The stretch between the pier and the bridge used to be somewhere you drove through on the way to the beach. In the last eighteen months it has become somewhere you park and stay. If you live in Vilano, you have watched it happen block by block.
The shift is not one restaurant. It is the pattern of who is choosing to open here.
The Vilano Road tell
Restaurateurs vote with capital. When operators who already run successful concepts elsewhere start clustering their next projects inside a few walkable blocks, that is a signal about the corridor, not about any single address. Vilano Road right now has four separate projects at four different stages, backed by four different teams with track records. That is the story worth telling your out-of-town friends when they ask what is going on out here.
The projects, in the order you will see them open
Anchor 28, ground floor of the Holiday Inn Express
Anchor 28 will be located at 140 Vilano Road, on the ground level of the Holiday Inn Express. A worker on site told St. Johns Citizen in late May that the team was aiming to open within roughly two weeks, though the timeline remained fluid. The restaurant's veranda is already lined with tables and chairs, matching the style of the Holiday Inn Express Vilano Coffee Shop a few doors down. The concept leans coastal seafood with a lingering-table posture, and the veranda placement means you will see it before you smell it.
Michael's, now inside Hyatt Place, and Pesca on the roof
The Hyatt Place at 117 Vilano Road quietly became the anchor of the corridor. In 2025, St. Augustine's heralded restaurant Michael's relocated from downtown to Vilano Beach. Its perennially packed new position inside the Hyatt Place instantly upgraded Vilano's culinary reputation, and piqued the interest of other restaurateurs mulling a St. Augustine-adjacent location. Chef Michael Lugo also runs Pesca Vilano in the same building. Pesca Rooftop Kitchen and Bar is a casual Florida coastal kitchen and bar offering spectacular views of Vilano, St. Augustine, and beyond. The concept is inspired by the Latin and Caribbean flavors that Chef Michael Lugo seeks out when traveling south to his native Puerto Rico. The rooftop runs Salsa Thursdays, brunch, and rotating live music, which is worth checking on the restaurant's own calendar before you head over.
Snapper's at 165 Vilano Road, still in review
This is the project that tells you the corridor is not a fluke. Restaurateurs Nathan Stuart and Margo Klar plan to open a sleek new restaurant to the increasingly popular destination. According to paperwork filed with the county, the couple, who run several successful North Florida restaurants, want to open Snapper's at 165 Vilano Road. Stuart and Klar have an accomplished culinary track record, having built Outback Crab Shack, Fish House and Oyster Co., Tally House & Oyster Bar, and The Boathouse into thriving eateries. Their application for the new location, which is still under review, aims to expand out the 2,732-square-foot space previously occupied by Tropicana Cuban to about 4,900 square feet. That is nearly a doubling of footprint on a lot that already has parking and walkable frontage.
The Van Dyke brothers' open-air concept at 2931 Coastal Highway
Further up the corridor, a second family is scouting a different kind of room. The St. Augustine resident and real estate investor is exploring plans for a 2,500 square-foot casual open-air restaurant at 2931 Coastal Highway on a 0.86-acre property. The project was inspired partly by a popular Sunset Beach Club on Plum Island, Massachusetts, where his brother resides. Joshua Van Dyke, a longtime restaurateur who owns several eateries named NU Kitchen in Massachusetts, would partner with him on the project. The proposal is still in the county's pre-application phase, meaning plans remain conceptual and subject to revision. In Jared Van Dyke's own words to St. Johns Citizen, "This would be family-friendly casual but really well done, still maintaining those beach vibes. That Florida feel."
At a glance
| Project | Address | Status | Operator background |
|---|---|---|---|
| Anchor 28 | 140 Vilano Rd | Nearing opening as of late May 2026 | Coastal seafood concept |
| Michael's | Hyatt Place, 117 Vilano Rd | Open, relocated 2025 | Chef Michael Lugo, formerly on Cuna Street |
| Pesca Vilano | Hyatt Place, 117 Vilano Rd | Open | Chef Michael Lugo |
| Snapper's | 165 Vilano Rd | County review, expansion to ~4,900 sq ft | Stuart and Klar (Outback Crab Shack, Fish House and Oyster Co., Tally House, The Boathouse) |
| Van Dyke concept | 2931 Coastal Highway | Pre-application | Jared and Joshua Van Dyke (NU Kitchen, MA) |
What this actually changes about a Saturday
The corridor is only useful to residents if it fits the weekend you were already going to have. In August that becomes easy to test.
On Saturday, August 15, two things happen inside a five-minute walk of each other. The Vilano Beach Artisan Market Walk returns to the pier. Shop for local artisan-made items, plants, home décor, datil pepper sauces, and more along the sidewalks near the Vilano Beach Pier from 4-8 p.m. Free parking and admission. That same weekend, Vilano Beach hosts the Florida Skimboarding Pro/Am Tournament on August 15 and 16.
A workable rhythm: watch the morning heats of the Pro/Am from the sand, walk back up to the pier for the 4 p.m. market, and settle in for dinner without moving your car. If Anchor 28 has opened by then, the veranda is the closest sit-down to the market. If not, Pesca's rooftop is one block south and takes walk-ins.
Looking further out, Sunday, October 11, 2026 is the fall triathlon, which turns the same stretch of road into a viewing corridor for a few hours. That is the day to make a reservation before, not after.
The staples the new places are building around
New openings only matter because the base was already there. The corridor's existing anchors are the reason operators like Stuart and Klar looked at Vilano Road in the first place.
- Beaches at Vilano, 254 Vilano Rd, sits on the Tolomato with a Caribbean menu and one of the more reliable happy hour windows in the area, Monday through Friday from 3 to 7 p.m., with live music Thursday through Sunday.
- Cap's on the Water, a longer-standing waterfront room, remains the sunset default. The waterfront deck is one of the most popular dining spaces, where you'll have a front-row seat for the stunning Florida sunsets.
- Aunt Kate's, on the Tolomato under live oaks, is one of the longest-serving Vilano Beach restaurants, with deck seating and a raw-bar-forward menu.
- The Kingfish Grill covers casual waterfront, and The Reef sits directly on the beach for the room-with-a-view meal.
- Surfside Kitchen has been through a change in ownership and a menu refresh, and is now the closer walk if you have been in the water all afternoon.
None of these are going anywhere. What is changing is the density around them.
The through-line
Two things are true at once. First, Vilano Road is still, block for block, the same walkable strip it has been for years, with the same pier, the same Tolomato views, the same short drive over the bridge to downtown. Second, four separate operator groups have decided within roughly eighteen months that this is where their next project belongs. When Stuart and Klar are willing to nearly double a footprint at 165 Vilano Road while the Van Dyke brothers are shopping a 0.86-acre parcel further north, the read is straightforward. The corridor has crossed from "somewhere near St. Augustine" to a destination that operators are naming on its own terms.
For a resident, that mostly means better Tuesdays. For a homeowner thinking further ahead, it means the walkability premium that used to belong only to downtown is quietly setting up on the north side of the bridge.
If you are curious how any of this shapes the way your own street is being valued right now, or you simply want a thoughtful sounding board on the neighborhood, Jennifer Marsoni is glad to talk. Let's Connect.