Most Villagers I talk to still picture Eastport as a construction fence with a rendering taped to it. That was fair a year ago. It is not fair in August 2026. The waterfront district on the south end of our hometown has quietly become a real place to spend a Friday night, and if you have not been down there since the ribbon cuttings started, you are routing your guests through the wrong squares.
Here is the shift worth understanding before you plan your next dinner out. Eastport is not a third Sawgrass Grove. It is the first town center in The Villages that was designed from the beginning around evening waterfront dining and a purpose-built music venue, and the pieces already open tell you exactly what kind of night it wants to host.
What Is Actually Open on the Water Tonight
Let's start with the short list, because the online chatter still mixes what is open with what is rendered. Here is the current cut, based on the most recent local reporting:
| Now open at Eastport | What it is |
|---|---|
| Prime & Embers Steakhouse | Upscale steaks, seafood, craft cocktails, patio seating over the water |
| Bellaire Executive Golf Course | Executive course opened November 5, 2025 |
| Portside Coffee Bar | Morning and midday coffee stop |
| Eastport Hotel | Opened January 9, 2026 with a Mediterranean restaurant and an ice-cream shop overlooking the lake and resort pool |
Prime & Embers is the newest concept from FMK Hospitality Group and delivers an upscale steakhouse experience with premium steaks, seafood, craft cocktails, and patio seating overlooking the water. That is the same group behind Bluefin and Harvest, so the reference point for a Villager deciding whether to try it is not "a new spot" but "the FMK team at a new water table." Bellaire Executive Golf Course began welcoming golfers on November 5 in the same district, which means you can play a round and stay for dinner without moving your golf car more than a few minutes.
The hotel is the piece most residents underestimate. The Eastport Hotel opened January 9, 2026, featuring a Mediterranean-style restaurant and an ice-cream shop overlooking the lake and resort pool. For anyone who has ever tried to figure out where to put out-of-town family during the holidays without asking them to drive in from Ocala or Leesburg, that changes the math entirely.
The Music Venue Almost Nobody Is Talking About Yet
This is the piece of Eastport I think gets buried in the restaurant coverage, and it is the one that should shape how you think about the district long term.
Eastport's new downtown district includes boutique shops, outdoor dining patios, and a covered live-music venue larger than Sawgrass Grove, with a mix of European charm and retro '70s design across the storefronts.
Read that again. Larger than Sawgrass Grove. If you have been to a Saturday night at Sawgrass, you know how packed that pavilion gets. A bigger covered stage on the water, with restaurants and patios already anchoring it, is the kind of infrastructure that quietly reshapes where the good bands play three years from now. The town squares are not going anywhere, but for a resident who cares about the entertainment calendar, Eastport is the venue to start watching. The Villages offers live entertainment 365 days a year, from performing arts centers to outdoor festivals to free entertainment on the squares each night, and Eastport is now part of that rotation rather than a preview of it.
How Eastport Fits Between the Three Squares You Already Know
The reason this matters for how you actually spend a weekend is that each of the three original squares has a personality residents have learned by heart. Spanish Springs is the original and most popular, with classic rock, country, and oldies bands, surrounded by restaurants and shops, and the liveliest atmosphere on weekends. Lake Sumter Landing has a more upscale feel with waterfront dining, jazz, acoustic, and variety acts, and a slightly calmer crowd in a lakeside setting. Brownwood is the newest square with a rustic-modern vibe, food trucks on weekends, craft breweries, and a younger-feeling energy.
Eastport slots in as something none of those three quite are: a destination waterfront square with a signature steakhouse, a hotel restaurant, and a music venue on one walkable footprint. One local guide describes the current dining scale as more limited than an established square and more destination-oriented than traditional square dining, with evenings noticeably busier than mornings. That is exactly the pattern residents should plan around. Coffee at Portside works. Lunch is thinner. Dinner and after is where the district is coming alive.
A Realistic Routing for Out-of-Town Guests
Here is the itinerary I would give a friend hosting family this fall, using only what is open now.
Morning: coffee at Portside, then either a walk along the Eastport waterfront or a tee time at Bellaire Executive. Late morning: drive up to Sawgrass Grove for a build-your-own bowl at Luma Mediterranean Kitchen, presented by FMK Restaurant Group in The Market at Sawgrass Grove, which opened in January and is a useful counter-programming stop between districts. Afternoon: pool time back at your villa or a browse through the Eastport boutique storefronts. Dinner: Prime & Embers on the patio. Evening: whatever is on the schedule at the covered venue, or dessert at the hotel's ice-cream shop if the music night is quiet.
That is a Villages weekend that did not exist eighteen months ago, and none of it requires leaving the community.
What Is Still Behind a Construction Fence
Before you set expectations for a visitor, know what is still to come. Peach Valley Café is opening a new location in Eastport, and Oak and Stone Craft Beer & Artisan Pizza is on the horizon with upscale tavern fare in a casual atmosphere. Eastport is also getting Lucky Goat Coffee and Tacos and Tequila. The district is opening in stages, with several restaurants active and additional retail and dining spaces still under construction, and there is no published final completion date at this time.
Translated: plan tonight around what is open, and check back every couple of months rather than assuming a rendering is a reservation.
A Few Other Openings Worth Putting on Your List
While Eastport is the headline, a couple of other 2026 openings across the community are worth knowing about because they change where your errands and casual dinners land.
A new restaurant offering coastal cuisine and curated cocktails, Zunzibar, opened in Middleton at 2310 Dr. Randy McDaniel Way, in the family community that is home to The Villages Charter School.
Zunzibar's menu leans seafood but includes loaded tater tots, a chicken club, and a chickpea shawarma wrap, and the restaurant also offers a late-night menu and takeout. A late-night option in the Middleton corridor is genuinely new information for most residents.
On the bagel front, Jeff's Bagel Run opened April 24 in Southern Trace Plaza, in the location that was the longtime home of Giovanni's Ristorante & Pizzeria. Jeff's Bagel Run originated in Central Florida and grew into eight locations, and the new spot in The Villages is part of a five-unit development agreement with franchisees Rob and Teresa Shuffield. If you have been driving to Ocala for a proper New York-style bagel, you can stop.
And on the grocery side, the Walmart Supercenter on SR-44 is wrapping up construction and is expected to open in March 2026, with a full gas station and multiple entrances for smoother traffic flow. That timeline has slipped past a few times, so treat any hard date with the usual grain of salt until the doors actually open.
What This Means for the Way You Use the Community
Here is the thesis one more time, sharpened by the specifics above. Eastport is not another square on the list. It is a purpose-built waterfront evening district with a signature steakhouse, a hotel restaurant, an executive golf course, and a music venue that is physically larger than the one at Sawgrass Grove. The Villages now has four evening centers instead of three, and each of them draws a different kind of night. The residents who figure that out first are the ones whose guests go home saying they had never seen anything like it.
If you are thinking about a move within The Villages, or a friend is asking you which side of the community to look in, the answer has genuinely changed in the last year. Eastport-adjacent villages read differently now than they did before Prime & Embers opened its patio and Bellaire started taking tee times.
If you are curious what your current home is worth in this shifting map, or you want to talk through which side of the community best fits the way you actually spend your weekends, Amanda Fincher knows every square, every new opening, and every villa street in between. Reach out any time for a straight, no-pressure conversation about your next move.
