The two newest food businesses on Cleveland Street this year are bakeries. The new restaurants built for evenings, the kind you would book before a show at The BayCare Sound, are targeting the end of 2026 or later, or have not announced an opening date at all. Coachman Park's fall calendar is already full. So this fall, downtown Clearwater runs on two clocks. The park sets the evening schedule. The street's new energy mostly happens before lunch.
That changes how a downtown night works between now and the holidays. For dinner before a concert, you are choosing from a short list of restaurants that were already open. The newer spots fit better the morning after.
The Park Has the Calendar Locked Through December
The 47th Clearwater Jazz Holiday closed out its four days at Coachman Park, 300 Cleveland Street, on October 18. The lineup at The BayCare Sound stays busy after it, and two of the biggest nights of the season are free city events on the same lawn. Here is what's left on the schedule from this week:
- October 22: Jake Owen with Niko Moon and Blake Proehl, which is tonight if you are reading this on publication day.
- October 23, 24 and 25: CAKE, then The Hip Abduction, then Turnpike Troubadours, three nights in a row.
- October 30: Fall-O-Ween at Coachman Park, a free event from 6 to 10 p.m. with a costume contest, a candy trail, food trucks and live entertainment.
- November 12: O.A.R. with Gavin DeGraw and KT Tunstall. The venue says this date moved from Seminole Hard Rock Tampa because of construction there and that original Tampa tickets would be refunded.
- November 15: Reggae Sound Splash Fest with The Legendary Wailers, Third World, Inner Circle and Ska-Talites.
- November 27 and 28: Tape B's two-night Tapesgiving.
- November 29: Clearwater's Bright and Beautiful Tree Lighting, a free event from 5 to 9 p.m.
- December 5: Dark Star Orchestra at 7 p.m.
The O.A.R. show matters beyond one night. A tour stop that moved across the bay to Clearwater because the other venue had construction shows how The BayCare Sound fits into Tampa Bay's concert circuit now. Downtown Clearwater gets that crowd whether the restaurants near the park are ready or not.
This Year's Openings Came in the Morning
Two independent businesses opened on Cleveland Street this summer, and both are built around coffee and baking.
Nourish & Nosh Bakery Bistro opened in July on the ground floor of the Atrium Building at 601 Cleveland Street. It serves breakfast sandwiches, fresh bagels, crustless quiche, salads, pastries, organic coffee and house-made cold brew, plus gluten-free baked goods. The Cleveland Street Alliance reports that its bakers start before sunrise. Co-owner Nea Porta, who is originally from Helsinki, told the Alliance that "it's the beginning of all the development happening here." The bistro has a glass-walled dining room and an outdoor patio. It sits at the head of the 600 block, where most of the rest of the block is still behind construction fencing.
Nubo Café & Bakery held its grand opening in August at 420 Cleveland Street. It's a Ukrainian and European café with coffee, pastries and handmade desserts, along with borshch, varenyky, crepes and soups.
Around the corner, the longest-running breakfast spot downtown changed hands. Emily's Restaurant at 101 S. Garden Avenue has served downtown for 45 years. The Clearwater CRA, which named it the October Business Spotlight, says former owners Tony and Ronnie Aloizakis built it into an old-school diner known for classic breakfast and lunch. New owner Nicholas "Nick" Pastis is keeping that character while adding his own ideas. In the CRA's profile, dinner service is still a future plan.
Further up the street, Social Sips Café and Bar at 801 Cleveland Street, Suite B, serves coffee, gelato and boba tea. The CRA featured it in its July recap.
That makes four places for coffee, pastries or a diner breakfast within walking distance of the park. Not one of them is a new dinner restaurant.
Show Night Runs Through the 400 and 500 Blocks
With no new dinner restaurants yet, a pre-concert meal this fall happens at restaurants the CRA has spotlighted this year. All of them sit within about three blocks of the park entrance, and several share a block with Nubo.
| Address | Restaurant | What's on the menu |
|---|---|---|
| 422 Cleveland St. | Tequila's Mexican Grill & Cantina | Fajitas, house-made mole, margaritas |
| 428 Cleveland St. | Downtown Pizza Sports Bar & Grille | New York-style pizza, wings, pasta, seafood |
| 516 Cleveland St. | Soul Sicilian Fusion | Handmade pasta, seafood, Roman pinsa, gelato, Italian wines |
The CRA named Downtown Pizza its May spotlight, Soul Sicilian its August spotlight and Tequila's its September spotlight. The 420 to 428 stretch, with Nubo, Tequila's and Downtown Pizza a few doors apart, is the most concentrated cluster of open food businesses on this part of Cleveland Street right now.
On the way there, you pass a landmark that has come back. The restored four-faced Peoples Bank clock was unveiled July 25 at Cleveland Street and Fort Harrison Avenue. For an account of what has been rebuilt so far, The Good Life Showroom at 331 Cleveland Street opened April 18. The Cleveland Street Alliance describes it as an interactive look at the corridor's redevelopment.
The Evening Tenants Arrive Around the Turn of the Year
The places built for nights out are coming one at a time, and none has an opening date set before the last concert on this fall's calendar.
Rippers is planned for the Telephone Building at 534 Cleveland Street, with a target opening by the end of 2026. The Cleveland Street Alliance says the menu centers on deep-fried "ripper" hot dogs, along with burgers, chicken wings, sandwiches, fries and milkshakes. It comes from Tastes Pretty Good, the Tampa Bay hospitality group whose portfolio includes Michelin-starred, Bib Gourmand and Recommended restaurants. Tampa Bay Times reporting by Evan Rodriguez quotes CEO Nick Reader calling Cleveland Street an "untapped gem." It will be the group's first venture outside Tampa.
The same group is opening a second Streetlight Taco at 432 Cleveland Street in the first quarter of 2027, according to the same report. That address is the former Peoples Bank building, so the bank's restored clock came back about half a year before tacos move in beneath it.
Hanami, a Japanese izakaya with sushi, ramen and yakitori, was announced May 12 for 635 Cleveland Street. That announcement gave no opening date. The address is part of the 600 block, where all six buildings and twelve storefronts went under construction at once in April. The Alliance calls it the first full city block in more than 50 years to move forward as a single development. The block includes the historic Brown Brothers Building and 645 Cleveland, a corner at the gateway to the Pinellas Trail that is being rebuilt for pedestrians and cyclists. The Alliance posted a construction update for 629 to 633 Cleveland on October 18.
Next door is the planned EVO Family Entertainment Center at Cleveland Street and Myrtle Avenue, an 83,000-square-foot cinema and entertainment complex the Alliance calls the district's main entertainment anchor. City votes in September and on October 1 approved street vacations and a land sale. Bay News 9 reported that architects are preparing construction documents. No opening date has been announced.
What Changes Getting to the Park
The projects that will change downtown evenings most run on the city's own schedule, and you can track each one on the City of Clearwater's downtown construction page.
- Osceola Parking Garage, Pierce Street and Osceola Avenue: 397 spaces and 12,000 square feet of ground-floor retail, with completion estimated for January 2027.
- PSTA Clearwater Station: the new downtown transit hub is now expected to open in fall 2027.
- The Ballad Hotel, 50 N. Osceola Avenue: 158 rooms with a restaurant, rooftop bar and retail, with a grand opening planned for late 2027.
- The Bluffs, 150 S. Osceola Avenue: a 28-story building with 400 apartments and 10,000 square feet of retail. Construction started in March 2026, and the city estimates a June 2028 opening.
The garage is the one closest to finishing, and it lands right around the time Rippers is due and Streetlight Taco is weeks away. That's when a concert night on Cleveland Street should start to work differently than it does this fall. For now, city administration has moved into the new City Hall at 200 S. Myrtle Avenue. Council meetings are still held at the Clearwater Main Library while finishing work is completed.
For the rest of this season, the most reliable downtown evening is a show at Coachman Park, dinner on the 400 or 500 block before it, and coffee at Nourish & Nosh or Nubo the next morning.
If you own a home near downtown and want to know how the Cleveland Street rebuild affects what your property is worth, The Lewkowicz Group is following these openings block by block. Let's Connect.
