Drive down Main Street on a Friday afternoon right now and the block looks nothing like it did two years ago. The brick pavement is still the same brick pavement, kept from the town's 1925 incorporation as a piece of the downtown's character. What has changed is what sits on either side of it. A corner that used to be a tear-down is now a pizzeria with a wood-fired oven. The old post-office-era rhythm of neighbors bumping into each other on the sidewalk is starting to reassemble itself, one storefront at a time.
The thing worth understanding about the Downtown Windermere Redevelopment Project is that it did not arrive as a chain-anchored strip. The people who signed the leases live here. That single fact explains almost everything about how the food and drink lineup is shaping up, and why the block feels different from Hamlin, Horizon West, or anywhere else in the 34786 zip code.
The Corner That Reset The Block
Fresco Pizzeria opened on the corner of Main and 6th Avenue on December 1, 2025. It is the second location from the Scialoia family, whose original restaurant, Fresco Cucina Italiana, has been operating in Bayhill Plaza on Turkey Lake Road since 2006. Achille Scialoia runs it alongside his mother, Teresa, and brother, Luigi.
The Windermere concept is deliberately not a copy of the Dr. Phillips original. This one leans grab-and-go: wood-fired pizzas made from 48-hour fermented dough, Italian sandwiches, fresh pasta, cornetti and bomboloni with espresso in the morning, cannolis at the counter. The dining room does a more elegant evening turn with wine tastings and sit-down service. Cheese comes from a South Florida producer. Gluten-free options are on the menu. Windermere Brewing, which has been downtown since July 2022, is brewing an Italian-style beer for the restaurant.
What Achille has said in interviews about the location is the tell. He is excited that people can walk from their houses to grab a sandwich and a glass of wine. That is not a marketing line. It is a description of the actual foot traffic pattern the new development is set up to produce.
The Wine Bar That Almost Wasn't
Two doors down at 527 Main Street sits Solvino, a wine bar and restaurant owned by Arjun and Sara Kumar. The Kumars live in Keene's Pointe. Arjun's background is in healthcare and tech, and Solvino is his first restaurant.
The path to opening was not linear. To serve alcohol as a wine bar inside the town of Windermere, an operator needs a conditional-use permit from the Town Council. Solvino applied. Council denied it. When one of the other originally planned food tenants pulled out of the redevelopment, the Kumars used the freed-up capacity to redesign Solvino as a full restaurant with a commercial kitchen, which does not require the same permit to serve wine.
The pivot changed the business model. Solvino is now a private members club, prioritizing residents of the town and the surrounding communities. Kumar has said memberships were selling out faster than expected, with applications coming in from across the Butler Chain, Isleworth, Keene's Pointe, and Summerport.
"We never wanted a big corporate brand in here. What we needed was something special, a place where people know the owners and feel at home."
That is Jim Karr, a Windermere resident since 1970, describing what he told The Orlando Life about the redevelopment lineup. It is not a coincidence that both Solvino and Fresco fit that description exactly.
Who Actually Built It
The construction story is the same story. The Hembree brothers, who grew up in Windermere, led the build. Developer Vick, a Central Florida native, told the local press that the project intentionally kept existing businesses in the new center and used local firms to build it. The project preserved trees on the site and includes a custom-engineered wastewater treatment system, which is what allowed Solvino to add its commercial kitchen without straining the downtown's utility footprint.
None of this is visible when you order a pizza. It matters because it explains the tenant mix. A ground-up chain-anchored development in this location would have leased to a national fast-casual concept and a regional coffee brand. This one leased to a family from Bayhill Plaza and a family from Keene's Pointe.
The New Main Street Lineup At A Glance
| Business | Concept | Status | Behind It |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fresco Pizzeria | Wood-fired pizza, pasta, Italian bakery | Open since Dec. 1, 2025 | Scialoia family (Fresco Cucina Italiana, Dr. Phillips) |
| Solvino | Wine bar & restaurant, private membership | Open, memberships filling | Arjun & Sara Kumar, Keene's Pointe residents |
| Windermere Brewing | Local brewery, Italian-style beer collab with Fresco | Downtown since July 2022 | Independent |
| Ace Hardware, Allstate, Elysium Interiors, Victoria Jewelers | Retail & services | Open or arriving in the same project | Independent operators |
The retail slate matters because it is what makes the block a walkable errand, not a single-destination stop. You can pick up a bottle of wine, drop a package, and grab a piece of jewelry inside the same brick stretch.
What's Still Coming
The redevelopment block itself is largely leased. The next food-and-drink news for the wider Windermere market is arriving at Summerport, not downtown. PCG Burgers, the artisanal smash-burger concept owned by Renan Rodrigues, is building a location at 13530 Summerport Village Parkway, targeting an opening around the end of 2026. It will be the second Windermere-area PCG after the original at 9245 Miley Drive in Winter Garden, which has been operating about three years. A Dr. Phillips location on Palm Parkway is planned for late 2027.
For Summerport residents, this is a meaningful addition. Cornerstone at Summerport has functioned as the family-and-casual cluster, with Bella Tuscany as the sit-down anchor. A fast-casual burger concept with an actual local track record fills a gap that has been sitting there for a while.
How It Reads Against The Anchors Already There
The new block is not replacing the existing Main Street. It is filling in around it. The four cafes and shops most residents already have in rotation are still doing their same job:
- Dixie Cream Cafe for breakfast, brunch, and homemade pies, with a patio steps from Town Square Park
- Paloma Coffee Co. for the morning coffee crowd
- Allen's Creamery for after-dinner ice cream on the walk back to the car
- Tim's Wine Market on Sundays for the free 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. tasting under Kinsey, the Windermere store's owner since 2022, with a downtown reputation as the heart of the Friday-night wine crowd across 700-plus selections
The Friday Farmers Market is the connective tissue. Every Friday from 9:00 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., the Town of Windermere's Downtown Business Committee closes the brick section of Main Street in front of Town Hall for produce, seafood, bread, local honey, hummus, coffee, cut flowers, and craft goods. The market runs year-round, including through summer and hurricane season when many Central Florida markets go dark. Leashed pets are welcome. Parking is on the west side of Main, and residents are asked not to park in front of homes just off the street.
A Friday Walk, Late 2026
Here is what the block can do in a single afternoon now, in a way it could not do a year ago:
- 9:15 a.m. Farmers Market at Town Square Park, 520 Main Street, for produce and pastries
- 10:30 a.m. Cappuccino and a cornetto at Fresco's counter
- 11:15 a.m. Errands at Ace Hardware and Victoria Jewelers inside the redevelopment
- Noon Lunch pickup at Fresco or a sandwich home
- 4:30 p.m. Wine tasting at Tim's on Sundays, or a members-only pour at Solvino during the week
- 6:00 p.m. Italian-style beer from Windermere Brewing paired with a wood-fired pizza on the dining side
That is a full-day loop that starts and ends within a two-block walk. It did not exist in 2023.
The Thing Newcomers Miss
The town of Windermere is roughly two square miles with around 3,400 residents inside the incorporated boundary. Almost every regional food guide points out that the "Windermere dining scene" most people experience is really a four-cluster geography: Main Street, The Grove at Isleworth, Cornerstone at Summerport, and a ten-minute drive east to Restaurant Row in Dr. Phillips.
What the redevelopment is doing, quietly, is thickening the Main Street cluster to the point where it can hold its own without a car trip. That does not turn Windermere into Winter Garden's Plant Street. It is not supposed to. The intent from the people who built it was to keep the pace slow, keep the operators local, and let the block breathe. Whether that holds as leases turn over will be the real test.
For anyone shopping homes near the Butler Chain, Isleworth, or Keene's Pointe, the practical implication is small but real. The walkable food radius from a Main Street-adjacent address just got wider, and the operator quality just got deeper. That shows up in listings that mention "walk to downtown" as more than a marketing phrase.
If you are thinking about how a Main Street-adjacent Windermere home fits your life, or how these changes might read into a listing you are preparing for the market, Abe Mendez is available for a private consultation and a free home valuation. Bring the questions. The block will still be here.
