"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.'" That was how Nina and Mario Amelio announced Johnny D's Market & Bistro's renovation closure on social media, as Vero News reported in September.
The street they meant is South A1A. The address across it is 916 Turtle Cove Lane, a parcel that last held a restaurant before the 2004 hurricanes. For the next year, the market Johnny D's sends its regulars to and the island's newest fine-dining room are on the same corner. They share an owner and a culinary director, and some of the faces behind the counter came from Johnny D's.
The lot that waited two decades for a dinner reservation
Before any of this, 1410 South A1A was Charley Brown's, a steakhouse well remembered on the island for its salad bar. When Vero News covered an early plan for the site in 2014, developer Anthony DeChellis recalled taking dates there and filling his plate at that salad bar. The building came down after damage from the 2004 hurricanes. The 2014 mixed-use plan stalled, and a new version came back in 2022.
The 2022 plan was modest compared with what opened this fall. According to Vero News' 2022 report, the site plan filed with the City of Vero Beach showed a 13,300-square-foot building on a 1.1-acre parcel. It set aside about 2,500 square feet of the first floor for a restaurant, with offices upstairs. This October, Windward Restaurant Concepts described the finished project as a 27,000-square-foot development with three food venues: a fine-dining restaurant, a gourmet market and a tiki bar. FSR magazine carried the description.
That growth happened while the plan for who would run it changed several times.
How a Central Beach restaurant almost moved here, and what changed when it stayed
In 2022, DeChellis told Vero News that The Tides might move to 1410 for a while, and possibly stay long term, while its Cardinal Drive building was redeveloped. He also owns that building. Chef-owner Leanne Kelleher eventually chose to keep The Tides on Cardinal. DeChellis then hired his own culinary director, Argentine-born Sebastian La Rocca, and the Johnny D's team was folded into the new operation.
Here is how it played out this year:
| When | What happened |
|---|---|
| September 2026 | The Tides closed on Cardinal Drive for about two months of renovations |
| September 20, 2026 | Johnny D's announced an October closure, with reopening planned for October 2027 |
| October 1, 2026 | The Tides' scheduled reopening date, according to TCPalm |
| October 10, 2026 | The Blu Fin held its grand opening |
| October 13, 2026 | The Blu Fin opened to the public |
So the island ended up with two fine-dining kitchens, about two miles apart and run by different people, instead of one kitchen moving south. The Turtle Cove complex is also set up to take on the everyday food business that Johnny D's had built over 15 years.
Charley's Steak, and the price gap across the road
The Blu Fin seats 78 across 3,000 square feet, indoors and out, including six seats at the bar. La Rocca's menu draws on the Mediterranean and Latin America. Starters include cured red snapper with ajo blanco and shaved truffle, and olive oil-poached lobster with lettuce gazpacho. Entrées include grouper roasted on a cedar plank with Champagne clams, and El Secreto Iberico pork with Oaxaca mole.
The dish with roots on this lot is Charley's Steak, named for Charley Brown's. It's a Black Angus New York strip that arrives under a cloche, with a giant lump crab "fricassee" served on the side. Diners pick their steak knife from a presentation box. Hometown News described white-glove service for the dish and named a tableside-smoked beef tartare among the standouts.
The price point is a big change from what Johnny D's regulars knew. Vero News described Johnny D's as a family-style casual spot with $22 summer specials and $6 glasses of wine. OpenTable lists The Blu Fin in its "$50 and over" price band. Blu Fin isn't where a Johnny D's Tuesday night moves. It's the celebration-dinner room. The casual meals and grocery runs are planned for the other two venues on the property.
The market side of the move
Johnny D's own website states the plan: "you don't have to go far to find us. Visit our family just across the street at Turtle Cove Market, where you'll find many of the foods, wines, and specialty items you already love, along with some familiar Johnny D's faces."
Those familiar faces are real hires. DeChellis told Vero News that all of Johnny D's employees were invited to apply across the road, and "about 10 or 12" had already been hired for the market, bar and restaurant. Nina and Mario Amelio, his cousins, are joining the new management team. La Rocca told the paper the company aimed to hire about 80 people, and about 70 percent of those jobs were filled by late September.
Turtle Cove Gourmet Market was announced at nearly 3,000 square feet, close to the size of The Blu Fin's dining room. Its concept is built around house-made fresh pasta, seafood, pastries, coffee and prepared meals to take home, with 28 seats on its terrace. The market's website, turtlecovemarket.com, uses the tagline "A modern market rooted in community." Its Instagram handle is @turtlecovemarket.
The third venue is The Motley Cow, a 1,100-square-foot tiki bar under a giant palm-frond palapa. It has 54 seats, 18 of them at the bar, and its announced hours are 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. The kitchen centers on a Mibrasa enclosed charcoal oven, so much of the seafood-focused menu is cooked over live fire. The Motley Cow posts on Instagram at @motleycowvb.
Together, the market and the tiki bar are designed to cover the casual daytime business Johnny D's used to do. That plan is what let the Amelios tell their customers to cross the street instead of saying goodbye.
An island dinner week, rearranged
With The Tides back on Cardinal Drive and The Blu Fin open on South A1A, the island's two fine-dining kitchens keep different schedules:
- The Blu Fin, 916 Turtle Cove Lane, serves dinner Tuesday through Sunday, 5 to 10 p.m. Reservations are through OpenTable, and walk-ins are seated when there's room. Details are at theblufin.com.
- The Tides, on Cardinal Drive, serves dinner Tuesday through Saturday starting at 5 p.m., according to its website. In September, Vero News reported that Kelleher planned to add Sunday brunch and weekday takeout lunches with the reopening.
- The Motley Cow, on the same property as The Blu Fin, has announced hours of 11 a.m. to 9 p.m.
For a Sunday dinner reservation on the island, The Blu Fin is the one of the two fine-dining rooms serving. On Mondays, neither of them serves dinner. With 78 seats and season starting, The Blu Fin is easiest to book for a weeknight table early in the week.
What comes back across the street in 2027
Johnny D's says it is closed for renovations "through October 2027." What comes back may not be a bistro. DeChellis told Vero News that his family once ran South Beach Liquors in that building. He already holds a liquor license, so the new version may be a high-end wine and liquor shop. "In a way, it may be back to the future for the liquor store," he said. He also owns the commercial building just south of Johnny D's along A1A. He described the series of moves as meant to give South Beach residents a set of businesses the community can be proud of.
If that's the plan, a short stretch of South A1A will have a market, a tiki bar, a fine-dining room and a wine shop, all from the same owner and on the same block. The first of those opened on October 13, on the lot where Charley Brown's salad bar used to be.
If you live on the barrier island, you know a new address on South A1A can change what nearby homes are like to live in. The team at Susie Wilson Real Estate keeps up with those changes for island owners, including what's open, what's coming back and how it affects your home's value. Request a free home valuation and consultation, and we'll walk you through how the changes along South A1A apply to your property.
