When did you last walk the full loop of St. Armands Circle and check what sits behind each familiar door? At several of its best-known addresses, the answer has changed since the 2024 storm season. Most of the change didn't come from the old tenants reopening, and very little of it came from new construction. It came from swaps. A clothing-and-dining brand moved into a former restaurant. A son reopened his father's dining room under a new name. A flood-damaged retail block was rebuilt and filled with new names.
Your Observer reported on Nov. 1 that the Circle now holds more than a dozen restaurants. The list runs from Columbia, which opened its Cuban-Spanish restaurant there in 1959, to newcomers that opened within the past year. To see what happened, it helps to read the Circle the way a mail carrier would, one address at a time.
Most of the Circle Came Back Fast. The Corners Took Longer.
The quick part of the recovery happened early. SRQ Magazine reported that Columbia and Cha Cha Coconuts reopened within five weeks of the storms. By late March 2025, according to the Business Observer, 84 of the Circle's more than 100 merchants were open again, including Columbia, Crab & Fin, Lynches Pub and Daiquiri Deck. Columbia still lists its St. Armands restaurant at 411 St. Armands Circle.
The addresses that stayed in limbo were the ones that needed new tenants rather than a cleanup. Longboat Key News summed it up in July as "one district. Three addresses. A near-complete turnover of tenants." The table below sets out the swaps.
| Address | Before the 2024 storms | Next tenant |
|---|---|---|
| 300 John Ringling Blvd. | Tommy Bahama restaurant and store, for nearly 30 years | Pinchers, leased for a 200-seat seafood restaurant on both floors |
| 465 John Ringling Blvd. | Shore | Tommy Bahama |
| 22 S. Boulevard of the Presidents | Le Colonne, founded in 1998 | Nonno Umberto, open since December 2025 |
| 28 S. Boulevard of the Presidents | Three-unit retail building with heavy flood damage | Renovated and fully leased, with Le Shop and Acadia Jewels |
| 24 and 28 N. Boulevard of the Presidents | Flood-gutted former bank buildings | Site of Shore's planned three-story rebuild |
The Tommy Bahama Shuffle Started the Chain
The John Ringling Boulevard moves set off the rest. Flooding forced Tommy Bahama out of 300 John Ringling Blvd. in late 2024. Shore closed in December 2024 at 465 John Ringling Blvd., at the other end of the northeast quadrant. Instead of leaving that space dark, Tommy Bahama moved less than a mile east into it and reopened in time for the season.
That freed up the Gulf-facing building at 300 John Ringling. Pinchers signed a long-term lease there for more than 8,000 square feet, planning about 200 seats and a staff of roughly 75 to 100, according to Longboat Key News. Pinchers is the flagship of Naples-based Phelan Family Brands. The group started in 1997 with the original Pinchers Crab Shack in Bonita Springs and also runs Deep Lagoon and Texas Tony's Rib & Brewhouse. Your Observer counts the Circle location as the 11th Pinchers on the Gulf Coast. Before this one, the closest were on Lakewood Ranch Main Street and in Venice. In late summer, a company spokesperson told Your Observer the target was an October opening.
Rachel Burns, executive director of the St. Armands Circle Association, told Your Observer that Florida seafood is one of the requests she hears most often from visitors:
"They want to see the tropical plants, the bright colors, fresh seafood, and that relaxed, upscale vibe where you're dressed up, but you're still wearing your flip-flops."
A Father's Dining Room Reopened Under a New Name
Across the street from the Pinchers building is 22 S. Boulevard of the Presidents. Le Colonne served Italian food there for more than 25 years. After the 2024 hurricanes, owner Umberto Salustri decided to close. His son, Simone Salustri, and Simone's wife, Amber Mayner, started renovating the property in September 2025 and opened Nonno Umberto that December. "Nonno" means grandfather in Italian.
The new version is a 300-seat Italian seafood and steakhouse with a coastal look. The menu draws on Simone Salustri's roots in a coastal Italian town. Your Observer reports that the most popular dishes are the whole bronzino, deboned by the chef, along with dry-aged meats and shrimp cocktail. Bread and desserts are made in-house, and shrimp carpaccio was added recently. Mayner told the paper in mid-September that the restaurant had already made more in less than a year than the previous restaurant made in a full year.
One Block Down, Newcomers Filled the Gaps
A few doors along, the newcomers had no family history at their addresses. Flambo opened at 40 S. Boulevard of the Presidents with a soft opening in October 2025 and a grand opening that November, so it turns one this month. The 175-seat restaurant serves Trinidadian food. It is co-owned by Anthony Logan, who opened the first Flambo in Philadelphia, and his son, Kevin Ramlochan. Logan told Your Observer the three biggest sellers are butter chicken in a mildly spiced tomato cream sauce, the crispy Flambo red snapper with pickled vegetables, and Trini drunken rice noodles.
The biggest single change on that side of the Circle is at 28 S. Boulevard of the Presidents. The three-unit retail building flooded badly in 2024. It has since been renovated and fully leased, according to Longboat Key News, and the paper described the Circle's new tenant mix as a snapshot of its next chapter. A third newcomer opened nearby on the Circle this summer.
- Le Shop is a wine-and-coffee bar across from The Met. It pours handcrafted coffee, tea and natural wines and sells pastries from local bakers. As of July it was open every day except Monday.
- Acadia Jewels opened in January 2026 as the first Florida location of the Maine-based jeweler.
- Chocolate Emporium, the Anna Maria Island chocolatier, opened its first Sarasota shop on St. Armands Circle in June. The 1,446-square-foot store sells handmade chocolates, fresh fudge and saltwater taffy.
Burns told Your Observer that more boutique-style eateries and businesses are on the way, including a coffee and dessert shop. Her explanation for the mix was that "there's a lot of opportunity for small restaurant owners to find a niche for something original."
Shore's Next Address Is Being Built to Stay Dry
Shore's spot in this chain is a construction project, not a lease. The restaurant still runs its bayfront location at 800 Broadway on the north end of Longboat Key. On the Circle, Kauffman Shore Properties LLC, a partnership between restaurateur Tom Leonard and the Kauffman development family, plans to combine 24 and 28 N. Boulevard of the Presidents into one three-story building of about 17,000 square feet. The plans call for more than 7,000 square feet of ground-floor retail and a café of about 1,820 square feet. A roughly 8,500-square-foot Shore restaurant would fill the second floor, and the third floor would be a residential shell.
Longboat Key News reported that the ground floor is designed with flood-proof glass about 10 feet tall, at roughly $5,000 per linear foot, set on a structural slab about 20 inches thick. The idea is that water can rise against the glass while the inside stays dry. The project went before the city's Development Review Committee on July 15. Your Observer reported that staff raised questions about the third-floor use, parking, and how the design handles height and flood elevation, and asked for a resubmittal. The ownership has said it hopes to reopen by early 2028.
Walk the New Map on an Event Day
The St. Armands Circle Association's calendar gives you four chances before mid-December to walk the reshuffled Circle, and one of them uses the very block that changed most.
- Saturday, Nov. 7, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.: Ferraris on the Circle, sponsored by Ferrari Drivers SRQ.
- Saturday and Sunday, Nov. 14 and 15, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.: the St. Armands Circle Art Festival & Sidewalk Sale, set in St. Armands Circle Park and along South Boulevard of the Presidents. That is the same street as Nonno Umberto, Flambo and the rebuilt block at No. 28.
- Friday, Dec. 4, 5:30 to 8 p.m.: the 48th annual Holiday Night of Lights.
- Saturday, Dec. 12, 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.: the 22nd annual Porsches in the Park, sponsored by Suncoast Motorsports.
During the art festival weekend, a loop down South Boulevard of the Presidents takes you past Le Colonne's old dining room, now Nonno Umberto, then Flambo in its first-anniversary month and the rebuilt block at No. 28, all in one walk.
If you have a St. Armands favorite you'd like to visit with someone who knows where things moved, or you'd like to talk through life on Sarasota's barrier islands over coffee at Le Shop, Home Matchmaking Realty would be glad to hear from you. Contact Us and we'll meet you on the Circle.
