If you already live within a few miles of Bailey Park, do you actually need a Winston-Salem Open ticket this year?
That question would have had an easy answer twelve months ago. The tournament was the plan, and everything else downtown was what you did on the nights you weren't driving up to the Wake Forest Tennis Complex. This August, the answer is genuinely harder, because the loop of restaurants across town at Salem Bottleworks finally has enough open to compete with the tennis on its own terms, not just fill the gaps around it.
Fifteen years of a tournament that never quite lived downtown
The Winston-Salem Open runs August 22 through 29, 2026, at the Wake Forest Tennis Complex on West 32nd Street, which puts it several miles north of Innovation Quarter and Old Salem, the two pockets of the city where most of the after-hours action actually happens. This is the tournament's 15th anniversary, and it carries real weight on the calendar: it's the ATP Tour's final stop before the U.S. Open, with court conditions built to mirror New York's surface and lighting, and it's one of only three ATP 250-level events held on North American soil. Prize money this year tops $775,000 across a 48-player singles draw and a 16-team doubles draw.
None of that is new information if you've lived here through a few Augusts. What's worth flagging is how the tournament actually treats a local audience. Its opening Saturday, August 22, is doing double duty as Kids Day at Allegacy Federal Credit Union Field, a free session with tennis-themed activities for ages 6 to 12, and as Community Day, where a tournament ticket can be had for a donation of five unused school supplies or three canned goods instead of cash. Individual session tickets otherwise start at $28, with some sessions as low as $11, and parking in the designated lots around the complex is free. Bring a bag if you want, but it can't be larger than 12 by 12 by 16 inches, and it will get searched at the gate.
That's a real plan for a Saturday. It is not, on its own, a plan for the other thirteen nights of the fortnight.
The three stops, and what each one actually offers
Here's how the city actually splits during this window, and what's genuinely at each address rather than just nearby.
| Where | Address | What's actually there | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wake Forest Tennis Complex | 100 W 32nd Street | Main draw Aug 22–29, headlined by returning World No. 20 Luciano Darderi | The one week a year pro tennis is a short drive away |
| Salem Bottleworks | 845 South Poplar Street, across from the Old Salem Visitors Center | Bobby Boy Bakeshop's second location, Grandpa Joe's Slaberia, Noodle Ju'b | A full sit-down loop under one restored roof |
| Bailey Park | Innovation Quarter | Free lawn, food trucks, outdoor movies, NCMA's House Hangs concert series | A weeknight that costs nothing and doesn't require a car |
The first two sit close together in the older, walkable part of the city. The third means an actual drive north to Wake Forest's campus, and locals have known that math for years. What changed is the middle row.
Why the math finally changed this year
Twelve months ago, the Salem Bottleworks complex was two restaurants at most. Bobby Boy Bakeshop's second location had opened that April, and Grandpa Joe's Slaberia, the pizzeria with the mezzanine seating, was opening its doors that same August, right around when last year's tournament would have been underway. Noodle Ju'b, the noodle counter, was still four months from existing. It didn't open until December. This year all three are running at once, inside the same restored building in what's become the city's up-and-coming West Salem pocket.
It doesn't stop there. According to Visit Winston-Salem, two more concepts from the same team, a retail shop and a fine-dining restaurant, are both slated to open before the end of 2026. Neither has a name yet. That means the loop that finally became complete this August is already scheduled to grow again before the year is out, which is a different kind of neighborhood momentum than a single new restaurant opening in isolation. It's a building filling in room by room, and this fortnight happens to be the first one where you can eat a full dinner without leaving it.
Bailey Park keeps its own clock
The third stop on the map doesn't care what's happening at Wake Forest or Salem Bottleworks, and that's exactly the point. Bailey Park is a 1.6-acre publicly accessible green space in the middle of Innovation Quarter, and its calendar runs year-round regardless of what's booked on West 32nd Street. On any given week you'll find:
- Food trucks drawing a lunch-hour crowd most weekdays
- Free yoga on the lawn for anyone who shows up with a mat
- Outdoor movie nights on a rotating schedule
- NCMA's House Hangs series, where you bring a picnic blanket, grab something from a food truck, and hear live music from local artists
- Larger one-off gatherings in the same vein as Gears & Guitars and the Juneteenth Festival, the kind of programming that fills the lawn several times a year rather than once
This is the part of the loop that was never contingent on anything else being finished. It was full before Salem Bottleworks had a second tenant, and it'll be full after the tennis packs up on the 29th. What it means for this specific fortnight is that a downtown resident isn't choosing between "tennis city" and "nothing else going on." Bailey Park was always the third option. It just used to be paired with one bakery instead of a finished restaurant row.
What that actually means for the next three weeks
Put the three together and the picture is less about a tennis tournament and more about a city that briefly runs three separate calendars at once, only one of which requires a drive. If you're not buying a session ticket this year, that's not a loss the way it might have been in 2023 or 2024. The dinner loop at Salem Bottleworks and the free lawn at Bailey Park now add up to a complete two weeks on their own, and the tennis becomes something you opt into on a specific night rather than the only reason to leave the house.
That matters if you already call this part of the city home, and it matters if you're trying to gauge whether Winston-Salem's downtown core has the kind of week-to-week texture that holds up outside of one signature event. It does, and this August happens to be the first one where you can see all of it running at full capacity at the same time. If you want a closer look at what the surrounding blocks look like day to day, our Winston-Salem neighborhood guide is a good place to start.
Whenever the day comes that you're thinking about a move within the Triad, or just want a read on what a specific block or building is actually worth, Carolina Home Partners is a phone call away. Until then, enjoy the fortnight. Get Your Free Home Valuation whenever you're ready to see what your Winston-Salem home is worth today at nchomepartners.com/home-valuation.
