Amara Brings Mediterranean Dining Back to the Scioto Mile

Amara has brought a new Mediterranean restaurant to the former Milestone 229 space at 229 South Civic Center Drive, restoring food service beside Bicentennial Park. Public records verify the lease and operating plans, although the restaurant’s published opening dates shifted during 2026.

What the records establish

The restaurant’s official site lists the Civic Center Drive address, dinner service from Tuesday through Saturday and a menu built around dips, vegetables, seafood and grilled meats. A Columbus City Council record identifies BICHHU LLC as the operator and chef Joshua Dalton as a principal party.

That legislation says Amara entered its lease in March 2026. It authorized a temporary extension of the restaurant’s liquor permit onto Bicentennial Park property for as many as 19 city and Downtown Columbus Inc. events during 2026. The agreement does not establish customer traffic, sales or any effect on nearby property values.

The opening date moved

The first public descriptions pointed to spring. WOSU reported in October 2025 that Dalton planned a spring 2026 debut in the space Milestone 229 vacated after closing in late 2024. Amara’s own site later displayed July 2026 while also carrying a coming-soon message.

Those records support a narrower conclusion than the original story: the operator, lease and concept were real, but the launch schedule changed. CREN could not verify one definitive first day of regular public service from the available records.

What diners can expect

Amara describes its cooking as Mediterranean, drawing from Southern Europe, North Africa and the eastern Mediterranean. The current menu provides more reliable evidence than the early publicity: it includes hummus, labneh, muhammara, salads, grilled fish, chicken, lamb and beef dishes.

The location places the restaurant directly beside the Scioto Mile Fountain and within the Center City designated outdoor refreshment area. That setting may make Amara useful during park programming, but no available dataset measures whether one restaurant materially changes downtown housing demand.

What remains to watch

The next verifiable checkpoints are stable posted hours, confirmation that the patio and park-event service are operating, and any later city filings that amend the 2026 agreement. Those facts will show how the restaurant uses its unusually public riverfront location without requiring claims about future development or real-estate prices.