"We'd hoped to be here serving you for many years to come, but it just wasn't in the cards." Brothers Carl and Dave Catullo wrote that in a Facebook post on June 16. It told Nocatee that Catullo's Italian would close its 100 Marketside Ave. location around June 25. Coming four months after Dick's Wings & Grill closed on the same block, the news landed hard. Action News Jax described Catullo's as "the latest casualty in Town Center closures."
By early October, things look different. The former Catullo's space is a working French-Italian dining room. The former Dick's space has a signed lease with one of St. Johns County's best-known homegrown restaurant brands. Both independent restaurant spaces that closed on Marketside Avenue this year were claimed within months. In each case, the new tenant is a husband-and-wife team that built its first restaurant somewhere else.
Who Actually Controls the Block
It helps to know who decides what goes into these storefronts. The PARC Group developed Nocatee, but it told Action News Jax that it sold the Town Center property nearly 20 years ago. Regency Centers owns and operates the shopping center. Leasing decisions here go through a national shopping center owner, even though PARC still announces some of the new arrivals.
Here is how 2026 has gone so far on and around Marketside Avenue:
- February: Dick's Wings & Grill closes after 13 years. It opened in April 2013 as one of the original Town Center restaurants.
- By March 20: The Wendy's at 103 Capitol Green Drive has closed.
- Around June 25: Catullo's Italian serves its last meals in Nocatee after the brothers sell the space to a restaurant group.
- August 27: PARC announces that Asado Life will take the former Dick's Wings space.
- September 18: Riviera 89 holds its grand opening in the former Catullo's space.
The Space That Changed Hands Before It Closed
Catullo's did not close because nobody wanted the space. According to the Jax Daily Record, the brothers had already sold it to an unnamed restaurant group when they announced the closing. In a social media video, the restaurant also pointed to rising prices and "the wage increase that just happened again." At that point, the most recent step in Florida's minimum wage was the move to $14 an hour on Sept. 30, 2025. Another step, to $15, took effect on Sept. 30, 2026, according to the Florida Department of Commerce. Every restaurant on Marketside Avenue now operates under that new rate.
The Catullos are still cooking. They kept their original restaurant at 1650-2 San Pablo Road S., where the Jax Daily Record notes that weekend lines are common and reservations are not taken. The business started as a food truck in 2016. Before that, both brothers spent 15 years working in Beaches restaurants, including Flying Iguana, Lynch's Irish Pub and Roy's.
Less than three months after Catullo's closed, Riviera 89 opened at 100 Marketside Ave., Suite 305. It is a 73-seat French-Italian restaurant that opens at 11 a.m. The owners are married restaurateurs Emeric and Anthony Roy Perruccenio. Anthony, 38, runs the kitchen, and Emeric, 29, runs the front of the house. They moved from Alsace, France, after spending about three months searching Florida for a place to open their first American restaurant. The St. Johns Citizen reported that they were drawn to the area's easygoing, golf-cart-centered lifestyle.
Riviera 89 carries on the couple's French restaurant, Sous Un Ciel d'Italie, in Riedisheim near Mulhouse, close to the German and Swiss borders. The name translates to "Under an Italian Sky." The menu includes:
- A build-your-own pasta bar with marinara, Alfredo, Bolognese and pesto sauces
- Pasta with house-made pistachio pesto and mortadella
- The ciotola, a bestseller from France: a handmade pizza-dough bowl filled with pasta or salad, and you can eat the bowl afterward
- Pinsa, French classics and a full bar
So the Italian spot on this block is still Italian, now with a French accent and a kitchen that learned its trade an ocean away.
From a St. Augustine Garage to Suite 301
The former Dick's Wings space at 100 Marketside Ave., No. 301, measures 3,415 square feet. The Jax Daily Record reported on Aug. 27 that Asado Life had signed a lease for it. No opening date has been announced.
Asado Life began as a hobby. In 2014, founders Nick and Christie Carrera started building Argentine-style grills in their St. Augustine garage under the name Urban Asado. That led to a restaurant on the San Sebastian River, and the first Asado Life opened there in 2022. The kitchen is built around ember roasting, smoking and parrilla grilling, with steaks, sausages, seafood and grilled vegetables on the menu.
Nocatee will be the third location. The second opened the same week as the lease announcement at the Jacksonville Shipyards, near EverBank Stadium, as part of Jaguars owner Shad Khan's Shipyards development. Eric Apple, senior leasing agent at Regency Centers, framed the deal around local businesses. "Nocatee Town Center was built to serve a community that values great local businesses, and Asado Life fits that vision perfectly," he said in the announcement.
That quote is the clearest sign of what the landlord wants for this block. One of Town Center's original restaurants, open since 2013, is being replaced by a brand that started in a St. Augustine garage. Neither of the Marketside restaurant spaces stayed empty long enough to become a story about vacancy.
The Corner Without a Successor
The Wendy's closure is a different kind of story. The PARC Group told Action News Jax that it lined up with the chain's previously announced plan to close 300 restaurants. PARC also said it did not know why Catullo's or Dick's Wings had closed. Action News Jax asked Regency Centers about rent increases and had not received a reply by publication.
As of early October, no replacement for the 103 Capitol Green Drive site has been reported. That closure came from a decision made at a national chain's headquarters. Both Marketside Avenue spaces came from local decisions, and both have already been re-leased.
Elsewhere in Nocatee, the additions this year have also come from operators expanding into the community. Salata opened April 6 at 641 Crosswater Parkway, Suite B, its first Florida location.
What Is Still Years Away
Two larger projects will change where Nocatee eats and gathers, but neither is close to opening. Permits were in review as of Sept. 24 for The Hub at Nocatee, a proposed 63,225-square-foot retail, dining, entertainment and event center at 28 Sawston Road. It would sit at Marketplace at Nocatee, near the Marketplace Publix and west of Valley Ridge Boulevard. Plans call for a courtyard with outdoor seating, live music and events, with a 2028 opening target.
Closer to Town Center's timeline, work started in April on St. Johns County's $42 million Northeast Community Park and Library at 670 Diego Plains Road. The 49-acre plan includes walking trails, a splash pad, sports fields and courts, a fishing pond with a kayak dock, a community center and a full-service library. Completion is expected by summer 2027.
An October Evening Worth Planning
For the rest of the month, the resident events calendar has several nights that pair well with dinner at Town Center's newest dining room:
- Food Truck Friday, Oct. 9 and Oct. 30, 5:30 p.m., at Nocatee Station Field
- Haunted House Preview Night, Friday, Oct. 16, 7 to 9 p.m., at Spray Waterpark
- Halloween Harvest Farmers Market, Saturday, Oct. 17, 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., at Nocatee Station Field
- Noc So Scary, Friday, Oct. 23 and Saturday, Oct. 24, across Nocatee Station Field and Spray Waterpark, with food trucks, live music, a petting zoo and a haunted house
The public calendar notes that some events require a resident login, so November dates may be posted there before they appear anywhere else. Riviera 89 opens at 11 a.m. at 100 Marketside Ave., Suite 305, if you want to try the ciotola before the haunted house.
Who moves into a storefront says a lot about a community's daily life, and the same forces shape what homes are worth nearby. If you're thinking about what Nocatee's next few years could mean for your own address, Campanaro Group would be glad to talk it through with you, from Marketside Avenue to the projects still on the drawing board. Contact Us.
This article is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Consult a qualified professional about your situation.
