Lakewood Ranch Main Street motors past a milestone

Some tenants have left. Others have been there for 10, or even 20, years. Amid the changes, Main Street at Lakewood Ranch maintains its original calling: a go-to gathering spot.

By Lesley Dwyer, Mark Gordon
| 5:00 a.m. November 15, 2025

An average of 4,500 people attend Music on Main each month.

East County
News

Lakewood Ranch has a lot of stuff in its 33,000 acres. But what it doesn’t have is a downtown.

Or does it?

It might not be a traditional downtown, like Sarasota has to the south or Bradenton has to the north. But Lakewood Ranch Main Street is certainly a focal point of the master-planned community. Just off Lakewood Ranch Boulevard and across the street from Lakewood Ranch Medical Center, it includes both big and small restaurants, a global chain (hello Starbucks) and independently owned shops, a six-screen movie theater and condos and apartments. There are also offices, a mini-golf spot and a walking path along Lake Uihlein.

Lakewood Ranch Main Street is also celebrating a big milestone in 2025: its 20-year anniversary. And through the years it’s consistently remained a gathering place for many, both Lakewood Ranch residents and people from across the region. A sampling of life on Lakewood Ranch Main Street includes:

Music bingo night at The Peculiar Pub

Every Tuesday, 5-8 p.m. Highlights: Multiple rounds of music bingo, craft beer and elevated pub grub

Husband drop-off is a perk offered at Peculiar Pub.

Earlier this year, the owners of Peculiar Pub sought to spice up what is traditionally a slow night: Tuesday.

First came an open mic night for stand up comedy. It launched in May, and, while it drew a small, albeit devoted crowd, by October the pub had squashed the comedy nights. Some of the acts, says a co-owner, Zach Zeller, had gotten a bit raunchy. “It didn’t really fit our family-friendly brand,” he says.

Next up: The pub moved music bingo from Sunday to Tuesday nights. Music bingo is pretty much what it sounds like: a game of bingo where the squares are filled with songs, not numbers. Zeller says the tunes are a mix from the 1970s through today. One late October night, he adds, the theme was one-hit wonders. Prizes are a combination of gift cards and small cash awards. “You don’t need any music skills” to play, Zeller says. “It’s just a neat way for families to come out, listen to music and have a good time.”

Zeller says Peculiar Pub has live music on Friday and Saturday nights, and other restaurants, like Remy’s on Main, also bring out live music. The goal: Make Main Street a lively, happening scene. “We’re trying to do something every night,” he says of the entire strip. “We want to bring people out and we want them to have a good time here.”

Classic Car Show at Ed’s Tavern

First Wednesday of the month from 5–8 p.m. (in-season). Highlights: Over 100 cars, food, music, door prizes and awards.

During the winter, Parrish’s Billy Gallagher drives his cherry red 2004 Ford Thunderbird to about six car shows a month.

A staple on Gallagher’s tour is the Classic Car Show on Lakewood Ranch Main Street, sponsored by Ed’s Tavern. The foot traffic provided by the businesses on Main Street makes it stand out as one of his favorites.

Parrish resident Billy Gallagher used to live in Lakewood Ranch. Now, he visits monthly for the car show. — Billy Gallagher brings his beloved cherry red 2004 Ford Thunderbird to the Classic Car Show.

“When you go to some car shows, it’s all car show guys,” he says. “I like to see people who have never seen these cars.”

The show doesn’t start until 5 p.m., but Gallagher usually rolls in about 3:30 p.m. to secure a good spot near The Fish Hole Miniature Golf.

Main Street and Rodeo Drive are closed to moving vehicles from the roundabout to The Fish Hole for the shows. Cars park on both sides of the streets, and the area often becomes shoulder to shoulder with people.

While it’s called the Classic Car Show, “anything on wheels” can be displayed for a $10 entry fee. “It’s so cool because we love talking about our cars,” Gallagher says. “It makes me happy when somebody loves my car as much as I do.”

Music on Main

First Friday of the month from 6-9 p.m. Highlights: Live music, food trucks and a kids’ zone

If it’s the first Friday of the month, Bradenton’s Kim Harris and Jan Altenbach are on Main Street at Lakewood Ranch.

They each bring a chair because that’s all they need, outside a parking spot. The friends carpool and arrive well before 6 p.m. to ensure the latter.

East County's Kim Harris and Jan Altenbach set up their chairs every month at Music on Main. — East County's Kim Harris and Jan Altenbach are big fans of Music on Main.

If you’re late, plan to circle the lot a few times because the event, which started just a year after Main Street opened, has grown to an average attendance of 4,500 people, according to Nicole Hackel, events and resident experience manager for Lakewood Ranch.

Harris and Altenbach don’t need anything more than chairs because in addition to all the brick and mortar bars and restaurants on Main Street, the event brings in beer and food trucks.

The massive block party is anchored by a band on one side, near Grove, and a kids’ zone on the other, near Ed’s Tavern. While it varies from month to month, as do the bands, Grace Community Church brings in everything from facepainting to mechanical bullriding to keep the kids entertained.

People might be drinking in the street, but Music on Main is a family and community-oriented event. Local businesses advertise and sell their goods, and nonprofits promote their causes.

Retail pioneers

The best move ever for Don and Vanessa Baugh’s jewelry business — being one of the first tenants to open on Lakewood Ranch Main Street in December 2005 — nearly never happened.

The hesitation didn’t come from Main Street itself. Instead, in January 2005, the store, Vanessa Fine Jewelry, then in the Southgate Mall in Sarasota, was robbed at gunpoint. One of the robbers put a gun, says Vanessa, to “the back of Donnie’s head” and the thieves made off with thousands of dollars of merchandise. (The robbers were eventually caught.) “I told Donnie to forget it. We’re just going to close the store and not move to Lakewood Ranch.”

But after the trauma subsided a bit, Vanessa rekindled the Main Street idea. Speaking in early October, a few months before the 20th anniversary of Lakewood Main Street, Vanessa marveled at all the progress over the past two decades. She especially recognized Schroeder-Manatee Ranch, developer Casto and SMR President and CEO Rex Jensen and their ability to navigate the 2008-09 housing recession and other issues over the past two decades.

Even without the robbery fresh on the couple’s mind, moving to Lakewood Ranch, after being in Southgate for four years and the Sarasota Square Mall for two years before that, was a sizeable risk. Malls, back then, were a strong source of foot traffic, and Lakewood Ranch had yet to hit its population surge.

But Vanessa says the business has grown just about every year. The Baughs moved to the area in 1999 from Virginia, and in addition to the business, became politically active. Vanessa Baugh, a Republican, was elected to three terms on the Manatee County commission, serving from 2012 through July 2023. Vanessa Fine Jewelry, meanwhile, is thriving, and the couple says they are glad they had the foresight to make the move to Lakewood Ranch.

“I can tell you it was not an easy decision at first,” Vanessa says. “Main Street wasn’t as great back then as what it has turned out to be today.”

author

Lesley Dwyer

Lesley Dwyer is a staff writer for East County and a graduate of the University of South Florida. After earning a bachelor’s degree in professional and technical writing, she freelanced for the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. Lesley has lived in the Sarasota area for over 25 years.

author

Mark Gordon

Mark Gordon is the managing editor of the Business Observer. He has worked for the Business Observer since 2005. He previously worked for newspapers and magazines in upstate New York, suburban Philadelphia and Jacksonville.