At Caragiulos’ invitation-only first look, Anna Caragiulo’s limoncello flowed alongside prosecco and wine. Servers passed tastes of dishes represented on the new menu, including meatballs, mortadella in gnocco and tiramisu. 

The guest list included Sarasota City Commissioner Kyle Battie, Sarasota County Commissioner Mark Smith and state Rep. Fiona McFarland. Architect Javi Suárez and Milan-based designer Luciano Botta were there, along with Dr. Mark Kauffmann, who sold the Mira Mar—the site of the original restaurant—before its redevelopment and owns the property beneath the new location.

Anna was there, too. The 87-year-old Caragiulo matriarch made the restaurant’s 14.5-foot gold curtains, which now soften the room—and, her son Paul Caragiulo says, improve its acoustics.

“When you put the vinyl on in the space, it’s pretty remarkable,” says Paul, a co-owner of the restaurant. “And now that my mother finally put the curtains up, it sounds even better.”

Caragiulos Italian American Restaurant opens to the public Tuesday, Oct. 27, nearly a year after serving its final meal on Palm Avenue.

The approximately 4,300-square-foot restaurant has 150 seats, a full bar and a covered patio. Its exterior is restrained, with a tall brick arch marking the entrance. Inside, the mood changes.

Textured glass globes descend from the ceiling at different heights. Vintage Italian film posters, portraits and paintings cover the walls in mismatched frames. Wood paneling, patterned surfaces, illuminated liquor displays and period table lamps give the new dining room the appearance of a place that has been assembled over time.

“It doesn’t look like it was just built,” Paul says. “It’s like a Mastroianni movie from 1968.” 

Pieces of the Old Caragiulos

Luciano Botta, a longtime family friend and founder of the Milan interior design firm Compagnia Pacifico, conceived the new space as an evolution of the restaurant instead of a copy of its former home.

“We tried to imagine the evolution of Caragiulos, from its beginnings in the 1980s through today,” Botta says. “Inside this project, there are traces of the past and traces of its transformation.”

The family saved marble from the Palm Avenue bar, cut it into strips and incorporated it into the new one.

Artwork and original Italian film posters from the former restaurant also returned. A shipping container brought lighting, furniture, tables and art collected in Italy. The Murano glass fixtures were commissioned from Venetian artisans, while vintage furniture was restored and reupholstered in Italy before being sent to Sarasota.

“The film posters are authentic prints from their time,” Botta says. “A large part of what distinguishes this project is that it’s made with real, authentic things—not replicas, not imitations.”

Botta says guests don’t need to identify every object to appreciate the room.

“When we create a project, we try to make something that speaks to people in the gut,” he says. “What matters is that you come here, spend an evening in good company and feel at ease.”

Suárez, of Suarez Architecture, designed the building.

“Our challenge was to capture the essence of Italian American architecture and reinterpret it through a contemporary lens,” he says. “There’s nothing more rewarding than seeing your vision come to life after collaborating with the owners and contractor on a challenging lot.”

Nostalgia fills the room-dividing shelves, where old-world plate sets, amaretto cookie tins, Italian cookbooks and small ceramic figurines of the Madonna cradling the infant Jesus recall the objects found in many Italian family homes. Nearby, a vintage meat slicer stands on display—another relic from the kitchens and neighborhood delis that shaped Italian American food culture.

A Lease That Ran Through 2040

Caragiulos departure from the Mira Mar was more complicated than the expiration of a lease.

Tony Caragiulo and his sons John, Mark, Rob, Anthony and Paul opened the restaurant at 69 S. Palm Ave. in 1989. “We were a meatball hero and Styrofoam cup kind of place when we first started,” Paul told us back in 2025.

Over the next 36 years, Caragiulos became a downtown mainstay known for pizza, pasta, its house salad and a busy lunch hour filled with regulars.

When demolition of the Mira Mar was proposed in 2022, Paul said the restaurant’s lease ran through 2040. Kauffmann sold the property to Seaward Development for $17.3 million in 2023 while that lease remained in effect. Seaward later won approval for a project that would restore the historic Palm Avenue frontage and construct two 18-story condominium towers behind it.

Caragiulos closed on Palm Avenue in October 2025, with approximately 15 years remaining on the original lease.

Kauffmann also owns the Ringling Boulevard property where the restaurant has built its new home. Even with that continuity, leaving the Mira Mar after all those years “wasn’t easy,” Paul says.

The former restaurant survives in the new space through its marble, art, film posters, returning employees and familiar food.

“It’s another continuation of the evolution,” Paul says.

A Familiar Menu at a Higher Price Point

The soft opening offered hors d’oeuvres rather than a complete dinner, but the menu posted online provides a fuller picture of what's to come.

Longtime favorites remain, including pasolini (pasta with Gorgonzola cream and sun-dried tomatoes, $23); meatballs ($21); 37-layer lasagna ($25); chicken parmigiana ($32); and pizzette ($14–$15.95).

New dishes include My Mother’s Pasta (rigatoni with fava bean purée, chicory, English peas and ricotta salata, $23); halibut cacciucco with mussels and prawns ($43); a 40 oz. bone-in bistecca Fiorentina served sliced with two sides ($115); spaghettini with Cedar Key clams ($26); handmade cappellacci with king crab, corn, polenta and pecorino butter ($37); and a 20-ounce bone-in veal chop Milanese ($59).

The prices reflect a restaurant that has moved beyond its “Styrofoam cup” beginnings. The setting helps explain the higher spend: this is a purpose-built dining room with commissioned glass, restored vintage furniture, a full bar and a sound system designed around Paul’s vinyl collection.

The full dining experience will come into focus after opening, but the preview suggested that the care in the décor extends to the food as well.

Many longtime employees are expected to return after working at the family’s other restaurants during the closure. Family members will rotate through the new location, and Paul will sometimes be found playing records from a collection that includes Italian singers Gianni Morandi and Domenico Modugno.

Paul has described the family as being in the venue business and only “incidentally” in the food business—provided the food is done well.

“At the end of the day,” he says, citing famed British chef Marco Pierre White, “atmosphere, service, food—in that order.”

Caragiulos Italian American Restaurant opens Tuesday, Oct. 27, at 1833 Ringling Blvd., Sarasota. Click here to learn more or follow them here.