Between May 2025 and this October, almost every food tenant on the short stretch of McFarlane Road by CocoWalk either closed, changed hands or got a new neighbor upstairs. The new tenants run on different schedules. Frozen yogurt bowls and smoothies sit across the intersection from CocoWalk. Wood-fired pizza is a few doors down. A Mediterranean dining room fills the ground floor of the Arya Hotel, and a Japanese restaurant is getting ready eight floors above it. A New York cookie bakery has papered its windows across the street.
None of these openings alone would make the news outside the Grove. Together they give McFarlane Road something it lacked a year and a half ago: a reason to stop at almost any hour, all within one short walk. Two pieces are still missing as of October 9, 2026.
The ledger, address by address
| Address | Previous tenant | Current or incoming | Status as of early October 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2996 McFarlane Road | Harry's Pizzeria, 2015 to May 2025 | Miami Slice | Open since August 12, 2026 |
| 2992 McFarlane Road | Juicense | Tata's Yogurt Bar | Open since early 2026 |
| 2889 McFarlane Road, ground floor | None reported | AVA MediterrAegean | Open since November 22, 2025 |
| 2889 McFarlane Road, 8th floor | None reported | Seiya | Previewed in September, no public opening date |
| 2979 McFarlane Road | None reported | Levain Bakery | "Coming Soon," targeted for fall |
The table shows how compressed the change was. The longest-running tenant on the list, Harry's Pizzeria, had been at 2996 McFarlane since 2015. Every other name on the table arrived or was announced after it closed.
The corner across from CocoWalk turned over first
Harry's Pizzeria, part of the Genuine Hospitality Group behind Michael's Genuine, closed its Grove location in May 2025 after about a decade on McFarlane, The Burn Miami reported. Its Miami Beach location closed at the same time.
Two doors down, Juicense, a fresh juice shop at 2992 McFarlane, looked closed by September 2025. At the time there were hints the closure might be temporary. The space did not stay empty long. By February 3, 2026, Tata's Yogurt Bar had quietly opened there, "just across the three-way intersection from CocoWalk." The shop focuses on frozen Greek yogurt bowls and smoothies sweetened with raw honey, topped with bananas, blueberries and almond butter. It also sells baked items like dark chocolate brownies and coffee cake. It has company nearby: the Go Greek yogurt shop opened a few blocks away in October 2025.
The old Harry's space was the last on the corner to reopen. Miami Slice started serving on Wednesday, August 12, 2026, about 15 months after Harry's closed. On opening night a crowd waited out front for tables or for carryout orders. Inside, the wood-fired oven and the brand's neon asterisk logo lit the room.
So the corner went from a juice bar and a pizzeria to a yogurt bar and a pizzeria. On paper that looks like a small change. What matters more is that both spaces are open again, after a stretch from mid-2025 into 2026 when one or both sat dark.
One address, two kitchens, eight floors apart
The bigger change on McFarlane is a single building. The Arya Hotel & Suites at 2889 McFarlane Road now has a restaurant at street level and another being finished on its eighth floor.
The street-level one came first. In May 2025, The Burn Miami reported that AVA MediterrAegean was coming to 2889 McFarlane. The restaurant held a kick-off party in mid-November and opened to the public on Saturday, November 22, 2025, with reservations already being taken. The Grove location is the brand's second. The first is in Winter Park, Florida.
The upper floor is still pending. Seiya is planned for the eighth floor of the Arya, led by Chef Seiya Noborikawa, and describes its cooking as "Nikkei Alterno," made with "Japanese precision and global soul." The full menu has not been released, but the restaurant has shown a few dishes. The Zakuro Steak comes with pomegranate honey, wasabi butter and crispy shallots. The Aspar-Akami is bluefin tuna with asparagus crema, cardamom and nutmeg. As of September 16, there was no opening date, though the team was described as "getting close."
The first public look at the room came a week later. On Thursday, September 24, the space hosted a House of Rare x Seiya tasting, which Soul of Miami described as "inside Seiya's forthcoming Coconut Grove restaurant." Tickets were $40, or $60 with a bottle of House of Rare Blanco to take home. The evening ended with the debut of RAREcask Umeshu Reposado, which is being released only at Seiya. A preview tasting does not mean the restaurant is open, and no regular public service had been confirmed as of early October.
Once Seiya opens, the Arya will offer a ground-floor dinner reservation and a rooftop-level dining room at the same address. On a street this short, that one building adds more evening seats than the rest of the block combined has added since 2025.
The window paper at 2979
The daytime piece still missing is across the street. In early June, temporary signage went up on the windows at 2979 McFarlane Road to hide construction for Levain Bakery. No opening date was announced, and the target was "sometime this fall." On September 23, Miami New Times listed it among the fall's most anticipated Miami openings. The paper called the 30-year-old New York bakery's arrival near CocoWalk its Florida debut, and said the menu goes beyond the chocolate chip walnut cookies to breads, brioche, pastries and seasonal items. Miami last had Levain through a delivery-only pop-up in 2021. This shop is meant to be permanent. Other cookies on the menu include Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter Chip, Oatmeal Raisin, Caramel Coconut Chocolate Chip, Carrot Cake and Lemon.
When this was written, Levain's own location page for the Grove still read "Coming Soon," with no hours or phone number.
When Levain opens, the block will have a morning-to-afternoon anchor across from Tata's. That fills the one daypart the corner hasn't had since Juicense went dark.
Around the corner, the pattern runs the other way
The turnover hasn't all gone one direction. One block over on Commodore Plaza, two openings from 2025 did not stay. RedFarm finished its last service at 3131 Commodore Plaza on June 29, 2025, and said it hoped to reopen elsewhere in South Florida. Si Papa, a lasagna-only restaurant, opened at 3190 Commodore Plaza in July 2025. That address was always temporary, and Si Papa closed it on June 28, 2026 while it looks for a new home. Coverage of the closing did not say the business is ending.
Seen next to Commodore Plaza, the McFarlane story is less about the Grove gaining restaurants in general. It's about one short street where every space that opened up got a new tenant, and where several of those tenants have a track record elsewhere. AVA came from Winter Park. Levain comes from New York, with three decades behind it. Harry's old corner went to another pizza operator instead of sitting empty.
The street the Arts Festival already treats as one block
The city already treats McFarlane as a single unit at least once a year. For the February 2026 Coconut Grove Arts Festival, McFarlane Road was fully closed to cars, from 11:55 p.m. Thursday until 11:55 p.m. Monday, according to the Miami Herald. No permanent streetscape or parking change on McFarlane has been announced for 2026. The city's Center Grove and Little Bahamas traffic-calming project, still in planning and design as of June 2026, lists other streets, with construction estimated for January through March 2027. The road itself is staying the same. What's changing is what lines it.
What to watch on McFarlane through the end of fall
- Levain Bakery at 2979. Its official page is the first place an opening date would appear. Until then, both The Burn Miami and Miami New Times describe it as a fall opening.
- Seiya on the eighth floor of 2889. After the September 24 preview, the next step is a public opening date for regular service.
- Miami Slice's first full season. The August 12 opening came before the busier months in the Center Grove, so this fall and winter will be its first real test at the old Harry's corner.
By year's end the lineup could run from Levain's brioche in the morning to Tata's yogurt bowls in the afternoon, with a wood-fired pie, AVA's dining room or Seiya's eighth-floor counter at night, all on one block between CocoWalk and Peacock Park. Three of those five are open now.
At Wolsen Real Estate, we follow Coconut Grove one street at a time, because changes like these on McFarlane Road shape what owning nearby is like day to day. If you're weighing a residence within walking distance of CocoWalk and want to know which blocks are changing and which are holding steady, book an appointment and we'll go through it with you.
