From October 23 through November 1, the one pedestrian block of Fuller Street between Main Highway and Grand Avenue has pumpkins. The Coconut Grove Business Improvement District is presenting Coconut Grove Harvest, with a pumpkin patch on the street. A free Halloween celebration follows on Saturday, October 31, from 6 to 8 p.m., with trick-or-treating, storytelling, a DJ, a scavenger hunt, a children's performance and a costume contest. The Coconut Grove Spotlight's weekly calendar gives the patch's address as 3035 Fuller Street.
A street-level festival in the village center takes some open space to stage, and Fuller Street has had less of it this year. Restaurant tables now line the block. The street's place as the Grove's informal town square depends on a short line in Miami's sidewalk café code, and on how the $5 million redesign, with construction expected to begin in summer 2027, handles it.
Five Years From Traffic Lane to Town Square
The street got here mostly by improvising. According to the Spotlight's February 2025 account, the timeline runs like this:
- 2020: The city closed the street to traffic during the pandemic to allow outdoor dining and distancing. Former District 2 Commissioner Ken Russell, an early champion of the closure, said foot traffic rose rather than fell.
- 2021: Chaired by Russell, the BID commissioned the Brooklyn firm Local Office Landscape and Urban Design to design a street for markets, concerts and buskers.
- Early 2025: As the Spotlight reported that February, the BID board had voted in December to support the permanent closure and help pay for it, and county officials had approved closing Fuller Street to vehicles permanently the month before the article ran.
In the meantime the block picked up a civic life of its own. In the January before that article, hundreds of people filled it for a King Mango Strut after-party with live bands on a small riser near Grand Avenue, and a few nights later a BID "Gather in the Grove" street party drew hundreds more. Students from Coconut Grove Elementary held an early-morning chess club at the pink picnic tables that Barracuda Taphouse & Grill owner Lee Kessler had put out on the closed street. Kessler told the Spotlight the street had become a "great meet-up spot."
These uses lasted because the street had room for them.
The Line in the Code That Keeps the Tables Public
Restaurants in Miami can get a permit to put tables and chairs in the public right of way. The permit does not hand them the space. As the Spotlight reported in August, the city code says a permitted sidewalk or street café:
"shall be opened for use by the general public," and its use "shall not be restricted to patrons of the permittee."
On Fuller Street, then, the permitted tables are public seating that a nearby business has paid to place. The Spotlight's March report put numbers on it for 2026. Barracuda paid $13,156 for 572 square feet, Grove Grocer paid $6,210 for 270 square feet, and Chuggies paid $2,484 for 108 square feet. Permits come up for renewal every September, and the fees are split evenly between the City of Miami and the BID. Together, those three permits cover 950 square feet of what used to be roadway.
The rule became a local story this summer. The Spotlight reported that city officials approved the outdoor seating permit for Ziggurat x Chèvre at 3065 Fuller Street on Friday, August 14, once an $8,680 payment was completed. A 25-year Grove resident who walks the block almost every day told the paper why it mattered to him: "This is one of our few 'third places' in the Grove, where you can gather and not have to pay to exist." City officials have said outdoor seating will remain a key part of Fuller Street after the redesign.
This is a summary of how the rule has been reported, offered as general information rather than legal advice. Anyone with a specific question about a permit should go to the City of Miami directly.
What the Tables Have Already Replaced
According to the Spotlight, the squeeze started in fall 2025, when Chuggie's and Grove Grocer joined Barracuda in getting city permits for outdoor seating. That December, GroveHouseArtists ended its monthly ArtWalk on the block. In a Facebook post, the group said Fuller Street "has developed into an outside cafe lane and offers no possibilities for a cohesive stroll through the artists and artisans."
"Fuller seemed like a perfect place for getting more art showcased in Coconut Grove," GroveHouseArtists Director Trina Collins told the Spotlight. Coconut Grove Village Council member Davey Frankel told the same paper that "there should be a balance that includes public use of the street, and not just turning it into a giant, broad sidewalk with outdoor café seating."
These views come from people who want the street to work. Tables, art and pumpkins all compete for the same one block, and the café code decides who may use the seats. It does not decide how much of the street the seats take up.
Who Is on the Block Now
Two landlords own the frontage. Cogo Corp., led by Joseph Harrison, owns the north side, with tenants including Barracuda, H&H Jewelers and detlev salon. Silver Bluff Management, founded by Grant Savage, owns the south side, including Chug's Diner, Grove Grocer and the historic Florentino Plaza, which has been rebranded as The Courtyards Grove Village. Both owners told the Spotlight they support the redesign. The newest arrival, Mario Naar's Chèvre sandwich concept, opened in January 2026 inside the Ziggurat sales center, as Miami New Times reported.
| Business | Where | What to know |
|---|---|---|
| Barracuda Taphouse & Grill | North side of Fuller | Owned by Lee Kessler. Its pink picnic tables date from the early pedestrian years. Listed with a valid seating permit in August 2026. |
| Grove Grocer | 3098 Fuller St. | Seating permit issued under the name Alto Consulting LLC. |
| Chug's Diner | South side of Fuller | A Silver Bluff Management tenant in The Courtyards block. |
| Chuggie's | 3444 Main Hwy., Suite 15 | A burger concept from chef Michael Beltran, according to the Coconut Grove BID. Its tables extend onto Fuller. |
| Ziggurat x Chèvre | 3065 Fuller St. | Mario Naar's sandwich concept, operating from the Ziggurat sales center. Opened in January 2026. |
The Redesign Will Fix the Floor Plan
Ziggurat x Chèvre operates from the sales center for Ziggurat, the Allen Morris Company project at 3101 Grand Ave. It sits on 1.7 acres and will include a five-story, 100,000-square-foot office building, 19 condominium residences, about 40,000 square feet of ground-floor retail, a rooftop restaurant and a landscaped courtyard, according to Miami Today. The city approved the project in December 2025, and it broke ground in January.
The development agreement also covers the public spaces around the project. The Miami City Commission approved final designs on June 25 for a $5 million makeover of Fuller Street and Kirk Munroe Park, funded with $3 million from the city and $2 million from Allen Morris. Allen Morris will oversee construction and is responsible for any cost overruns beyond the budget. The BID approved the Fuller Street portion in July.
Here is what the approved plans call for:
- Fuller Street, Main Highway to Grand Avenue: The old roadway is raised to sidewalk level and paved in stone, with specimen trees, landscaping, signage, road reconstruction and drainage improvements.
- Kirk Munroe Park: The tennis courts are resurfaced, the hitting wall rebuilt, and the park gets a new children's play area, a pavilion, a great lawn, water features, and wood decking beneath the banyan tree.
The park is named for Kirk Munroe, an author, explorer and early Grove settler who helped establish the Coconut Grove Library and founded the Biscayne Bay Yacht Club. Allen Morris has said it expects to begin work on the park and Fuller Street next summer, so the current target is summer 2027. That is a projection, not a set date.
Once the street is level, paved and planted, the space left for a pumpkin patch, an artists' row or a riser for a band will be whatever room the permitted tables leave over. That is why this fall's events give a useful reading of how the block works.
Using the Street This Season
Today Fuller Street still works much as it has since 2020. These are dated reasons to spend time there and nearby before construction starts:
- Coconut Grove Harvest, October 23 to November 1. Pumpkins on Fuller Street, with the free Halloween celebration on Saturday, October 31, from 6 to 8 p.m.
- A slice one block over. Miami Slice opened its fourth location at 2996 McFarlane Road on August 12, as Miami New Times reported. On the same road, Levain Bakery's 2979 McFarlane Road location still reads "Coming Soon" on its official page.
- The 18 Wheelers at The Barnacle, Friday, November 13. The Grove band marks its 30th anniversary on the lawn at 3485 Main Highway from 7 to 9 p.m., with doors at 6 p.m. Picnics and BYOB are welcome, and pets are not. Tickets are on The Barnacle's site.
- King Mango Strut, Sunday, January 3. The Coconut Grove Spotlight reports that the parade's 43rd edition is billed as "The Weird Cup: A Kick in the Balls," and the paper's events calendar lists it from 2 to 6 p.m. In 2025, its after-party filled Fuller Street.
If the changes around Center Grove have you thinking about your own corner of Coconut Grove, from the Ziggurat residences going up on Grand Avenue to what a rebuilt Fuller Street could mean for the blocks around it, Stacey Waldron is glad to talk it through with you. Let's Connect.
