"This is one of our few 'third places' in the Grove, where you can gather and not have to pay to exist," a Coconut Grove resident of 25 years told the Coconut Grove Spotlight in August.
He was talking about Fuller Street, the short pedestrian block between Main Highway and Grand Avenue. This year it has become the place where the village center is working out how its shared space gets used. The block is about to be rebuilt from the ground up. Before that happens, the tables already sitting on it carry a rule many neighbors have never heard of. Over the next few weeks the street also hosts a pumpkin patch, a Halloween night, and the last full fall season before construction is expected to start.
The Rule That Comes With Every Permitted Table
Miami lets restaurants and other food businesses apply for permits to put tables and chairs in the public right of way. Those permits come with a condition. In the city code's words, as quoted by the Spotlight:
A permitted sidewalk or street cafe "shall be opened for use by the general public," and its use "shall not be restricted to patrons of the permittee."
So under the code, a permitted café table on Fuller Street is public seating. A business pays for the permit and puts out the furniture, but the city doesn't give it exclusive use of the space. You can read Miami's full Code of Ordinances on Municode. The site notes that its online version may lag behind the city's latest legislation.
The rule drew attention on Fuller this year as the Spotlight followed the block's seating permits. As of mid-August, city records showed two valid outdoor-seating permits on the street, one for Barracuda Taphouse & Grill and one for Grove Grocer at 3098 Fuller St. Grove Grocer's permit covers 16 tables and 32 chairs on 270 square feet of public right of way. A third permit, for Ziggurat x Chèvre at 3065 Fuller St., was approved on Friday, August 14. Chug's Diner and Chuggie's also face the street, so the block now has dining tables down most of its length.
This is general information about a city rule, not legal advice. Anyone with a question about a specific permit or space should check with the City of Miami directly.
How a Side Street Became the Village Center's Gathering Place
The block first closed to cars in 2020 as a COVID-era outdoor-dining measure. By June 2021, as emergency orders were winding down, locals were pushing to keep it closed. Barracuda owner Lee Kessler told WLRN he had worked with the City of Miami and Miami-Dade County to make the closure happen.
The temporary fix became permanent in stages. In 2021 the Coconut Grove Business Improvement District hired Local Office Landscape and Urban Design to draw up a concept for a permanent street. In January 2025, Miami-Dade County approved closing Fuller to vehicles for good. That followed a December vote by the BID board to support the initiative and help pay for it, as the Spotlight reported that February.
Outdoor dining grew along with the street's popularity. Last December, the organizers of the GroveHouseArtists ArtWalk ended their monthly gatherings on Fuller, saying there was no longer enough room to stage the event. Five years after it closed to cars, the block is busy enough that its space is planned event by event.
Harvest Week Uses the Street the Old Way
For ten days this fall, the BID turns Fuller Street into a seasonal stage. Coconut Grove Harvest runs from October 23 through November 1, with a pumpkin patch set up on Fuller Street the whole time. All weekend, CocoWalk adds a fall photo spot.
The main event is on Halloween itself, Saturday, October 31, from 6 to 8 p.m. The BID's event listing sets the evening out like this:
| Time | What's happening | Where |
|---|---|---|
| 6:00 p.m. | Halloween storytime | Books & Books Coconut Grove |
| 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. | Trick-or-treating through the Grove | Village center |
| 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. | Halloween scavenger hunt | Village center |
| 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. | Live DJ | Fuller Street |
| 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. | Fantasy Theatre Factory, "Little Monsters Tales" | Fuller Street |
| 7:30 p.m. | Costume contest | Fuller Street |
If your Halloween leans more toward a cocktail than a costume contest, Regatta Grove at 3415 Pan American Drive holds Fangtasia on October 30 and 31, with music and drinks in its waterfront gathering space.
For Fuller, Harvest week is the clearest example of the block working as the shared space the rebuild is meant to make permanent. A children's theater show and a costume contest need open pavement, and on October 31 Fuller makes room for both alongside the cafés that line it.
What the Pavers Will Change
The next version of Fuller Street is already designed and paid for. On June 25, 2026, Miami commissioners approved final plans for a $5 million makeover of Fuller Street and nearby Kirk Munroe Park. The city is putting in $3 million. The other $2 million comes from Allen Morris Company, developer of the five-story Ziggurat mixed-use building on Grand Avenue, which will also manage construction. Miami Today reported that the Ziggurat project won city approval in December 2025 and broke ground in January.
On Fuller, the plan raises the old roadway to sidewalk level and replaces the asphalt with stone pavers, new trees and landscaping. The work runs from Main Highway to Grand Avenue and includes decorative pavers, specimen trees, signage, road reconstruction and drainage upgrades. The design went through three public meetings this year before a final presentation on May 21. The BID gave its required approval to the Fuller Street portion in July.
Kirk Munroe Park gets the rest of the money. The plans call for:
- Resurfacing, striping and fencing the existing tennis courts, rebuilding the hitting wall, and exterior improvements to the tennis center
- A new children's play area, a pavilion and a great lawn
- Landscaping, water features and decorative perimeter fencing
- Wood decking beneath the park's banyan tree
The two sites are meant to connect. In late 2024, Allen Morris CEO Spencer Morris described the Fuller redesign to the Spotlight as part of a larger "paseo." It would run from Main Highway across Grand Avenue and through the company's building to Kirk Munroe Park on Oak Avenue, lined with shops and cafés.
As of the June approval, construction was expected to start next summer, which means summer 2027. City officials have said outdoor seating will stay a key part of Fuller Street after the redesign. That ties the rebuild back to the seating rule. The new block will be finished in stone and planted with specimen trees, and it will almost certainly still have café tables. Under the code, a permitted table there is open to the public whether or not you're a customer, before construction and after it.
This Fall, on the Block as It Stands
For now, Fuller is still the street that came out of a 2020 emergency closure: asphalt, the tables from Barracuda Taphouse & Grill, Grove Grocer, Chug's Diner, Chuggie's and Ziggurat x Chèvre, and room for a pumpkin patch through November 1. A short walk away, Miami Slice opened on August 12 at 2996 McFarlane Road, its fourth location and its first in the Grove, with dine-in service and wood-fired additions to the menu. Halloween on Fuller this year falls on a Saturday evening, with storytime at 6 p.m. and the costume contest at 7:30 p.m.
The Fuller Street rebuild will change how the village center feels day to day, and for many Grove homeowners that matters when they think about where they live and what comes next. If you'd like to talk through how projects like Fuller Street and the Ziggurat are reshaping Coconut Grove, the Marilyn Cromer Team would be glad to hear from you. Request a Private Consultation.
