St. Armands at 100: A Resident's Read on the Circle's Busiest Year in a Century

The Circle you walked in the fall of 2024 is not the Circle you're walking now. Between hurricanes Helene and Milton and the century mark John Ringling set in motion when the streets officially opened in 1926, the last eighteen months have quietly rewritten the tenant map. Storefronts that felt permanent went dark. Storefronts that felt gone came back under different names. And 2026, the actual centennial year, arrived with a calendar so packed that a resident who checks it monthly still misses things.

That's the argument of this post: the 100th year is not a nostalgia lap. It's the first full season where the post-storm replacement layer sits alongside the survivors, and if you live here, the calendar is worth reading like a menu.

The reopenings that changed what the Circle tastes like

Start at 22 S. Boulevard of the Presidents. The Italian room that operated for decades as Le Colonne is now Nōnnō Umberto, rebranded in tribute to Umberto Salustri, whose son Simone runs the kitchen with co-owner Amber Mayner. When Helene and Milton forced the family to close Le Colonne, they didn't know what the next steps would be, so they kept the business alive with a food truck called Buonissimo Mobile Italian Kitchen while they decided what to do with the brick-and-mortar location, eventually reopening under the new name in recognition of Simone's father Umberto Salustri, who opened the original. The soft opening was not soft. 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. If you had a favorite table at Le Colonne, the ravioli aragosta is still on the menu.

A block over at 431 St. Armands Circle, the fifty-one-year-old Café L'Europe finished its transition into The Café on St. Armands. Oysters Rock Hospitality reopened the restaurant with a Mediterranean-inspired small-plates menu drawing from Spain, Greece, Italy, North Africa and the Middle East, adding a Gatsby-inspired lounge called The Wet Bar and a coffee-and-morning-cocktails counter called Café Soleil. If you had written that address off after the ownership change, the menu is a genuine departure from the old room.

Elsewhere on the Circle the recovery has been uneven and worth mapping out. Rico's Pizzeria and Le Macaron are back to walk-in traffic, Ben & Jerry's serves until 10 p.m., Big Olaf's on west Washington Street matches that late hour serving Yoder's ice cream, two locations of Ephesus Mediterranean Delights have reopened, Settimi's Gelato is scooping, and Meaney's Mini-Donut at the corner of the Circle and Boulevard of the Presidents has closed. That last one still catches long-time residents by surprise.

The new arrivals filling storm-emptied storefronts

Two more shops joined the tenant list this summer. At 7 N. Boulevard of the Presidents, St. Armands Jewelers is taking the place of Jewelry by Cole, whose namesake master goldsmith Stephen Cole Powell had been handcrafting fine jewelry there since 1974, with new owner Mia Tohar Eylon planning a soft opening. A few doors away, a familiar Anna Maria Island name expanded south. The sweets brand at 216C Pine Ave. on Anna Maria opened its new St. Armands location this month, focusing on small-batch chocolate truffles, chocolate-dipped treats, and its signature salt water taffy.

The bigger arrival is a few minutes' walk down toward the beach. Cirque St. Armands Beachside, the circus-themed hotel that replaced the Holiday Inn at 233 Benjamin Franklin Drive, opened last year and had its first full season this winter. The 135-room property showcases antique photographs of circus performers training in Sarasota in the 1920s and 1930s, its restaurant Ringside carries the circus theme with billboard-sized trapeze murals and five velvet-curtained booths, and drinks and small plates are served at the lobby bar and lounge, dubbed Midway. For residents, Ringside and Midway are the practical takeaway. Both are open to walk-ins and both give the neighborhood two dinner rooms it didn't have a year ago.

Further south on the key, the Rosewood Residences Lido has been topping out and finishing. The project broke ground in January, topped out its 11th floor in November and is projecting completion by early 2026. Whether or not it's on your walking route, it changes the skyline you see from the Circle.

The 100-year story isn't in the archive. It's in which storefronts have keys turning in their doors this month.

What's still under construction, and why the timeline matters

The most-watched vacancy on the Circle is the pair of parcels at 24 and 28 N. Boulevard of the Presidents. The two addresses have been vacant since the 2024 flooding, and Mindy Kauffman is proposing to revitalize this part of St. Armands with more than 17,000 square feet of redeveloped commercial space topped with a condo. The anchor tenant is a familiar name that decamped after the storms. Plans to create a new location for Shore Restaurant are moving forward with a mixed-use project involving renovation of the existing Chase Bank building and replacement of the adjacent former candy shop structure to create a unified mixed-use development. If you were counting on a quick return, temper expectations. The buildout date for the project is the fourth quarter of 2027, according to the development application. The design language is the more interesting local detail. The application describes a building intended to respond to the scale and character of St. Armands while incorporating flood-conscious improvements appropriate for the barrier island environment, including flood panels on the first story. Every new build on the Circle from here forward will read a little differently because of what Helene and Milton did.

A centennial calendar worth pinning to the fridge

The Circle typically anchors a handful of festivals a year. In 2026 the count is denser because the centennial is layered on top. Here's what's left on the calendar as of August:

The tree-lighting details are worth knowing before the night arrives. The lighting kicks off the holiday season with a Christmas carol sing-along in the park, a performance by Sarasota Academy of the Arts dancers, and a countdown with Santa. The winter art festival returns in January. Admission is free to a showcase of high-end artists across various media, with gallery-style booths lining South Boulevard of the Presidents and St. Armands Circle Park.

The centennial event that put the tone for the year was January's parade. The event began with a parade of 35 cars starting on Main Street in Sarasota and concluding on St. Armands Circle, and it featured a total of some 175 cars, tying together the past through both local fixtures having been founded by John Ringling in 1926, with the yacht club originally known as the Sarasota Yacht and Automobile Club. If you missed it, the SRQ centennial coverage across the county continues through the year.

Two dining calendars are also worth noting. Crab & Fin, at the same address since 1978, joined the county's June restaurant month. Starting June 1, 2026, the two-course lunch experience was offered at $25 and dinner featured a three-course option for $45 during Savor Sarasota. The Café on St. Armands's Wet Bar and Café Soleil concepts, both new to this stretch, give you a Gatsby-lounge option and a morning-cocktail option that the Circle didn't have five years ago.

The originals holding the line

For all the new tenants, the Circle's centennial year is a good time to notice the ones that keep showing up. As St. Armands Circle approaches its centennial, Bennington Tobacconist nears its 60th anniversary, still co-owned by brothers Jack, Jim and Gary Bennington, with Gary's daughter Kayte set to inherit the business. The Giving Tree Gallery, a fixture in the same block, has been running since 1994 under Debi Marino's family. Columbia Restaurant is the room with the longest ledger of all. It has served locals and visitors since 1905 as Florida's oldest restaurant, with the Hernandez-Gonzmart family recipes on the menu, including the Cuban black bean soup, paella, tapas, and the "1905" Salad.

If you have out-of-town guests staying with you this fall, the survivor tour is a better centennial itinerary than the greatest-hits shopping loop. Bennington, Columbia, and the Giving Tree in one afternoon give you the actual 100-year story. Nōnnō Umberto and Ringside give you what year 100 is adding.

Why this particular year is worth walking

There will be another quiet year on the Circle. There won't be another one where the tenant map is turning over this fast, three centennial-tied events sit on the same calendar, and a resiliency-driven rebuild on North Boulevard is on public record for anyone who wants to read the site plan. The next 12 months are the ones where a resident who walks the Circle regularly will notice the most change per visit. It's worth the walks.

If you're weighing what the centennial year and the post-storm rebuild layer mean for your own property on Lido, St. Armands, or the Sarasota barrier islands, Jacquelyn Smith reads this market street by street and would be glad to talk it through. Schedule a Free Consultation when you're ready.