St. Armands Circle

The shopping and dining circle on St. Armands Key, between downtown Sarasota and Longboat Key, a short walk from Lido Beach. It functions as the dining district for Lido Key and the south end of Longboat Key, neither of which has much of its own.

The City of Sarasota describes it as home to more than 140 boutiques, restaurants and art galleries in an open-air setting. That density is why it works as a destination rather than a convenience: it is somewhere people cross a bridge to reach, which is unusual for a retail district of its size.

It began as a John and Mable Ringling project. Ringling bought the key in 1917 and laid out a development of residences and shops along streets radiating from a central park, and the bridge connecting St. Armands and Bird Key to the mainland opened in 1926. The Ringling-era statuary around the circle was restored in 2008, and the Harding Circle historic district, which covers the park and the adjacent medians, went on the National Register in 2001.

Parking is the thing to understand before you decide how often you would really go. There is street parking around the circle and on the Boulevard of the Presidents, and a public garage at 47 N. Adams Drive that opened to the public in February 2019. Rates and rules have changed more than once and are set by the city, so check the current position rather than trusting any page, including this one.