South MacDill Is Swapping Out Its Regulars. Here's What Palma Ceia Can Order Now and What's Still Coming.

Suite 109 at 3225 S MacDill Ave. used to be the Brunchery. Now Old Heights Bistro serves dinner there four nights a week, from 6 to 9 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday, in the same plaza as Pane Rustica. Over the summer the plan was daytime only. In July, Creative Loafing Tampa Bay reported that a restaurant representative said the new location would serve only breakfast and lunch for its first two years. The restaurant's current hours show it didn't wait that long.

That one schedule change sums up what's happening on this road. The businesses arriving on South MacDill this fall are established operators moving in from other parts of Tampa or from other cities, and most of them plan to stay open past dark. When That's So Tampa wrote up Saint Croix Plaza in April, it described the plaza as a place to grab lunch, run an errand, or get to an appointment. The newcomers are adding dinner to that.

Where Everything Stands Heading Into November

A Seminole Heights Kitchen Picked Palma Ceia

Old Heights Bistro spent nearly 11 years on North Nebraska Avenue before serving its last Seminole Heights guests on July 25. Philip Hutchison and his co-owner Shima ran it together. In his words to Creative Loafing, "He does the sushi and I do all the rest of it." He also explained the move in practical terms: "I got parking, new AC, everyone is nice and willing to work with me."

The menu that came with them covers a lot of ground. Creative Loafing listed sushi rolls, hummus, steaks, burgers, curries and ravioli, along with beer, wine and sake. In South Tampa, lunch runs Monday through Saturday from 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. A separate weekend specials menu is available Friday and Saturday from 6 p.m. to close, and the restaurant says it changes weekly. It's closed Sundays. Because the specials rotate, a Friday visit and a visit the following Friday won't necessarily offer the same dishes.

The UPS Store at the same address calls its location "Inside Palma Ceia Village," and Butter Bug Boutique and Palma Ceia Air Conditioned Self Storage share the 3225 address as well. Until now, this plaza had been a place for shipping a package, dropping something off at storage, or picking up bread. Four nights a week, it now has a sit-down dinner too.

Saint Croix Plaza Gains a Café and Loses a Fixture

About a mile south, Saint Croix Plaza at 4205 and 4230 S MacDill Ave. is turning over more of its tenants. Cheese Please / Bar Ten, the longtime cheese shop, wine bar and restaurant, is moving out of 4205 S MacDill. As of LocalShops1's September 24 roundup, it had not said where it's going or when it will reopen. Its own site has a moving notice up and asks customers to follow along for updates. For now, the best way to find out where it lands is to follow the shop directly.

The plaza is also adding a café. The Tampa Bay Business & Wealth reported in June that Lucky Goat Coffee had filed plans with the City of Tampa to renovate a 1,107-square-foot space at 4205 S MacDill. It would be the company's first known café in the Tampa Bay region. Lucky Goat was founded in Tallahassee in 2010 as a wholesale roaster and now runs cafés in Florida, Georgia and Texas. The permit didn't include an opening date. In April, That's So Tampa said the café was expected to open later this year, and the plaza handed out Lucky Goat coffee samples at its April 12 open house. No public source has said whether Lucky Goat is taking the Bar Ten space or a different unit, so treat them as two separate changes at the same address.

The same April article covered more of the plaza's newer tenants. The Bay Aesthetic, Pet Wants and Blanca Bridal were already open, and Fit as Fire Modern Pilates was under construction. Caffe Paradiso is still one of the plaza's restaurants. Many of the recent additions here are appointment and errand businesses, which lines up with how That's So Tampa described the place. The coffee shop is the piece that would bring people in at hours other than lunch.

Graze Is Bringing Dinner Seven Days a Week to Ballast Point

Farther down the corridor, at 5232 S MacDill Ave., Graze 1910 is preparing its third location in the old Arirang Korean space. It's a few blocks south of the new Mad Dogs & Englishmen. The original Graze opened inside Armature Works in Tampa Heights in early 2018. The second followed about a year later at 2217/2219 S Dale Mabry Hwy., across from Plant High School.

The restaurant's announcement, quoted by Creative Loafing, promised "brunch, lunch and dinner 7 days a week." No exact date has been announced. Creative Loafing, citing the Tampa Bay Business Journal, reported that the restaurant hopes to open before the end of 2026. When it opens, it will be the only spot covered here serving dinner on Sundays and Mondays. Old Heights is closed Sundays and serves only lunch on Mondays and Tuesdays.

L'Amorino Already Shows How This Works

The southernmost stop has already opened. L'Amorino, at 6102 S MacDill Ave., Suite A, opened this summer, according to That's So Tampa. The owners, Oliviana and Serdar, spent 12 years building their reputation at Bayshore Mediterranean Grill before opening a place of their own. It follows the same pattern as the other newcomers: experienced operators bringing a following to a new address on MacDill.

The menu focuses on Palermo, where Oliviana grew up. Hoodline listed arancina, bucatini carbonara with guanciale, and paccheri allo scoglio with clams and mussels. It also noted that the kitchen uses pasta from Luca Artisanal Pasta, which is made in Tampa. The restaurant is open 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday and on Sunday, and until 10 p.m. on Friday and Saturday. That makes it the corridor's latest Saturday kitchen until Graze opens.

The Weeknights This Lines Up

Here's how dinner on South MacDill looks this month, by night:

• Monday: Old Heights for lunch only. Graze will cover Monday dinner once it opens.
• Tuesday: L'Amorino until 9 p.m.
• Wednesday and Thursday: Old Heights from 6 to 9 p.m., or L'Amorino until 9 p.m.
• Friday and Saturday: Old Heights' weekly specials menu from 6 p.m., or L'Amorino until 10 p.m.
• Sunday: L'Amorino from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m.

Two of November's Sundays have something nearby before dinner. Palma Ceia Presbyterian Church, at 3501 W San Jose St., hosts the Tampa Oratorio Singers' "Sing Hallelujah!" concert on Sunday, November 8, from 7 to 9 p.m. On Sunday, November 22, the church hosts a Choral and Organ Festival with the Tampa Oratorio Singers and the Tampa chapter of the American Guild of Organists, from 4 to 6 p.m. Admission is free, with a free-will offering. Both concerts fall on Sundays, when Old Heights is closed, so L'Amorino's Sunday hours are the dinner option on this corridor for either night.

If you want to know what South MacDill will mean for your own plans as these openings arrive, Hilary OBrien follows this stretch of Palma Ceia block by block and is glad to share what she's seeing. Schedule a Free Consultation and we'll talk through the corridor over coffee, at Lucky Goat if it's open by then.