If you live on Lido, the Circle has always been the closer thing than downtown. Since the 2024 storms, it has also been a moving target. The businesses that closed have mostly reopened, but the roster has quietly shifted, and a $57 million infrastructure project has started rearranging the ground under your feet. The version of the Circle you knew in the summer of 2023 is not the version you are walking through in August 2026.
The short thesis: the rebuild has not restored the Circle so much as reshaped it. Where corporate storefronts and long-tenured restaurants closed, a wave of family-run and independent operators has moved in. For a Lido resident who treats the Circle as a weeknight extension of the living room, there is more reason to go over now than there was two summers ago, and the walk-over rhythm is worth updating.
The New Names On The Circle This Summer
Four openings and one rebrand have shifted the dining and shopping mix in the last twelve months. If you have not been paying attention since spring, this is the catch-up.
| Business | Address | What It Is | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Flambo | 40 S. Boulevard of the Presidents | Trinidadian, family-run | Opened fall 2025 |
| Nōnnō Umberto | 22 S. Boulevard of the Presidents | Italian seafood and steakhouse | Reopened January 2026 |
| Chocolate Emporium | 28 S. Boulevard of the Presidents | Small-batch chocolate and ice cream | Opened June 2026 |
| The Sarasota Style | 410 St. Armands Circle | Lifestyle and apparel | Opened January 2026 |
| St. Armands Jewelers | 7 N. Boulevard of the Presidents | Fine jewelry, custom and repairs | Soft opening 2026 |
Flambo is a family-run Trinidadian restaurant that opened quietly on St. Armands Circle, run by father-son team Anthony Logan and Kevin Ramlochan. The inaugural fall menu includes lemongrass lagoon soup, pepper shrimp in a sweet garlicky tomato sauce, curry mussels and drunken Trini noodles, and the kitchen keeps a short evening window, open 4 to 9 p.m. daily. If you have been eating your way around the Circle for a decade, this is the first place on the block serving food this specifically Caribbean.
Le Colonne, a longstanding Italian restaurant on the Circle, closed after Hurricanes Helene and Milton, and the family behind it spent 2025 figuring out the next move. Owners Amber Mayner and Simone Salustri reopened the space as Nōnnō Umberto, named for Simone's father Umberto Salustri, who ran the original Le Colonne. The soft opening was busier than they expected. Staff served more than 250 people on the first night, growing to 800 people over the first week. The lobster ravioli survived the rebrand.
A block down, the Chocolate Emporium opened on South Boulevard of the Presidents next to Flambo and Nōnnō Umberto, a second location for the Anna Maria Island shop. The owners have described the Circle store as more tailored to the on-the-go shopper than the sit-down Anna Maria original, which is exactly what a post-dinner walk needs. The menu ventures into pickle-flavored fudge and a limited-edition bacon and caramel bark, made with bacon actually sizzling in the shop.
The Sarasota Style, a lifestyle and apparel shop, opened at 410 St. Armands Circle in January 2026 with a Sarasota-branded inventory and hours from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily. It sits next to Crab & Fin, in the former Tilden Ross Jewelers space. Two doors and one lot line over, the jewelry story is also changing. St. Armands Jewelers is taking the place of Jewelry by Cole at 7 N. Boulevard of the Presidents, with new ownership; the closed shop's namesake, master goldsmith Stephen Cole Powell, had been handcrafting fine jewelry there since 1974. New owner Mia Tohar Eylon has planned a soft opening, and the store will offer custom jewelry and repairs.
Why The Roster Shift Matters More Than The Reopenings
The recovery headlines have focused on the return of familiar names. Tommy Bahama and Kilwin's Chocolate and Ice Cream Shop hosted grand reopenings in September 2025, and Blue Dolphin Cafe, Le Shop, and others have been open for about ten months. That is the recovery story. It is not the interesting story.
The interesting story is that the storm churned the roster. Le Colonne became Nōnnō Umberto. Tilden Ross became The Sarasota Style. Jewelry by Cole is becoming St. Armands Jewelers. Flambo and Chocolate Emporium arrived as new tenants entirely. Every one of those transitions moved an owner-operated or family-run business into a slot that was previously either institutional, absent, or held by a retiring principal. Somebody who walks the Circle three times a week now has a materially different set of counters to lean on.
The practical read: the Circle in August 2026 has more independent, chef-and-owner-driven storefronts on Boulevard of the Presidents than it had before the storms. That is the shift worth planning around.
A Weeknight Loop From Lido That Actually Works Now
The old routine of "beach, dinner at the same place, home by nine" is outdated. Here is a summer weeknight sequence built around the current lineup, timed to the shuttle rather than the car.
- Catch the shuttle from Lido Beach Resort. The resort sits 0.7 miles from St. Armands Circle, and a complimentary shuttle runs to the Circle from 8:00 a.m. to 10:30 p.m. If you are a Lido resident within walking distance of the resort, this is the least-effort way onto the Circle in August heat.
- Dinner at Flambo or Nōnnō Umberto. Flambo closes at nine, so book earlier. Nōnnō Umberto stays busy, so book at all.
- Dessert at Chocolate Emporium. It is directly adjacent to both restaurants on South Boulevard of the Presidents. The freezer has hard-scoop ice cream, and flavored frozen lemonade and frozen coffee are on tap if the humidity has done its work on you.
- Browse The Sarasota Style or the reopened Le Shop before closing. The Sarasota Style is open until 9 p.m., which is later than most of the Circle.
- Back on the last shuttle by 10:30. Or walk it if the breeze has finally arrived.
The point of the loop is not the specific stops. It is that in 2023, a version of this walk would have taken you to three or four chain and legacy storefronts. In 2026, the same walk takes you to four independent operators who have opened or reopened in the last ten months. That is a different neighborhood texture, and it rewards being on foot.
The Infrastructure Project Under Your Feet
The other quiet change is that the Circle is now inside a large public-works project. In December 2025, the Sarasota County Board of Commissioners allocated approximately $57 million in federal disaster recovery funding through the Resilient SRQ Infrastructure Program, a HUD Community Development Block Grant-Disaster Recovery initiative tied to Hurricanes Debby, Helene and Milton.
The context for that number is the storm damage itself. The Circle saw a three-foot storm surge that inundated the entire island, and additional rain flooding closed the Circle outright. Reopening the storefronts was the visible part of the response. The infrastructure work is the part you are only beginning to see. The plan includes flood barriers for business owners, underground storage units, pavement that allows water to flow through it, tide check valves, and pump stations.
For a resident, the near-term reality is construction sequencing on the Circle for the foreseeable future. The longer-term reality is that a repeat of the 2024 flooding is meant to look different than the last one did. Whether it does is the test of the 2026 season.
What This Says About Living On Lido Right Now
Barrier-island life gets described in beach terms, but the utility of a place like Lido has always been what you can reach on a short shuttle or a short walk. That utility got taken away in the fall of 2024 and has been coming back in pieces ever since. The pieces that came back are not identical to the pieces that left.
If you moved to Lido in the last two years, the Circle you are inheriting is the one being written in real time. If you have lived here longer, the summer of 2026 is a good time to re-walk it. The block you thought you knew has three new front doors on it. For more on how the wider Lido submarket sits inside the Sarasota barrier-island corridor, see the Lido Beach neighborhood page or browse the broader neighborhoods overview.
If you are thinking about what your Lido condo or home is worth in this reshaped market, or if you want a straight read on how the Circle's rebuild is affecting nearby values, reach out to Marlin Yoder to get your instant home valuation or schedule a consultation.
