Caragiulos Moved to Ringling Boulevard and Took the Old Bar's Marble With It

Before Caragiulos left 69 S. Palm Ave., the family pulled up the marble from the bar, cut it into strips and set it into the new bar at 1833 Ringling Blvd. The original Italian film posters came too. So did the artwork, and so did many of the longtime employees, who spent the closure working at the family's other restaurants.

The restaurant opened to the public on Tuesday, Oct. 27, a year and a day after its last meal on Palm Avenue. Just over three weeks in, the new room shows how downtown Sarasota is now holding on to its oldest places. The pieces survive and the building around them is new. On Palm Avenue, the Mira Mar block Caragiulos left is going through the same change.

What Made the Trip From Palm Avenue

Luciano Botta is a longtime friend of the family and founder of the Milan design firm Compagnia Pacifico. He designed the new room to show how the restaurant changed over time rather than to copy the old one. "We tried to imagine the evolution of Caragiulos, from its beginnings in the 1980s through today," he told Sarasota Magazine.

Here is what longtime regulars will recognize, and where each piece came from:

• The bar top. It has marble from the Palm Avenue bar, cut into strips and set into the new bar.
• The walls. The authentic period film posters and artwork came back from the old restaurant. "Not replicas, not imitations," Botta said of the prints.
• The curtains. Anna Caragiulo, the family matriarch, made the 14.5-foot gold curtains herself. Her son Paul says they also improve the room's acoustics.
• The staff. Many longtime employees were expected back, and family members rotate through the new location.
• The soundtrack. Paul Caragiulo sometimes plays records from his own collection, which includes the Italian singers Gianni Morandi and Domenico Modugno.

Everything else is new. A shipping container brought lighting, furniture, tables and art collected in Italy. Venetian artisans made the Murano glass fixtures to order, and vintage furniture was restored and reupholstered in Italy before it shipped. The room-dividing shelves hold old plate sets, amaretto cookie tins, Italian cookbooks and ceramic Madonna figurines, and a vintage meat slicer stands on display.

A Room Designed as a Venue

The new restaurant covers about 4,300 square feet, with 150 seats, a full bar and a covered patio. From the street it looks restrained, with a tall brick arch at the entrance. Inside, textured glass globes hang at different heights, and the walls are covered in film posters and portraits in mismatched frames. The room also has wood paneling, patterned surfaces, lit liquor displays and period table lamps.

"It doesn't look like it was just built," Paul Caragiulo told Sarasota Magazine. "It's like a Mastroianni movie from 1968."

Architect Javi Suárez of Suarez Architecture designed the building. He described the job as reinterpreting Italian American architecture "through a contemporary lens" on what he called a challenging lot.

The priorities behind the room come from Paul's own description of the business. In the same Sarasota Magazine piece, he said the family is in the venue business and only "incidentally" in the food business, as long as the food is done well. He then quoted the British chef Marco Pierre White:

"At the end of the day, atmosphere, service, food—in that order."

The restaurant started very differently. Tony Caragiulo and his sons John, Mark, Rob, Anthony and Paul opened it on Palm Avenue in 1989. "We were a meatball hero and Styrofoam cup kind of place when we first started," Paul told the magazine in 2025. Over the next 36 years it became a downtown mainstay, known for pizza, pasta, its house salad and a busy lunch hour full of regulars.

The Menu Now Has Two Price Levels

The menu shows what that venue thinking costs at the table. The longtime favorites are still there, and a second group of new dishes sits well above them. These prices come from the menu posted online before opening, as reported by Sarasota Magazine.

Sarasota Magazine tied the higher prices to the setting: a dining room built for the purpose, with commissioned glass, restored vintage furniture, a full bar and a sound system designed around Paul's records. A plate of meatballs and a pizzette still make a dinner for less than one serving of the halibut. The $115 bistecca is meant for a table that came for the room.

Why It Left a Lease With 15 Years Left

Caragiulos did not move because its lease ran out. The timeline, as reported:

1. 2022. When demolition of the Mira Mar was first proposed, Paul said the restaurant's lease ran through 2040.
2. 2023. Dr. Mark Kauffmann sold the Mira Mar to Seaward Development for $17.3 million while that lease was still in effect.
3. July 2025. The owners of the Mira Mar won zoning approval for two 18-story condominium towers behind the building, according to Your Observer.
4. Oct. 26, 2025. Caragiulos served its last day at 69 S. Palm Ave. It held a raffle of artwork, tabletops and opening-weekend dining tickets for its regulars. About 15 years were left on the original lease.
5. January 2026. This was the original reopening target for Ringling Boulevard.
6. Oct. 27, 2026. Caragiulos opened to the public at 1833 Ringling Blvd.

Kauffmann, who sold the Mira Mar, also owns the Ringling Boulevard property under the new building. Even so, Paul told Sarasota Magazine that leaving the Mira Mar after all those years "wasn't easy." He called the new space "another continuation of the evolution."

Palm Avenue Is Getting the Same Treatment

The block Caragiulos left is being rebuilt the same way. The historic piece stays at the front, and a much larger new structure goes up behind it.

The Mira Mar was built in 1922 and runs about 400 feet along Palm Avenue. Your Observer reported that revenue from the towers will pay to rehabilitate and restore that historic portion, including its retail, restaurant and office space. The Herald-Tribune reported in April 2026 that the City had issued a building permit for the project's 70 condominiums in two 18-story towers.

Demolition began in late August. WWSB reported that Seaward calls the Mira Mar Sarasota's first hotel and says keeping pieces of that history is a priority. Patrick DiPinto, principal of Seaward Development, told the station that building the historic structure into the new tower takes extra time and effort. "New is simple," he said. "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." Seaward told WWSB it expects completion in early 2029.

So downtown has two versions of the same trade, a few minutes apart. On Ringling Boulevard, a restaurant kept its marble, posters and staff and moved them into a new building with a pricier menu. On Palm Avenue, revenue from 18 stories of new concrete will pay to restore a 1922 frontage.

Getting a Table This Month

Caragiulos sits on Ringling Boulevard between Osprey and Links avenues. The Herald-Tribune included it among the restaurants open as of Oct. 31. While it eases into opening, the restaurant's website says all seating is first come, first served. Check that page or the restaurant's social channels for hours before you go.

If the wait runs long, the family's other downtown restaurant is close by. The Caragiulo family founded Owen's Fish Camp in 2010, and it sits at 516 Burns Ct. A second Owen's Fish Camp opened in Lakewood Ranch in 2023. For more places to fill a weekend nearby, our fall weekend map for Sarasota mainland residents and our look at Southside Village's restaurant row cover more of the mainland's dining.

Downtown blocks keep changing around the places people know. At Jane Ebury Sinclair, we follow those changes block by block, from Palm Avenue to Ringling Boulevard. If you'd like to talk about how downtown is changing around your own address, we're glad to set up a time. Schedule a Free Consultation.