Suffolk Punch Brewing's rooftop bar at 16912 Birkdale Commons Parkway has seats that look down over The Plaza. From November through early January, The Plaza holds a sheet of ice. Last winter the rink opened on Nov. 22, and the rooftop above it didn't open until Dec. 13, three weeks later. This year both open together. The Lighting of Birkdale Village is Saturday, Nov. 21, and Birkdale on Ice opens the same day.
The ice itself is the steady part of a Birkdale winter. What changed over the past year is what surrounds it: a two-story taproom on one side, an empty restaurant near the stage, a new owner, and a shorter season. If you've been skating at Birkdale for years, you'll find the evening there lays out a little differently in 2026.
The Rooftop That Opened Three Weeks Late Last Year
The Birkdale taproom took a long time to open. Owners spent more than a year getting permits from the Town of Huntersville and dealt with construction delays along the way. It finally soft-opened on Saturday, Dec. 13, 2025, according to CharlotteFive. It's Suffolk Punch's third Charlotte-area location, after South End and SouthPark.
The building has a full-service bar downstairs and the rooftop bar above. Co-owner Seth Stidham described the rooftop to CharlotteFive with the rink in mind:
"Our upstairs rooftop bar is an amazing place to enjoy a drink or meal while you overlook the ice skating rink and Birkdale's bustling streets."
Last season, anyone who skated in late November or early December could only see that rooftop from below. This season it's open for every session, from opening day through the last skate in January. The menu runs to things you can eat with gloves in your pocket, including Bavarian-style pretzels, Italian piadine folded flatbread sandwiches and 10-inch crispy flatbreads, plus the brewery's flagship beers, seltzers and craft cocktails. Birkdale Village's directory lists a full-service coffee bar too, which helps if you have an afternoon session with kids.
A Dark Storefront by the Plaza Stage
On the other side of The Plaza, Foxcroft Food & Wine Bar served its last meals on Oct. 10. Its address was 16915 Birkdale Commons Parkway, Suite A, near the main lawn and the Plaza stage, the part of the center that's busiest on lighting night. The restaurant opened about two years earlier as the fifth Foxcroft location. It was known for a wine list with 40 pours by the glass, along with house-made pasta, flatbreads and charcuterie.
Foxcroft didn't make the reason public. A Birkdale Village spokesperson told CharlotteFive that the closure was part of the "company's larger corporate strategy." The Charlotte Business Journal reported that Birkdale is the third Foxcroft to close in the past year, following Greenville, South Carolina, in October 2025 and Raleigh on Sept. 5. If you liked the Birkdale menu, Foxcroft is still open at its original SouthPark restaurant on Fairview Road and in Dilworth and Waverly.
No replacement for the space has been announced. That matters for the holidays because for the past two winters, Foxcroft was one of the nearest places to sit down with a glass of wine within sight of the rink. This year, a dinner reservation near The Plaza on a busy Saturday means looking at a slightly different set of options.
Who Owns The Plaza Now
Both of these changes happened under a new landlord. Hines announced on Oct. 22, 2025, that its Hines U.S. Property Partners fund had bought Birkdale Village. Hines' announcement describes the property as a 673,000-square-foot mixed-use asset, and Business North Carolina reported the price as $274.4 million.
Huntersville approved a rezoning for a larger Birkdale seven months before that sale, on March 18, 2025. WBTV reported the conditions: an office building capped at 100 feet, a hotel of no more than 125 rooms, up to 150 apartments, and a parking deck of roughly 2,500 spaces that has to be built before any other new construction. That deck requirement matters most for holiday visits, since parking is what anyone driving in on lighting night thinks about first. Until it's built, the season runs on the parking Birkdale has today, so plan to arrive early for the Nov. 21 events.
A Shorter Season, Booked Ahead
The rink has a shorter run this year. Last season it was open from Nov. 22, 2025, through Jan. 18, 2026. This season runs Nov. 21 through Jan. 10. It opens a day earlier and closes eight days earlier, so the season wraps up on Sunday, Jan. 10, and the third weekend of January, which was still on last season's schedule, isn't on the calendar this time.
Here are the details from Birkdale Village's rink page:
- Sessions: $18 for 75 minutes on the ice. Booking ahead is recommended. Walk-ups are welcome, but a time slot isn't guaranteed.
- Regular hours: Monday through Friday 3 to 10 p.m., Saturday 10 a.m. to 10 p.m., Sunday noon to 7 p.m.
- Holiday hours: Thanksgiving Day and Christmas Day, 4 to 10 p.m. Extended hours of 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. run Dec. 21 through 24 and Dec. 26 through Jan. 3.
- Season pass: $120 per skater, sold only at the skate shack across from Bad Daddy's Burger Bar. Lost punch cards can't be replaced.
- Fine print: All ticket sales are final, with no refunds or transfers. The rink suggests checking the forecast before you buy, since ice conditions can change with the weather. Birkdale's Concierge line is 704-817-2400.
The season-pass math is simple. At $18 a session, the $120 pass pays for itself on the seventh visit. For a household that skates once or twice a week over break, it adds up quickly.
Santa's Cottage opens the day after the lighting. It runs Thursdays through Sundays, 10 a.m. to 7 p.m., from Nov. 22 through Dec. 24. Appointments are recommended, and walk-ups are taken only when there's room. On Sunday, Dec. 6, at 4:30 p.m., Birkdale Village and Chabad of Lake Norman hold a menorah lighting in The Grove.
The Other Holiday Calendar, at Veterans Park
Birkdale is only part of Huntersville's season. The Town of Huntersville runs its own events at Veterans Park, 201 Huntersville-Concord Road. Its busiest stretch, in early December, comes two weeks after the Birkdale lighting, so the two schedules hardly overlap. The full calendar:
| Date | Event | Where | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sat., Nov. 14 | 11th annual Veterans Day Parade, with ceremony to follow | Parade route, then Veterans Park | 9:30 a.m. parade, 11 a.m. ceremony |
| Sat., Nov. 21 | The Lighting of Birkdale Village; Birkdale on Ice opens | The Plaza, Birkdale Village | 2 to 7 p.m.; parade 4:30, tree lighting 6 |
| Nov. 22 to Dec. 24 | Santa's Cottage, Thursdays through Sundays | Birkdale Village | 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. |
| Fri., Dec. 4 | Town tree lighting | Veterans Park | 6 to 8 p.m.; lighting at 6:30 |
| Sat., Dec. 5 | Holidays in Huntersville | Veterans Park | 3 to 8 p.m. |
| Sat., Dec. 5 | North Mecklenburg Holiday Parade | Main Street, Davidson | 1 p.m. |
| Sun., Dec. 6 | Menorah lighting with Chabad of Lake Norman | The Grove, Birkdale Village | 4:30 p.m. |
| Dec. 10 to 12 | Town Santa's Village | American Legion Post 321 | 5 to 8 p.m. |
| Sun., Jan. 10 | Last day of Birkdale on Ice | The Plaza, Birkdale Village | Noon to 7 p.m. |
Saturday, Dec. 5 is the day to plan around. The North Mecklenburg Holiday Parade starts on Main Street in Davidson at 1 p.m., on a shorter route than usual because of N.C. 115 construction, according to Huntersville Today. Holidays in Huntersville opens at Veterans Park two hours later. The Veterans Day Parade, hosted by the town with American Legion Post 321 and Auxiliary Unit 321, opens the season a week before the Birkdale lighting.
So the season has a clear order. Birkdale lights first and keeps the rink open into January, and the town's own celebrations fill the first two weekends of December at Veterans Park and the Legion post. This is the first year Birkdale's season begins with the rooftop over the rink already open, and the last skate is Jan. 10.
When the holidays bring friends or family to Huntersville and they start asking what it's like to live near Birkdale, or the Veterans Park side of town, Lake Norman is the market we focus on at Christy Walker & Associates. We're glad to talk through how different parts of the area fit the way you actually spend your weekends. Request a personalized Lake Norman market consultation.
