Pickleball paddles and plates of street tacos are about to share the same roof in Rancho Cucamonga. Developer Lewis Retail Centers announced that Electric Pickle, a full-service restaurant built around pickleball courts, officially broke ground at The Resort. Eureka! Restaurant Group plans to open the concept in 2027, according to the Daily Bulletin.
The project, called Courtyard at The Resort, is a new development by Lewis Retail Centers inside The Resort, a master-planned community built by Upland-based Lewis Group of Companies, the Daily Bulletin reports. The Rancho Cucamonga complex is planned to include an 8,500-square-foot restaurant, 10 pickleball courts and a lawn.
Food, Paddles and a Growing National Chain
Eureka! co-founder and co-chief executive officer Paul Frederick described Electric Pickle as a combination of a rapidly growing sport and food, beverage and entertainment, per the Daily Bulletin's report. The company calls it an eatertainment venue, meaning guests get a meal paired with an interactive activity on-site. Southern California already has examples of the format, including Topgolf, Xlanes LA, Punch Bowl Social and California Smash Pickleball & Social Club, which opened in El Segundo in 2025, the Daily Bulletin notes.
Electric Pickle isn't the only celebrity-adjacent pickleball brand chasing growth. Kansas City Chiefs stars Travis Kelce and Patrick Mahomes have invested in Chicken N Pickle, a quick-service chain with full-service bars founded in 2024 that now has 10 locations, with its closest outpost in Henderson, Nevada, the paper reported. Eureka! opened the first Electric Pickle location in Tempe, Arizona, in 2025 on a 4.5-acre property with nine outdoor courts and space for entertainment; the two-story, 12,000-square-foot restaurant there includes a full bar. Frederick has described that flagship as an elevated sports bar with a polished, casual menu featuring sushi, street tacos, pizza, smash burgers, chicken and waffles, plus a daily brunch of breakfast favorites.
What's Planned for the Inland Empire Site
In Rancho Cucamonga, Frederick said the venue will also include cornhole, bocce ball and live music on a large patio, according to the Daily Bulletin. Courtyard at The Resort sits at Fourth Street and Resort Parkway, placing it near Toyota Arena and Ontario Mills. Per IE Business Daily, The Resort itself is a 160-acre master-planned urban village directly across Fourth Street from Toyota Arena and the 131-room Element by Marriott Ontario, designed as a walkable live-work-play community.
Eureka! Restaurant Group traces its roots to Redlands, where it opened its first craft burger restaurant on Eureka Street in 2009. That original location closed in June 2026, and the company immediately opened a new building in downtown Redlands along with an adjoining Mexican restaurant called La Popular, according to the Daily Bulletin. Now based in Hawthorne, Eureka! operates 30 restaurants across six states.
Institutional Backing Fuels a National Push
Electric Pickle's expansion into Rancho Cucamonga comes amid institutional backing for the company. New York-based private equity firm Knighthead Capital Management joined Eureka! Restaurant Group and Mexico-based Grupo Carolo as a strategic equity partner in August 2023 to back Electric Pickle's national expansion, according to a release carried by PR Newswire; Knighthead also holds equity stakes in Major League Pickleball.
An expansion plan announced in 2023 named Las Vegas, Roseville, Katy and Rancho Cucamonga as markets for Electric Pickle. Eureka! and Lewis Retail Centers are targeting a June 2027 opening for the Rancho Cucamonga location, the Daily Bulletin reports.
A Sport Outgrowing Its Retiree Reputation
The timing lines up with a national boom. The Daily Bulletin notes the United States now has more than 20 million pickleball players, while separate data published by the Sports & Fitness Industry Association in 2026 put total U.S. participation at 24.3 million players in 2025, with pickleball the country's fastest-growing sport over the past three years. Participation has grown nearly 480 percent between 2020 and 2025, according to the SFIA.
The sport's demographics have shifted too. Demographic data compiled by the Association of Pickleball Players shows the average age of U.S. players dropped to 34.8 years as younger adults adopt it as a social group activity, a trend highlighted by Texas Pickleball that helps explain why hybrid dining venues are courting active millennial and Gen Z crowds rather than just retirees.
Construction is moving forward toward the targeted 2027 debut.
