Here’s some exciting things to look forward to in 2018 regarding Sarasota’s dining and arts scenes: Café Epicure, located at 1298 North Palm Avenue, is set to reopen next Friday on December 15th. The restaurant, which has been one of Downtown Sarasota’s prime Italian spots for many years, has been remodeled into a more classic style.

Michael and Victoria Calore, owners of Mozzarella Fella, will be opening a second Italian restaurant located at 1830 South Osprey Avenue, the former location of the now closed Mojo’s Real Cuban. The new restaurant will be called Pazzo Southside and will feature dishes including seafood paella, short ribs and risotto, and panko-breaded pork chops with cherry peppers, to name a few. The Calores plan to open Pazzo Southside by January or February 2018.

Finally, Sarasota city officials are slated to make a decision on a plan to transform the 42-acre area surrounding the Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall into a public arts and cultural district as soon as mid-July 2018. Boston-area planning firm Sasaki and former Kimley-Horn & Associates executive Bill Waddill have been hired to create the master plans for the area, and the group has already raised over $2 million in private funding for the project, known simply as “The Bay”.

For more information on Café Epicure and Pazzo Southside, check out Lee McCall’s article in the Herald Tribune. To learn more about The Bay, read Zach Murdock’s Herald Tribune article.