Two summers after Helene and Milton emptied storefronts along Boulevard of the Presidents, the Circle is not simply reopening. It is being rebuilt under different rules, with longer leases, flood panels on ground floors, and outside operators taking over the corners that used to belong to legacy tenants. If you live on Lido Key or in one of the Circle's condos, the shift is visible on almost every block this July.
Here is what has changed, what is coming, and how to plan a July weekend around the construction fencing without leaving the island.
A rebrand with a family name attached
The most visible sign of the new chapter sits at 22 S. Boulevard of the Presidents, in the space that Sarasotans knew for decades as Le Colonne. The restaurant closed after Helene and Milton, and for most of 2025 the family kept the business alive through an Italian food truck called Buonissimo Mobile Italian Kitchen. That gave owners Simone Salustri and Amber Mayner room to decide what to do with the brick-and-mortar location.
They did not simply reopen. They rebranded. The restaurant returned as Nōnnō Umberto, named for Simone's father, Umberto Salustri, who opened the original Le Colonne. The soft opening was held December 29, and the first week landed harder than anyone expected. Staff served more than 250 people on the first night, growing to 800 people over the course of the first week, according to co-owner Amber Mayner.
For neighbors who watched the space sit dark through most of 2025, the interior is worth a walk-in even if you are not eating. The menu leans into Italian dishes that showcase seafood, like the ravioli aragosta (lobster ravioli), and the room itself has been reworked in a way that reads less "reopening" and more "second act." Simone told the Sarasota Observer the buildout was brutal, running "6 a.m. to midnight for a month." The address is the same. The restaurant is not.
The Tommy Bahama corner has a new lease
Walk one block over to 300 John Ringling Boulevard and you will see the second piece of the summer story. The old Tommy Bahama building, one of the largest single storefronts on the Circle, has a coming-soon sign in the window. The tenant is a Gulf Coast seafood chain, not a resort-wear brand.
Pinchers signed a lease for more than 8,000 square feet at 300 John Ringling Blvd. in Sarasota, where it plans to begin serving customers this fall. "We are shooting to be open in October," Kevin Rooney, vice president of marketing and advertising for Phelan Family Brands, told the Business Observer. The parent company, Phelan Family Brands, also operates Deep Lagoon and Texas Tony's Rib & Brewhouse and will hit 27 Gulf Coast restaurants with this opening.
For residents, two numbers matter more than the brand name. The lease is long-term, and the room is big. The St. Armands restaurant will have in the "neighborhood" of 75 to 100 employees, according to Rooney, with around 200 seats. That is a meaningful shift in Circle capacity. The prior tenant leaned toward apparel and a bar-forward restaurant footprint. The replacement is a 200-seat seafood house with a chain's supply chain behind it, and its nearest siblings are in Lakewood Ranch and Venice, about 14 and 20 miles away, respectively. Expect crowds you have not seen at that corner before.
North Boulevard is being rebuilt from the studs
The most consequential change is the one still behind chain-link. In June, Kauffman Shore Properties formally submitted a site plan for the parcels at 24 and 28 N. Boulevard of the Presidents, the addresses that have been vacant since the 2024 flooding.
The plan is not a repair. It is a replacement.
The building design and site layout are intended to respond to the scale and character of St. Armands while incorporating resilient construction and flood-conscious improvements.
That language, from consultants Bill Waddill and Dominic Pardue of Kimley-Horn, appears in the development application filed with the City of Sarasota. The proposal calls for a three-story building that would contain retail, restaurant and residential space on 0.33 acres, anchored by a returning Shore Restaurant. The prior Shore location closed in December 2024 after suffering flooding damage from hurricanes. Shore co-founder Tom Leonard said at the time that infrastructure issues on the circle "forced us to re-evaluate our future here."
What the application actually says
For residents who have watched the site sit fenced for eighteen months, three details from the filing are worth knowing:
- The existing Chase Bank structure will be renovated. The former candy shop next door will be demolished and replaced.
- The new construction would incorporate "updated construction measures and flood-conscious design measures such as flood panels on the first story."
- The buildout date for the project is the fourth quarter of 2027, according to the development application. Next, the case is scheduled to appear before the Sarasota Development Review Committee July 15.
Read together, those three points describe a Circle that is not just refilling old floor plans. It is rebuilding them at higher elevation, with different structural expectations, and on a two-year horizon. If you live on Lido and were wondering when North Boulevard would feel finished again, plan for late 2027.
The rhythm of a resident summer
None of that helps if it is Saturday and you have your grandkids visiting. Here is where the Circle actually delivers this month.
The Lido Beach Pool at the Pavilion runs a 25-meter lap pool with lifeguards, and the summer schedule is narrower than most residents realize. It is open Friday through Sunday, 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., which is worth memorizing before you promise anyone a swim. The Bay Runner, the free open-air trolley, still runs daily between downtown and the Circle, which means Nōnnō Umberto without a parking hunt.
June's Savor Sarasota month has wrapped, but the participating Circle restaurants have carried some of the pricing forward informally. Crab & Fin, which has served the Circle since 1978, offers its early dining menu nightly from 4:45 to 5:45 p.m. with entrées discounted 20 percent, plus a complimentary soup or salad. Happy hour at the bar runs 4 to 6 p.m. daily, with craft cocktails, spirits, beer, and wine at 50 percent off. For a full lunch or dinner-out night, Café on St. Armands at 431 St. Armands Circle continues the Mediterranean-inspired menu that replaced the fifty-one-year-old Café L'Europe, including the Wet Bar lounge and the Café Soleil coffee bar for morning service.
If the afternoon calls for indoors and air conditioning, the drive to Mote's new Science Education Aquarium at 225 University Town Center Drive is about twenty minutes off the causeway. Mote SEA moved from City Island in 2025, and residents who remember the old Ken Thompson Parkway location will find a substantially different building. Tickets are timed and selling ahead.
Weekend logistics at a glance
| What | Where | When |
|---|---|---|
| Lido Beach Pool | 400 Ben Franklin Dr | Fri–Sun, 10 a.m.–4:30 p.m. |
| Crab & Fin early dining | 420 St. Armands Circle | Nightly, 4:45–5:45 p.m. |
| Crab & Fin happy hour | 420 St. Armands Circle | Daily, 4–6 p.m. |
| Bay Runner trolley | Downtown ↔ Lido Key | Daily, free |
| Mote SEA | 225 University Town Center Dr | Timed tickets |
What to watch next
Two dates on the local calendar are worth putting in your phone. The Sarasota Development Review Committee hearing on the North Boulevard rebuild is scheduled for July 15, which is the first real public checkpoint on the Shore project. And Pinchers has an October target for the Tommy Bahama corner, which means the two-block stretch between John Ringling Boulevard and North Boulevard of the Presidents will look meaningfully different by the time snowbird season starts.
The through-line across all of this is not "the Circle is back." It is that the operators returning to St. Armands in 2026 are signing longer leases, spending more on structural resilience, and taking bigger spaces than the tenants they replaced. For residents who have owned on Lido Key or in the Circle's mid-rise condos through both storms, that is a quiet vote of confidence in the address. It also means the summer of construction fencing you are looking at right now is not the finish line. It is the middle.
If you own a condo or home on Lido Key, Bird Key, or Longboat and you are watching these changes with an eye on your own next move, Monica Verinder tracks every one of them at street level. Schedule Your Private Consultation to talk through what the Circle's next two years mean for your property.
