What's New On Lakewood Main Street And At Waterside Place This Season

Walk Lakewood Main Street on a Wednesday evening in August and the sidewalk tells a different story than it did a year ago. There's an Irish pub where McGrath's used to be. The old Hana Sushi Lounge space is papered over with a coming-soon sign for an omakase counter. Allswell's DJ booth is warming up two blocks away at Waterside Place. The Ranch has always had restaurants. What it's building now is a food scene with actual authorship, run by operators who moved here on purpose and are staking their reputations on the block.

For residents who have watched the town center fill in slowly since Waterside Place opened, this summer marks a turn worth paying attention to. The generic phase is ending. The interesting one is starting.

The Irish pub that took thirteen months to get right

Delany's Public House opened on July 23 at Main Street at Lakewood Ranch, more than a year after co-owners Tory Delany, her husband Darren Shore, and their partner Kevin O'Hanlon signed the lease. That timeline is the story. The group had planned a quick turnaround, but a quick turnaround would have produced the typical American version of an Irish pub, and they decided the bones of the space deserved more than a couple of plastic shamrocks.

What they built instead reads as a serious hospitality project rather than a themed room. The bar was built by two Lakewood Ranch woodworkers who were born in Ireland, and much of the furniture came from a woodworking shop in Derry. The sausages, bacon, meats, Irish breads and cheeses are sourced from Ireland, with the owners pointing to how the beef is raised as part of what they're selling.

The team behind it isn't new to this. Delany describes Delany's as their restaurant number eight, and she also owns Allswell at Waterside Place, backed by roughly 30 years of hospitality experience. Ten of their former employees from three New York City restaurants, Mezcali, Malt House, and The Spot, moved to Florida to help run the new pub. The address for anyone planning a visit is 8110 Lakewood Main St., in the former McGrath's space.

Delany and her partners have said they saw a "gap" in the Lakewood Ranch market.

That word matters. Gaps in a planned community usually get filled by chains that have already been vetted somewhere else. Filling one with an owner-operated pub sourcing meat from Ireland is a bet on where the Ranch is heading, not where it has been.

The omakase counter arriving in November

Two doors down, another owner-operator is moving in. Kuro Sushi will officially open to the public Nov. 1 at 8126 Lakewood Main St. #102, in the former space of Hana Sushi Lounge, following a reservation-only soft opening through Oct. 25 and a Forty Carrots Family Center fundraiser on Oct. 28.

The credentials behind Kuro give the opening some weight. Owner Daniel Dokko also runs JPAN Sushi & Grill at Sarasota's Shops at Siesta Row and University Town Center, plus the Korean barbecue spot Korê Steakhouse at Waterside Place, all under Umami Hospitality Group. The restaurant will seat around 120, with a bar that seats about 12, and was designed by David Morrison.

The detail worth circling for anyone who follows sushi in this market: starting Nov. 24, Kuro plans to offer omakase at a seven-seat sushi bar. Omakase counters are still rare on the Gulf Coast, and having one anchor Lakewood Main Street changes what a Friday night reservation in the Ranch can look like. Opening hours will run 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. for lunch and 4:30 to 9:30 p.m. for dinner Monday through Saturday, with Sunday service planned later.

Waterside Place is doing the counterweight work

If Main Street is where the new owner-driven concepts are landing, Waterside Place is where the roster is deepening. The Delany, Shore and O'Hanlon group opened the gastropub Allswell there last year, and it now anchors the late-evening rhythm. Allswell runs Live DJ Nights on Fridays and Saturdays from 9 p.m. to close, which is not a schedule most planned-community town centers keep.

Waterside Place has quietly become the highest-density dining walk in the county. The center now offers more waterfront dining and shopping than any other locale in Manatee and Sarasota counties, including more than 30 curated retailers and restaurants. Korê Steakhouse from the Kuro Sushi team is part of that count. So is Deep Lagoon Seafood and Oyster House, the upscale-casual addition with inside and outside dining, bars, and lake views.

The Waterside anchor for locals remains the market. The Sunday Farmers' Market runs at Waterside Place with more than 100 local vendors, and it's the one weekly routine most residents build around whether they cook or not.

Weeknight rhythms worth putting on the calendar

The recurring programming has thickened enough this year that residents actually have to choose. A short list of what's on now, drawn from the community's own event calendars:

• A Taste of the Ranch prix-fixe. The event runs from July 18 through August 1, with participating restaurants offering exclusive prix-fixe menus, wine pairings, and specialty cocktails. Worth catching in its final days.
• Sights + Sounds at Waterside Place. Music Compound's Heartbreakers play Waterside Place on Thursday, August 7, from 6:00 to 7:30 p.m. as part of the ongoing live music series.
• Live music at The Plaza. Music runs from 6 to 9 p.m. with waterfront views of Kingfisher Lake.
• Music on Main. The free concert series and block party runs 6 to 9 p.m. on Lakewood Ranch Main Street, with food vendors, beer trucks, and sponsor booths lining the street.
• Live music at Ed's Tavern. Every Friday and Saturday from 8 p.m. to close.
• Intro to Pickleball at Lakewood Ranch High School. Held on the first Saturday of the month in partnership with the LWR Pickleball Club.
• Adults Tennis at Summerfield Park. Tuesday and Friday mornings at 9 a.m.

A resident who wanted to could put together a full week without repeating a venue, which was not true in 2023.

The through-line worth naming

There's a temptation to treat all of this as a list of updates. It isn't. The move from a food scene populated by regional chains and satellite locations to one populated by owner-operators with their own provenance is a real shift, and it's happening on two specific streets a mile apart.

Consider the pattern. The growing culinary scene here has been drawing some of Sarasota's top restaurateurs east, and diners who used to travel downtown or further can now order their favorite dishes closer to home. JPAN, Owen's Fish Camp, Selva Grill and Tsunami Sushi & Hibachi Grill have all planted or planned second locations in the Ranch. The new wave, represented by Delany's and Kuro, is arguably the more interesting one because the operators aren't hedging. They aren't opening a second outpost of a proven concept. They are building the concept here first.

For residents, the practical read is this. The reservation that used to require a drive to Palm Avenue or St. Armands is increasingly available on Lakewood Main Street or at Waterside Place. The Thursday night that used to be a choice between one bar and another now includes a live music lineup, a farmers' market prep run on Sunday, and a decent argument for staying on the east side of I-75 entirely.

That's not a story about restaurants. It's a story about what the Ranch is turning into.

Let's Talk

If you've been watching Lakewood Ranch fill in and thinking about what it means for where you live, or where you might live next, First Light Real Estate would be glad to talk. Cathy Rustin and the team have been walking these streets since long before Waterside Place had a farmers' market, and we know the neighborhoods behind the town centers as well as the town centers themselves. When you're ready for a conversation, we're here.