For most of the last decade, the intersection of Main and Market in downtown Troy was a place you drove through on the way to somewhere else. The former US Bank building sat on one side. The former American Legion Hall sat on the other. Neither pulled traffic on a weeknight. That is the piece of downtown that changed this summer, and it changes what the August calendar means for anyone who already lives here.
If you have not walked the two blocks around that corner since spring, you are working from an old map. The reason to reread it is not one new restaurant. It is that the new restaurant is landing in the same three weeks as First Fridays and Rodz n Ribs, and the three events now interlock in a way they did not last August.
The corner that changed in June
Market and Main opened downtown on June 9, converted from the former American Legion Hall by co-owners Gina and Evan Buchholz, who also own Edwardsville's Cleveland Heath. The Cleveland Heath lineage is the part locals should register. That kitchen has been one of the most consistent sit-down destinations in Madison County for years, and the Buchholzes spent the winter and spring rebuilding the Legion Hall interior to carry a similar sensibility across the county line.
The last week of May went to training a staff in the mid- to upper 30s, the first week of June went to soft openings, and the grand opening landed on June 9. That timing matters for August. A restaurant that opens in June has had two months to work out its service before the first big downtown foot-traffic night of late summer, which is exactly what First Fridays delivers.
Brunch and to-go are still on the future list, along with expanded hours, and the owners were aiming to have everything in place for the next Troy First Friday event on August 7. Read that as a signal, not a marketing line. The kitchen is planning around the downtown calendar rather than the other way around.
What the August 7 First Friday looks like this time
First Fridays in Downtown Troy runs 5 to 9 p.m. and brings together live music, themed experiences, local shopping, food trucks, bar and restaurant specials, and street vendors. The August installment has a specific shape this year. On August 7 from 5 to 9 p.m., the theme is Art on the Streets, with live music by Ryan & Rainn.
What is new for residents is the geography. In prior years, the Main-and-Market intersection was a walkthrough point between the food trucks and the shops. With Market and Main anchoring one corner, the intersection becomes a stopping point, and the natural loop for a summer evening downtown gets shorter. You can now do the walk as a single circuit rather than a there-and-back.
A resident's practical read on the evening:
- Live music by Ryan & Rainn is the fixed point, so plan arrival around it rather than around dinner
- Restaurant and bar specials mean the sit-down options are worth checking before you commit to food trucks
- Chalk art and community projects mentioned in the event billing put families in a different part of the block than the tasting crowd
- The 5 p.m. start is earlier than it feels in August heat, so shade on the north side of Main matters until roughly 7
First Fridays Art on the Streets returns to Downtown Troy on August 7, 2026, with artists, musicians, chalk art, and community projects. If you have been to a previous First Friday and remember it as one long open-air block, the difference this year is that the block now has a proper indoor room at one end of it.
The Saturday nine days later
The other date to hold in August is the following weekend at Tri-Township Park. Rodz n Ribs Car Show and BBQ Competition 2026 runs Sunday, August 16, starting at 9 a.m. at Tri-Township Park District. That is a full-day event on the opposite side of town from the downtown First Friday, and it draws a different crowd.
For residents, the useful thing to know is what Tri-Township actually is when it fills up. The district is an expansive complex offering tennis, soccer, volleyball, basketball, pickleball, walking trails, a roller skating rink, and a skateboard park. There is also a small zoo with goats, peacocks, and farm animals, and craft fairs held at the skating rink with local and visiting vendors. On a normal Sunday morning in August, several of those things are happening independently of the car show. On August 16, they compete for the same parking.
The workaround most longtime residents already use is to park east of the park and walk in from the pavilion side rather than the main lot, especially between 10 a.m. and noon when the BBQ judging crowd builds.
"We wanted to be a staple in Troy and that's a big staple intersection," Gina Buchholz said of the Main-and-Market corner in a June interview with the Troy Times Tribune.
That quote is worth sitting with. A restaurant owner from Edwardsville describing a Troy intersection as a "staple" is the kind of framing that only lands if you already know how central that corner is to the town's downtown identity. It is not a slogan. It is the reason the August calendar is now anchored where it is.
The handoff into September
August is not the last chapter of downtown Troy's summer, and residents who plan only around it miss the shoulder. Troy Main Street's August First Friday programming celebrates the kickoff of football season, with a chance to learn more about the high school team ahead of the fall. That gives the August 7 evening a second layer beyond the Art on the Streets theme, particularly for families with Triad students.
Looking one month further out, a Plein Air event brings artists downtown to paint the buildings and streetscape, ending with a sale of the completed works. The event turns downtown itself into the subject matter for a day, which is a specific and worth-attending thing for anyone who lives on or near the blocks getting painted.
The seventh annual Chocolate Walk is also on the fall calendar, with downtown stores offering chocolate truffles, cakes, hot cocoa, and chocolate-scented and chocolate-themed items, as a ticketed event. Tickets for that one sell through the Troy Main Street Facebook page, so it is worth flagging now rather than in November.
The through-line from June to fall is that the downtown organization has stopped treating each event as its own island. First Fridays, Plein Air, football-season programming, and the Chocolate Walk all use the same three blocks in rotation, and the arrival of a real sit-down destination on the anchor corner is what makes the rotation feel like a program rather than a series.
What residents should actually put on the calendar
For anyone who lives in Troy and wants a compact read on the next three weekends downtown:
- Friday, August 7, 5 to 9 p.m. — First Fridays Art on the Streets, live music by Ryan & Rainn, first First Friday since Market and Main's June opening
- Sunday, August 16, from 9 a.m. — Rodz n Ribs Car Show and BBQ Competition at Tri-Township Park District; park east and walk in
- Fall — Troy Main Street's Plein Air day and the seventh annual Chocolate Walk, both ticketed or timed events worth checking the Troy Main Street calendar for in advance
A quick word on the Fourth, for the calendar keepers
The Tri-Township Park District's Fourth of July celebration runs vendors and waterslides from 1 p.m., live music by Clueless at 6 p.m., and fireworks from 9 to 9:30 p.m. That is the summer's other tentpole, and if the July show is any indication of scale, the August 16 Rodz n Ribs draw will benefit from the same crowd logistics the park has been running for years.
The short version of all of this: downtown Troy in August 2026 is not the downtown of August 2025. The corner of Main and Market is now a place you plan an evening around, First Fridays flows differently because of it, and the Sunday after gives you a full-day option on the opposite side of town. If you already live here, the map is worth redrawing.
If your family's summer conversations have started drifting toward what to do with the house, whether that is a longtime home near downtown, an inherited property elsewhere in Madison County, or a first move across the river, Kim Benda and Angela Jett are the local team to talk to before anything gets decided. Start My Downsizing Journey when you are ready.
