From Vero Beach Country Club, October's Island Dining Shuffle Has One Starting Point

For anyone driving east from 30th Street this month, the restaurants across the lagoon look like they are all changing at once. The Tides has reopened on Cardinal Drive, Cobalt is dark until the 19th, and Johnny D's has closed for a year. A new restaurant called Blu Fin is about to open on South A1A. These look like four separate stories, but most of them come from one chain of decisions involving one property owner and one chef, and nearly all of it resolves on dates already on the calendar.

A move that didn't happen

The chain starts with The Tides. Earlier this year, the plan was to move the Central Beach fine-dining restaurant from Cardinal Drive into a new building on South A1A owned by Anthony DeChellis, principal of Windward Restaurant Concepts. Executive chef Leanne Kelleher eventually backed out of that move and decided to stay on Cardinal. She closed the restaurant for what Vero Beach 32963 called a modest two-month upgrade instead.

The Tides reopened on Oct. 1 at 3103 Cardinal Drive with a new look and an updated menu. TCPalm noted that the restaurant has now spent 26 years in a building that is 76 years old. In August the restaurant got approval for two new services, Sunday brunch and weekday takeout lunches, planned to start with the reopening. The restaurant's own site confirms it is open but doesn't yet say whether brunch and takeout lunch have started, so a call ahead makes sense before planning a Sunday around it.

With The Tides staying put, DeChellis had a new building on South A1A and no chef. He hired his own culinary director, Sebastian La Rocca, who was born in Argentina, and built a three-part complex at 916 Turtle Cove Lane, next to the 7-Eleven. The complex has three parts:

1. Blu Fin, a Mediterranean fine-dining restaurant with Latin influences
2. Turtle Cove Market, an upscale gourmet market
3. Motley Cow, a tiki bar

DeChellis also owns the Johnny D's building across the road, and that's where the second part of the chain starts.

Johnny D's moves across the street for a year

Johnny D's Market & Bistro, run by siblings Nina and Mario Amelio, announced in September that it would close in October for renovations and reopen in October 2027. Its website now says it has served its final guests at that location. The Amelios are DeChellis's cousins, and both are joining the management team at Turtle Cove. They have invited their regulars to follow them across South A1A.

"Our building has served us well, but after 15 years, she deserves a little love. So this isn't goodbye. It's simply 'we'll see you across the street.'"

The Amelios said Turtle Cove Market will carry many of the foods, specialty items and wines Johnny D's customers already buy. All Johnny D's employees were invited to apply at the new complex, and DeChellis said "about 10 or 12" had already been hired by mid-September. When Johnny D's reopens, it may look different. DeChellis said his family once ran a liquor store on that site called South Beach Liquors, and the new business may be a high-end wine and liquor shop. No final format or renovation budget has been set.

So one building is closing while another opens across the street, and the dates are close but not certain. As of mid-September, Blu Fin was aiming for a soft opening on Oct. 6 and a formal opening the second week of October. The market was originally supposed to open first but may now open alongside the restaurant or after it. DeChellis said he was waiting on an important equipment delivery before he could set a firm date. The Turtle Cove Market website still says "coming soon." For now, treat the Oct. 6 date as a target. DeChellis also said an online reservation system for Blu Fin would follow, because people had been calling his personal phone to book tables.

The October calendar, by date

Seen together, the changes fall into an order a mainland household can plan around. Blu Fin's date is still a target, and Johnny D's hasn't given a specific closing day.

Cobalt's closure is the only one not connected to the chain, and it ends on a fixed day. Cobalt has posted that it is closed from Sept. 28 through Oct. 18 and plans to reopen Oct. 19. Vero Grounds Coffee, which TCPalm describes as a coffee shop, roaster and online seller, opened at the end of August between Camelia and Dahlia lanes, a short walk from Cobalt along Ocean Drive.

That stretch of Ocean Drive changes again in November. The city has awarded Ferreira Construction a $1.767 million contract to rebuild the 427-foot boardwalk at Humiston Beach Park. Work is set to start Nov. 1 and finish before sea turtle nesting season begins next March. So a coffee and a walk on the boardwalk is easy this month, but construction will be part of the scene through the winter.

Riverside Park fills the middle of the month

The cultural season starts right in the middle of the dining changes. Riverside Theatre opens its 2026–27 season at 3250 Riverside Park Drive with My Vaudeville Man, running Oct. 15 through Nov. 22. The rest of the season is Clue in January, The Mouse & The Mustache and On the Town in February and March, The Light in the Piazza in spring, and Hairspray running April 15 through May 9, 2027.

Two days after the season opens, the Vero Beach Museum of Art at 3001 Riverside Park Drive hosts painter Jill Nathanson on Oct. 17 for a workshop and a walkthrough of her exhibition Chromatic Phrases, which stays up through Feb. 7, 2027. On Nov. 21 the museum opens Hokusai, Hiroshige, Hasui: Japanese Landscapes in Print, which also runs through Feb. 7.

Plan the meal separately. The museum says construction on its new campus is underway, and its sculpture parks and café are closed indefinitely. A lunch at the museum before a matinee isn't an option this fall, so a gallery visit will need a restaurant somewhere else on the island, and October's list of open options keeps changing until the 19th.

What stays the same on 30th Street

Vero Beach Country Club is at 800 30th Street on the mainland, west of the lagoon. Every place above is across the water. The club's own dining schedule doesn't depend on any equipment delivery. Its dining page lists Wednesday as Casual Night in the Mixed Grille, with two-for-one dinner specials, and Thursday as the traditional Fried Chicken Night. The Mixed Grille serves breakfast and lunch Tuesday through Sunday and dinner Wednesday through Sunday, overlooking the driving range and the butterfly garden. Executive Chef Bruce Meier oversees the menus there and in the reservation-only Main Dining Room. The page isn't dated, so members may want to check with the club for seasonal hours.

That fixed schedule helps with the two open weeks in the middle of October. Through Oct. 18, Cobalt is closed and Blu Fin has no confirmed opening date, so the club's Wednesday and Thursday nights fill the gap easily. After the 19th, the island has The Tides back on Cardinal, Cobalt back on Ocean Drive, and Blu Fin on South A1A, assuming it opens on its current schedule.

Closer to home, one long-running story is still unresolved. Just south of the club, at the west end of the 17th Street Bridge, the city is still negotiating with the ClearBlue team over the Three Corners riverfront site. The council granted a third 30-day extension on Sept. 8, and that extension runs out Oct. 12. Downtown, the city's Sept. 22 council minutes list Miracle on 14th Street for Dec. 11 through 13.

When restaurants, shops and community spots change around a neighborhood, a local guide should already know about it. Livia Sorger keeps track of these openings and closings across Vero Beach so friends, family and future neighbors arrive knowing which tables are open. If someone you know is planning a move to the Treasure Coast this season, let's connect.