Caragiulos and Alma de España Have New Downtown Addresses. The Breakfast House Is Moving Even Though It No Longer Has To.

The Caragiulo family saved the marble from the old bar at 69 S. Palm Ave. They cut it into strips and set it into the new bar at 1833 Ringling Blvd., the room Sarasota Magazine previewed ahead of its Oct. 27 public opening. The original Italian film posters made the trip too. So did the art, and many longtime employees were expected back after spending the closure working at the family's other restaurants.

Several of downtown's familiar restaurants are changing addresses this fall rather than closing. Caragiulos was scheduled to open on Ringling Boulevard on Oct. 27. Alma de España set a Nov. 1 grand opening in the cottage on Links Avenue, moving from Southside Village. And the Breakfast House is still working toward a 1956 house a mile east, even though the apartment deal that would have forced it out ended on Oct. 3.

Thirty-six years on Palm Avenue, and a lease that ran to 2040

Caragiulos didn't leave the Mira Mar because its lease ran out. The family opened at 69 S. Palm Ave. in 1989. When demolition of the Mira Mar was proposed in 2022, Paul Caragiulo said the lease ran through 2040. Dr. Mark Kauffmann sold the property to Seaward Development for $17.3 million in 2023, with that lease still in effect. The restaurant served its last Palm Avenue meal in October 2025, with roughly 15 years left on the lease.

The new site came with some continuity. Kauffmann also owns the Ringling Boulevard land under the new building. Architect Javi Suárez designed a building of about 4,300 square feet with 150 seats, a full bar and a covered patio. A tall brick arch marks the entrance. Inside, Milan designer Luciano Botta filled the room with Murano glass, vintage furniture restored in Italy, and curtains 14.5 feet tall sewn by 87-year-old Anna Caragiulo. Paul Caragiulo compared the effect to "a Mastroianni movie from 1968."

The menu that Sarasota Magazine reviewed is split between old favorites and new dishes:

• Still there: pasolini at $23, meatballs at $21, 37-layer lasagna at $25, chicken parmigiana at $32, and pizzette at $14 to $15.95
• New: My Mother's Pasta at $23, spaghettini with Cedar Key clams at $26, halibut cacciucco at $43, a 20-ounce veal chop Milanese at $59, and a 40-ounce bistecca Fiorentina at $115

The family's website still said "opening soon" with no posted hours in mid-October. Call before planning a weekday lunch around it.

The Indigenous cottage gets a new tenant

On Sept. 15, Indigenous closed after 15 years at 239 S. Links Ave. Its closing statement said the team was "ready for a change." Sarasota Magazine reported no other reason.

Within days the cottage had a new tenant lined up. The Herald-Tribune reported on Sept. 18 that Elier Rodriguez, chef and owner of Alma de España, planned to move the Spanish tapas and wood-fired grill restaurant there from 1830 S. Osprey Ave. in Southside Village, where it opened in 2025. Alma's website now gives the Links Avenue address and a grand opening date of Nov. 1, 2026.

So a closing that could have left an empty building turned into a move from one neighborhood to another in about six weeks. Southside Village had its own changes this fall. The 1818 Grill at 1818 S. Osprey Ave. served its last day on Sept. 26, and the owners of Legends Sports Pub next door at 1816 S. Osprey are taking over the space. Nothing has been announced yet about the Osprey Avenue space Alma is leaving.

What's happening at the old addresses

Here is where each move stands as of late October 2026, along with the building each restaurant left behind.

WWSB reported in late August that demolition had started at the Mira Mar, a 1920s building that Seaward describes as Sarasota's first hotel. The developer said keeping parts of that history is a priority. "New is simple," Seaward principal Patrick DiPinto told WWSB. "Taking a property like this with a 100-year-old historic building and incorporating the historical building into the new 18-story concrete structure is very complex."

The permit covers 70 condos. Seaward has said it is talking with possible new dining and retail tenants for the historic building, according to the Business Observer. The finish date has moved. In April the Business Observer expected completion by the end of 2028. WWSB's August report said early 2029. Either way, Palm Avenue has a few more years of construction ahead before it gets restaurants back on that frontage.

The Breakfast House is moving anyway

The Breakfast House was supposed to follow the same path as Caragiulos. Its yellow bungalow at 1817 Fruitville Road, home for 17 years, sits on the block where Bristol Development Group planned a project called 1899 Fruitville. It would have put 324 apartments on about 3.44 acres between Fruitville Road, Fourth Street, North Osprey Avenue and Gillespie Avenue and torn down the existing buildings.

In May, owner Wendy Lee Goldberg bought two parcels at 128 N. Briggs Ave. for $1.15 million. That's about 1.04 acres near Fruitville Road and Tuttle Avenue, with a one-story house built in 1956. "We don't want to be in a plaza," she said at a July community workshop at Selby Library, according to Sarasota Magazine. "We want to be in a house."

Then, on Oct. 3, property owners Alex and Marlene Lancaster told tenants by email that the Bristol contract was no longer in effect. They also said they plan to keep owning and managing the block. Four days later, the Breakfast House went to City Hall anyway. LBK News reported that Goldberg's daughter, Ciara Bloomfield, told the city's Development Review Committee on Oct. 7: "This project is intended to transfer business operations from the current location of the Breakfast House on 1817 Fruitville Road to the subject property."

According to that report, the rezoning application, case 26-REN-06, asks to change the Briggs land from Residential Single-Family 2 to Urban Mixed-Use 1. The filing describes 54 seats inside, 40 outside and the same hours the restaurant keeps now, Tuesday through Sunday from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. One binding promise in the application limits the site to a casual restaurant of no more than 2,200 square feet. Goldberg also told the committee that two grand oaks on the property are "not going anywhere."

The committee gave partial sign-off, which isn't the same as approval. LBK News lists the steps still ahead:

1. Full sign-off from the Development Review Committee
2. A public hearing before the Planning Board
3. Action by the City Commission
4. A fix to the lot line between the two parcels
5. A building permit and the renovation itself

The plan made in July was to close downtown on Jan. 2 and reopen on Briggs on Jan. 16. That plan was drawn up when eviction looked certain, and it no longer has a fixed date. For now, pancakes are still served on Fruitville Road.

The cottage block stays put, for now

With the sale off, the other 16 locally owned businesses on the Fruitville block are no longer being pushed out. That group includes FAM Cuisine, Siegfried's Restaurant & Biergarten, The Artful Giraffe and Discover Sarasota Tours. Laetitia Kepecz of FAM Cuisine told Sarasota Magazine she was relieved to have more time. She said finding another downtown space near her existing customers had looked financially out of reach.

The reprieve has limits. LBK News points out that the cottages have no new protection, and the zoning that allowed a project that size without a public vote hasn't changed. Some of the tenants have kept their own plan going. Tammy Hauser of Discover Sarasota Tours still wants to build a Sarasota Bungalow Village on Briggs Avenue. Her plan is to move a donated 1920s bungalow from 1716 10th Way there next summer and open in October 2027. Since the Breakfast House application covers a single restaurant, adding more businesses on that land would mean going back to the city for a separate rezoning amendment.

Main Street has seen some of this too, without the redevelopment backstory. Mademoiselle Paris opened a second location at 1766 Main St. on May 5, and Il Panificio opened one at 1995 Main the same day. The Herald-Tribune reported that the original 1605 and 1703 Main locations were expected to close eventually. Add Ringling Boulevard, Links Avenue and Briggs Avenue, and the familiar names are still downtown, just at different addresses. The next one to watch is the Planning Board hearing on 128 N. Briggs Ave. Until it's scheduled, the Breakfast House keeps its hours on Fruitville Road.

If your own plans depend on knowing which downtown blocks are changing and which are staying put, I'm glad to share what I'm seeing street by street. Lori Madden has followed Sarasota's addresses since the late 1980s, and the restaurants that have moved are part of that picture. Schedule your personalized Sarasota market consultation.