Walk up McFarlane Road from South Bayshore Drive and the gray-brick building on the left comes before Main Highway. Oilman George Engle built it, and his Florida Pharmacy inside became a popular gathering place. Since August 12, 2026, the brick oven in that building has belonged to Miami Slice. A few doors back toward the bay, the space Peacock Garden Café used until 2022 now holds AVA MediterrAegean.
Over the past year, more of the Grove's new restaurant activity has landed on this short stretch than on any other block in the village center. Most of it is going into rooms the neighborhood already knows. The operators are new, but the footprint of the center has barely moved. The next real physical change, the Fuller Street rebuild, is still about a year from breaking ground.
Two Familiar Rooms, Two New Tenants
AVA was first. Riviera Dining Group opened it in November 2025 at 2889 McFarlane Road, on the ground floor beside the Arya Hotel, with public service set to begin Saturday, November 22. Peacock Garden Café closed in 2022, and AVA now uses the tree-covered indoor and outdoor dining areas of its former location, next to the historic Coconut Grove library.
Miami Slice came nine months later and moved into the Historic Engle Building, next to Mr. C Miami. It is the homegrown brand's fourth location. The earlier three are the original downtown slice bar, a takeout shop on Key Biscayne, and an outpost at Fontainebleau Las Vegas. Miami New Times described the Grove room as the most ambitious of them. It is the first one built as a sit-down restaurant, with a dining room, a slice bar, and outdoor tables along McFarlane. The New Times reviewer also noted that it is dog-friendly.
The Engle Building has been renovated before. In 2015, Main Highway Partners, an entity controlled by the Fort family, renovated the property, and Arquitectonica redesigned it. The building is mid-century, the facades and canopies are restored, and the tenants keep changing. That pattern now runs along most of the block.
The Two Openings Still Pending
Two more names are coming to McFarlane, and neither has announced an opening date as of early October 2026.
- Seiya, a Nikkei restaurant led by Chef Seiya Noborikawa, is coming to the eighth floor of the Arya Hotel at 2889 McFarlane Road, directly above AVA. It describes its cooking as "Nikkei Alterno." Among the dishes it has previewed are a Zakuro steak with pomegranate honey and wasabi butter, and a bluefin tuna plate with asparagus crema. The Burn Miami's September 16 report said the team was "getting close" but gave no date.
- Levain Bakery, the 30-year-old New York bakery known for its chocolate chip walnut cookie, is opening its first Florida location at 2979 McFarlane Road near CocoWalk. Levain's own location page still says "Coming Soon!" with no date. In June, temporary signage went up and the target was "sometime this fall."
Seiya is the exception to the reuse pattern, since it is adding a rooftop-level dining room the street has never had. Even so, it is going into a hotel that already exists. When both open, 2889 McFarlane alone will have two restaurants, one on the ground floor and one on the eighth.
Main Highway Is Filling the Same Way
Around the corner, the turnover follows the same logic: new operators in rooms the neighborhood already knows.
Manoli opened July 22 at 3540 Main Highway. It is led by chef Emmanouil "Manoli" Aslanoglou and occupies the former Sereia space. Sereia closed in May 2025, about fourteen months before Manoli opened in its place. Sapore di Mare moved from Grand Avenue and had reopened at 3433 Main Highway by early April.
The courtyard at 3444 Main Highway shows the pattern on a smaller scale. Late in 2025 it added Chuggie's beside Chug's Diner, the cocktail lounge Mae's Room, and Drinking Pig BBQ. Le Labo has signed on at the same address. Coconut Grove Magazine reported in August that it was expected to open "soon," and no opening has been confirmed since.
One long-running room went the other way. LoKal had been on Commodore Plaza since 2011 and served its last customers on Sunday, June 28, 2026. Its founder, Matt Kuscher, invited regulars to stop by that weekend and take home pieces of the restaurant's memorabilia. In our sources, that is the only closure in the village center between April and early October. It also leaves the one Commodore Plaza space with no announced successor.
Near CocoWalk, the reuse runs through bigger rooms. Grand Public Kitchen + Bar took the former Planta Queen and Cheesecake Factory space at 3015 Grand Avenue, Suite 201, under co-founder Matthew Tsoumaris and chef Leo Pablo. Coconut Grove Spotlight reported it operating by June 4, the same week it noted that Stefano Cremasco's 1986 Steakhouse had opened in May at 2911 Grand Avenue.
Fuller Street Is the Next Physical Change, and It Is a Year Out
McFarlane matters more now because of what it connects to. Fuller Street runs between McFarlane and Main Highway. The city closed it to cars in 2020, and in early 2025 Miami-Dade County approved making that closure permanent. The street itself has not been rebuilt yet.
On June 25, 2026, the Miami City Commission approved final designs for Fuller Street and Kirk Munroe Park. The plans call for new pavers, a level streetscape, and more trees on Fuller. At the park, they add a pavilion, a children's playground, a great lawn, and five refurbished tennis courts along Oak Avenue. The budget is $5 million. The city is putting in $3 million, and the Allen Morris Company is contributing $2 million, managing construction, and covering any overruns.
Two conditions decide when any of this shows up on the street. The commission's approval depends on final sign-off from the Coconut Grove Business Improvement District. Allen Morris has also said it expects to break ground "next summer," meaning summer 2027. That date is later than earlier reports. In December 2025, Miami New Times reported construction starting in summer 2026 and finishing in early 2028.
The public work is tied to Allen Morris's Ziggurat project on Grand Avenue. The company has already demolished the former Coconut Grove Laundry & Cleaners building at Grand Avenue and Matilda Street to make way for a five-story office building and luxury condos. The laundry, run by the Espinosa family for about 65 years, moved in March to a temporary space at 3634 Grand Avenue and plans to return once construction is finished.
Here is the practical sequence for the next twelve months. The restaurant changes on McFarlane and Main Highway are happening now, inside the existing streets. The streetscape changes come afterward, and nothing on Fuller Street will look different before the 2027 groundbreaking.
The Calendar Around the Block This Fall
Most of the season's confirmed dates sit within a short walk of McFarlane:
- Friday, October 9, 7 p.m. Mama Fuma's Moonlight Concert at The Barnacle, 3485 Main Highway.
- Saturday, October 10, 6 p.m. The poster unveiling for the 43rd King Mango Strut on Fuller Street. This is the poster event, not the parade.
- October 17 and 18. Coconut Grove Sailing Club's fall regattas at 2990 South Bayshore Drive, at the bottom of McFarlane.
- Friday, November 13. The 18 Wheelers at The Barnacle.
- Sunday, January 3, 2027, 2 to 6 p.m. The King Mango Strut parade itself.
The Kampong's exhibition Out of Darkness: The Ecology of Care, at 4013 South Douglas Road, runs through September 11, 2027, so it stays open through the entire season.
Farther out, La Sponda Ristorante & Grill opened on Grove Isle in September at 4 Grove Isle Drive. It is Gioia Hospitality Group's Italian concept, with Chef Danny Ganem leading the kitchen. Back on McFarlane, the two dates still missing belong to Seiya and Levain. Both are scheduled for this fall, and neither had a confirmed date as of October 4.
Changes like these, a historic building with a new tenant or a public works budget tied to a private development next door, affect how a block is valued long before they appear on a street sign. If you'd like a private read on how the McFarlane and Fuller Street changes bear on property around the Grove's village center, Isaac Malagon is available to talk it through. Schedule a private consultation.
