Who Moved Into Lakewood Main Street This Summer? Mostly Its Neighbors

"The area here, I've always said, it's in dire need of a good Irish bar." Jake Keough told the Bradenton Herald that on July 23, the day he became the first customer at Delany's Public House. He used to go to the restaurants that held 8110 Lakewood Main Street before it, and that space has had a lot of them. It was McAllister's, a Scottish-themed restaurant, from 2006 to 2020. Then it was McGrath's Kitchen & Cocktails, which was Irish-themed and closed in 2025.

Delany's opening was one of three storefront changes on Main Street between Memorial Day and August. Each new tenant had a Lakewood Ranch following before it opened. One was a pub that moved across the street. One was a restaurant team from Waterside Place. One was a baker people had been lining up for at the Sunday farmers' market.

Three addresses, one summer

Lakewood Ranch's own Main Street directory gives slightly different addresses for Bread Bandits and Delany's than the opening coverage does. If you're meeting someone there, go by the storefront signs.

The pub that crossed the street

The first change came out of one restaurant group making a decision about its own spaces. EZ Restaurant Group is Chef Evan Percoco, Zach Zeller and Matt Favero. They ran Twisted Pit BBQ in Suite 104 at 8130 Lakewood Main St., Peculiar Pub across the street, and Percoco's Pizza & Pasta, also on Main Street.

Zeller told Your Observer that Twisted Pit did well, but not well enough to carry an 1,800-square-foot space. The partners thought about serving barbecue at the pub. They decided against it because of the cost of brisket and 22-hour cook times. Twisted Pit closed on Memorial Day. The following Monday, a small group of regulars got a preview of Peculiar Pub in the old barbecue space.

The move kept what regulars came for. The bold blue walls and beer and sports signs were rebuilt in the new space, and the floors and furniture came across the street with the pub. Music bingo is still on Tuesday nights. Zeller said "Will there still be music bingo?" was the question he heard most after the move was announced. Favero, a former touring musician, still hosts it.

The new room is bigger than Twisted Pit was. A wall around what the article called an "expensive junk room" came down, and that space now holds a pool table, a dart board and more seating. The old pub had a walk-in cooler that held 23 kegs and four taps. The new one has 16 taps plus a reach-in cooler, so there's more beer to choose from.

The grand reopening was timed to the street's calendar. It fell on the same Friday as that month's Music on Main, with DJ Spaz, and Zeller said the pub was full from about 4 to 11 p.m. He also said the group plans a party once a month to line up with Music on Main, though a nightclub isn't where the pub is headed. Your Observer reported in November 2025 that Music on Main was averaging about 4,500 attendees. That's a lot of foot traffic for a reopening night.

From Island Cove Terrace to Main Street

Delany's comes from people who were already running a restaurant a few miles south. Tory Delany, her husband Darren Shore, and Kevin O'Hanlon are from Ireland and own several restaurants in New York City. They moved to the area to open Allswell Craft Cocktails & Kitchen at Waterside Place. Allswell is still listed in the official Waterside directory at 7500 Island Cove Terrace, Suite 102.

The renovation at 8110 took about 13 months. Delany told the Herald they had hoped to open four or five months sooner. She scouted the furniture at Derry's in Northern Ireland. An archway separates the bar, which has a stage for live music, from the dining tables. There are also snugs, small partitioned seating areas from old Irish pubs. Historically they kept women out of view, but at Delany's anyone can sit in them. The bar, lounge, dining room and outdoor area seat 350 people in all.

The menu covers fish and chips, shepherd's pie, bangers and mash, and a lamb shank braised for eight hours. Most of the Irish classics run $18 to $25, and dinner entrees run $19 to $38. The Sunday roast starts at 4 p.m. for $35 and is served until it sells out. It comes with top sirloin, Yorkshire pudding and Guinness gravy. The dish people may not recognize is the Spice Bag. It's fries, sautéed onions and peppers, and breaded chicken in a spice blend, served in a hot bag with curry sauce. You can get it with crispy chicken, Irish bangers or crispy shrimp.

Delany's is open 11 a.m. to midnight Sunday through Thursday, and until 1 a.m. on Fridays and Saturdays. The owners plan to turn the front area into a shop selling Irish sweets, dry goods and breads imported from Ireland. As of the Herald's July report it was still a plan.

The Sunday market vendor that opened a storefront

Bread Bandits also came over from Waterside. Before Aug. 1, Lakewood Ranch residents could buy its sourdough at the Waterside Place farmers' market on Sundays. Now there's a storefront under a blue-and-white striped awning at 8130 Lakewood Main St., open seven days a week. The market stall is still running.

Owners Jules Thuet and Brad Rutledge came from Toronto and started out selling at local farmers' markets. They opened their Sarasota bakery a year later, and the Lakewood Ranch shop opened three years after that. Their sourdough starter is more than a century old. Thuet's grandmother Jeanne got it from her mother in Alsace, France. His father carried some to Toronto, and Thuet brought it to Sarasota in a 3.4-ounce, TSA-compliant bottle. He fed it during a layover at Hartsfield-Jackson, and that trip is where the name Bread Bandits comes from.

Where the new storefronts sit on the fall calendar

All three openings land just before Main Street's busiest stretch of events. Here are the dates on Lakewood Ranch's official calendar between now and mid-November:

1. Ranch Nite Wednesdays, starting Oct. 7 at Waterside Place, 6 to 9 p.m. weekly through May 26, 2027, with food trucks, live music and activities at Gateway Park.
2. Lakewood Ranch Main Street Market, Saturday, Oct. 10, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at 8141 Lakewood Main Street, with more than 70 local vendors.
3. Goodtoberfest, Sunday, Oct. 11, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Waterside Farmers' Market, with German food, beer and music from Petra & Teresa.
4. HalloWine Walk 2026, Wednesday, Oct. 28, 5 to 7:30 p.m. on Main Street, a ticketed 21-and-over tasting with more than 20 wines, based at Fine Wine & Tastings, 8111 Lakewood Main Street, Unit J105.
5. Music on Main, Friday, Nov. 6, 6 to 9 p.m. at 8100 Lakewood Main St., with Passerine and a benefit for the Sarasota Southside Rotary Club.
6. Empty Bowls 2026, Friday, Nov. 13, 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at 8100 Lakewood Main Street, with ticket proceeds going to the Food Bank of Manatee.
7. Main Street Market, back Saturday, Nov. 14, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

The Nov. 6 Music on Main will be the first one this season with Peculiar Pub settled in its bigger room, Delany's live-music stage open a few doors down, and a bakery on the block selling bread you used to have to wait for Sunday to buy. Bread Bandits is still at the Waterside market every Sunday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at 1561 Lakefront Drive. The market's October music lineup includes Jesse Daniels on Oct. 18 and Bobby James on Oct. 25.

Main Street storefronts change hands quietly, and the reasons behind them usually only show up later in a local news story. I've spent more than 25 years following that kind of change across the Suncoast. If you're weighing a move closer to Main Street, or just want to talk through what's happening on your part of the Ranch, Evan Weber would be glad to hear from you. Let's Connect.