Cask & Ale aims to bring live music to Main Street

About a month after Taco Bus pulled out of plans to open on Main Street, another popular St. Petersburg concept has officially started the permitting process to open in downtown Sarasota.

Cask & Ale, and upscale craft cocktail and tapas lounge, applied for a community workshop this week to present plans to move into 1548 Main St. The preliminary site plan calls for 120 seats in 2,600 square feet of space and live music “fully in compliance with the city noise ordinance,” according to a narrative included in the Jan. 25 application.

"This is the place to bring a good friend you haven't seen in a spell, to sip on a glass of rye whiskey or a classic cocktail with a tweak, to share a plate of juicy grass fed beef sliders, and catch up on good ole’ times,” the narrative states.

Cask & Ale would join Evie’s on Main Street, which opened in September, and organic and vegetable-focused restaurant Lila — slated to open this Spring — in a new building on Main Street owned by entrepreneur Jesse Biter. Biter also owns the adjacent building housing Drunken Poet Café and Pho Cali, which recently underwent significant renovations.