Great Gold opened its doors at the Village at Rancharrah on August 18, moving into the space that Grafted Whiskey & Wine Bar had occupied since the shopping center's original 2021 lineup. It's the kind of swap that happens at every retail center eventually. A whiskey bar becomes a modern Italian kitchen. The signage changes, the parking lot doesn't.
But the more interesting shift at the Village this fall has nothing to do with which restaurant occupies which storefront. One new weekly tradition began in September; another is set to begin in October, about a month later. The headline sponsor behind the latter wasn't recruited from outside. It's a farm that's been quietly supplying one of the Village's original tenants since the beginning. The new market won't start a relationship. It will put a name on one that was already running behind the counter.
A Restaurant Changes Hands, Five Years In
When the Village at Rancharrah opened to the public in the summer of 2021, Grafted Whiskey & Wine Bar was one of the founding businesses, operated by Kyle McDermaid, who also runs Huntsman Tavern in Sparks. It anchored a wave of openings that included Mari Chuy's Tequileria & Botanas, Trademark Jewelry, Bone-ito, Village Well, and Desert Strands Salon, all part of Tolles Development Company's roughly $50 million mixed-use build on the old 141-acre Harrah family estate off Kietzke Lane.
Five years later, that space belongs to Great Gold, a modern Italian restaurant serving handmade pasta and Neapolitan-style pizza. It's the second location for owner Brandon Kirksey, whose original Great Gold operates in Truckee. The menu leans on an all-Italian wine list and locally sourced ingredients, the kind of concept that reads as a natural next step for a center built around gourmet dining rather than a departure from it.
None of this is unusual for a lifestyle center at this stage of its life. What's worth noticing is what didn't change while the whiskey bar became an Italian kitchen.
Two New Traditions, About a Month Apart
The Village's fall calendar filled in fast. Wolf Pack Fridays kicked off with a season-opening pep rally on Friday, September 4, from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., a partnership between the Village and University of Nevada Athletics that brings the Nevada Band, cheerleaders, and student-athletes to the shopping center every Friday through football season. Participating tenants offer discounts and specials to anyone showing up in silver and blue.
Then, beginning October 3, the Village is set to host its Fall Harvest Market, an eight-week Saturday series scheduled for 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. through November 21. The market is presented by Prema Farm, a Loyalton, California operation, and is built around what the Village describes as the region's peak harvest season, featuring local growers and makers.
Here's the calendar, condensed:
- Every Friday through football season: Wolf Pack Fridays, 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.
- Every Saturday, October 3 through November 21: Village Fall Harvest Market, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.
- Saturday, November 21: Grand Tree Lighting Ceremony, the weekend before Thanksgiving
Together, the events give visitors two new reasons to return to the Village. What's less obvious is where the market's core partnership actually came from.
The Farm That Was Already in the Kitchen
Prema Farm isn't a stranger to the Village. It's one of the named suppliers for Perenn Grocery, the market and pantry shop that sits next door to Perenn Bakery within the center. Perenn Grocery's stated sourcing list includes Prema Farm alongside Liberty Pasta, Reno Arches Flowers, Silky Sullivan Farm for eggs, and Alpen Sierra Coffee. That relationship predates the Fall Harvest Market by however long Perenn Grocery has been stocking its shelves. The market won't introduce Prema Farm to the Village. It is set to give an existing supply line a Saturday storefront and a public name.
Perenn itself has been there since the beginning. The bakery and grocery were named among the businesses confirmed for the Village's original 2021 opening, alongside Base Camp Pizza Co., Rolled Mountain Creamery, Dorinda's Chocolates, and Hinoki Sushi. It's now described on Perenn's own site as the flagship location, the place where all the baking actually happens, run by husband-and-wife owners Aubrey and Tyler O'Laskey, who met at the Culinary Institute of America in New York before returning to Aubrey's hometown of Reno. They built a catering company called Butter + Salt first, then opened Perenn Midtown, and eventually made the Village at Rancharrah their main production kitchen.
That's the throughline. A restaurant that anchored the Village's original 2021 wave (Grafted) has already exited. A bakery and grocery that anchored the same original wave (Perenn) is still there, still sourcing from the same regional farms, and is set to have a public market built around one of those farm relationships.
What Actually Held Since 2021
If you're trying to read what makes a tenant durable in a center like this, the storefronts themselves aren't the reliable signal. A whiskey bar lasted roughly five years before giving way to Italian dining. What held is the food-and-farm infrastructure underneath it, the kind of supplier relationship that doesn't show up on a lease sign but shows up on a grocery shelf every day.
That matters if you live near Rancharrah and have started treating the Village as a default stop. The tenant mix will keep shifting at the margins. Grafted became Great Gold. Something else will eventually change too. But the deeper pattern, the one connecting Perenn's pantry sourcing to a public Saturday market five years later, suggests the Village's actual foundation is less about any single storefront and more about the small network of regional producers, Prema Farm among them, that several tenants already quietly depend on.
The Saturday Nobody Has to Choose Between
One more detail worth knowing if you're planning your fall around this: November 21 does double duty. It's both the final Saturday of the Fall Harvest Market and the date of the Grand Tree Lighting Ceremony, described on the Village's own site as South Reno's most festive family tradition. Show up in the morning for the last of the season's local growers and makers, and the same address turns into the holiday kickoff by evening. For anyone mapping out a fall weekend, November 21 is the date to keep open.
Worth remembering, too, that the Village is the public half of Rancharrah. The private Club at Rancharrah sits nearby with its own calendar, including a recently refreshed menu at Nineteen 57 Restaurant & Bar, but that side requires membership. The Village, with its farmers market, Friday pep rallies, and rotating restaurant roster, is the part anyone can walk into without an invitation.
If you're already treating the Village as part of your weekly rhythm, this fall gives you three new reasons to keep doing it: a Friday tradition tied to Wolf Pack football, a Saturday market tied to a farm that's been feeding the neighborhood for years without the marquee, and a single November Saturday that closes one season and opens the next.
Whether you're already living near Rancharrah or just keeping an eye on how South Reno's neighborhoods evolve, The Mike Wood Team pays attention to these details because they're part of what makes a place worth calling home. If you ever want to talk through what's happening in this corner of Reno, or anywhere else in Northern Nevada, reach out. Make Your Next Move With Confidence.
