cruces concepts opening their first El Paso location on this stretch. That is a leading indicator. Operators pick sites where they think the customer already lives.
What this changes for people who already live here
If you bought in Cimarron before the retail arrived, the practical shift is time. A Saturday errand run that used to be a Mesa Street loop is now a walkable circuit, and dinner reservations no longer require a drive down Resler and onto I-10. The address for most of it is 7460 Cimarron Market Ave, and the second address to remember is 7723 Paseo del Norte for the Chophouse.
The other change worth naming is who your neighbors are becoming. Restaurants opening third and fourth locations do so because the surrounding roofs support them. The Canyons is the gateway into the vast Cimarron (Hunt) residential community with over 1,800 homes built or under construction, and the retail slate is a fair mirror of who is moving into those homes: families who want a kids' play patio at lunch and a wine-and-books bar in the evening, in the same block.
Practical bookmarks
- Upper Valley Artist & Farmers Market, Saturdays 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., 7460 Cimarron Market Ave
- Kala BajaMed, 7470 Cimarron Market Ave, Building 5, Suite 100, reservations online
- West Texas Chophouse Cimarron, 7723 Paseo del Norte, OpenTable
- Cool Canyon Nights concert series, free evenings downtown if you want to pair a Cimarron dinner with live music elsewhere in the city
Cimarron did not become a food neighborhood by accident, and it is not finished. Kala's arrival, the Las Cruces operators betting on the corner, and the market that keeps drawing 100-plus vendors on a Saturday morning are all pointing the same direction.
If you are thinking about how the shift in this district is changing what your home here is worth, or you have friends asking what it is like to live in Cimarron now, the team at Adel Reyes at Cornerstone Realty knows the streets north and south of Paseo del Norte in detail. Request your free home valuation, or read more about the Cimarron neighborhood before your next Saturday walk to the market.
