For most of the last decade, the shortest description of Snell Isle went something like this: a residential island wrapped in water, with a golf course at its heart and a grand pink resort at its neck. The resort was a landmark you drove past on the way downtown. It hosted weddings. You waved at it.
That description no longer fits. The Vinoy has finished the first phases of a comprehensive renovation, joined Marriott's Autograph Collection, and, in doing so, quietly reset what a walkable evening on the north side of downtown feels like. If you own a home here, the practical effect is that your front porch just got a lot more interesting, and your weekday routines have more choices than they did eighteen months ago.
The signature room is finally back
Marchand's Bar & Grill, the resort's flagship dining room, closed in 2020 and sat dormant while the property's ownership planned what came next. What came next is Elliott Aster, a sophisticated Italian steak and seafood concept developed in collaboration with the Chicago-based Boka Restaurant Group, led by Michelin-award-winning Chef Lee Wolen, a 2025 James Beard Award semifinalist. The restaurant opened on May 20th at 501 5th Avenue Northeast inside the historic waterfront resort.
Two details matter here for anyone who lives inside the Snell Isle Boulevard bridge.
First, the room itself has been reworked from the ground up. Once the property's original dining hall, the space has been reimagined into an elegant lounge, dining room, and private dining space, with a menu highlighting wood-fired steaks, handcrafted pastas, fresh seafood, and a signature antipasti bar, with weekend brunch offered every Saturday and Sunday. Weekend brunch is the standout. Snell Isle has never lacked for Sunday morning options if you were willing to drive to Beach Drive. Having one at the neck of the island changes the calculus of a slow weekend.
Second, this is not a hotel restaurant trying to become a locals' room. It was designed as both. The Glazers envision Elliott Aster as both a destination for milestone celebrations and an approachable dining option for those seeking a casual bowl of pasta on a weeknight. That intent shows up in the two-entrance layout, one through the lobby and one from the outdoor terrace, which the resort's ownership has taken to calling the hotel's front porch to the city.
Michelin's own recognition followed. Coverage of the property now consistently notes that Elliott Aster is a Michelin Recommended restaurant, a designation that did not exist for anything within a mile of Snell Isle Boulevard a year ago.
Lottie is the change you will actually notice first
The room that matters most for daily life, though, is smaller and near the front door. Lottie has made its debut just inside the main doors, an incredible French patisserie that welcomes guests as soon as they step inside with a wraparound café just to the left of the main entrance, with house-made pastries and elevated takes on classic French lunch fare, as well as a full coffee bar serving La Colombe coffee.
If you are the kind of Snell Isle resident who walks or bikes across the bridge for coffee, the practical shift is this: for years, a good espresso required a full trip to Beach Drive or Central. Now it requires a stop at the Vinoy's lobby. La Colombe is a national roaster, not a national chain, and its presence at the front of a resort that also houses a Michelin Recommended restaurant is a fair signal of where the property is aiming.
Where Parasol went, and what to do about it in August
One planning note that matters right now. Parasol is temporarily closed from July 6, 2026, to August 31, 2026. During this time, guests are invited to dine at Paul's Landing.
Parasol is the resort's poolside restaurant, and its temporary closure is worth knowing about if you have guests visiting in August who wanted the tropical poolside afternoon. The redirect is not a downgrade. Paul's Landing sits at the marina and works well as a lunch stop after a morning on the water. Between now and Labor Day weekend, that is where the poolside crowd will land.
Here is the full picture of what is currently open across the property, and what each room is for:
| Room | Concept | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Elliott Aster | Italian steak and seafood, Chef Lee Wolen | Anniversary dinners, weekend brunch |
| Lottie | French patisserie and La Colombe coffee | Morning walk-in, quick lunch |
| Paul's Landing | Local seafood, old-Florida flavors | Marina-side lunch, poolside stand-in through August |
| The Veranda | Small bites and craft cocktails on the front porch | Golden-hour drinks in a rocking chair |
| Parasol | Latin-inspired poolside dining | Reopens September 1 |
The Vinoy's new luxury fashion boutique, Sunni Spencer, is also now open if you find yourself with an hour before dinner.
What the design team actually did to the building
For homeowners who care about the architectural through-line of the neighborhood, the renovation team is worth naming. The Vinoy's comprehensive renovation was led by architecture and design firm Rockwell Group, with Hart Howerton as architect of record, embodying the ethos of Autograph Collection Hotels selected on four curatorial principles: product vision, heartfelt design, dedication to craft, and sense of place.
You can read the sense-of-place instinct in the details. The grand ballroom's iconic Chihuly chandelier has been restored, with a lush walled garden installed outside the ballroom's arched windows, and the pool terrace has been upgraded with cabanas and sun loungers. None of that reads as generic Marriott-flag polish, which was the risk when the Autograph Collection deal was announced.
If your own house is Mediterranean Revival or takes cues from Snell Isle's 1920s vocabulary, the interesting exercise is walking through the renovated lobby and seeing where the design team leaned into that same era rather than papering over it.
What is quietly happening just outside the resort
The Vinoy is the loud story, but the routines that make Snell Isle feel like Snell Isle are unchanged and worth restating in one place.
- Fourth-Tuesday kayaking at Coffee Pot Park. Kayaking is on the fourth Tuesday of every month from 6 to 7 PM at Coffee Pot Park, 1st St. NE and 31st Ave. NE. Admission is free, and pre-registration is required as class size is limited to 12 participants max. The next two dates you can plan around are August 25 and September 22. Registration goes through the City of St. Pete's parks staff, and it fills.
- Coffee Pot Park itself. The playground provides a space for children, a picnic shelter offers a spot for families to gather, and the park features a boat ramp and kayak ramp for easy access to the water. This is the neighborhood's soft edge with Old Northeast, and the Waterfront Parks Foundation covers its full history if you want to hand a link to a friend who is visiting.
- Flora Wylie's sundial. Flora Wylie Park is home to 11.4 acres on the waterfront and offers views of Tampa Bay along its recreation trails, and is known for its Centennial Sundial, sculpted by Eric Higgs for the 2010 St. Petersburg centennial celebration. Most residents pass it on runs without ever stopping to read the plaque.
- Vinoy Park events, two miles from your driveway. Home to festivals, concerts, and sporting events, Vinoy Park is only two miles from Snell Isle and offers open green space and bay views, plus recreational trails along the waterfront.
- The Panther. Snell Isle residents are treated to multiple events monthly, advertised in the Property Owner Association publication, The Panther, with recent events including the AIPOA Annual Holiday Gathering, Santa in the Park, the golf cart parade, and the first Food Truck Friday. If you moved here inside the last two years and are not on the POA distribution, ask a neighbor how to get on it.
For a longer look at how the water itself shapes a week here, our boater's guide to Snell Isle and Coffee Pot Bayou walks through routes and put-in points, and the Snell Isle neighborhood page covers the broader context around the island.
Why any of this matters for people who already live here
The temptation with a renovation story is to treat it as a real estate signal. Fine dining opens, values rise, and so on. That framing misses the point for current residents.
The more honest read is that a set of habits that used to require crossing the causeway are now available at the base of Snell Isle Boulevard. Morning coffee. A weeknight pasta. Saturday brunch. A drink on the porch at 5:30 without a reservation because you walked. For the last several years, those habits had to be built downtown or on Beach Drive. They can now be built at home, in the sense that home includes the resort you drive past on the way in.
The other quiet effect is on the shoulders of the day. The Veranda Patio stretches the full length of the lobby, with cocktails and live entertainment, and Paul's Landing serves local seafood and smoked meat, named after William Paul, the carpenter of a naval surveying expedition tasked with finding the best site for a seaside railroad depot. That kind of programming pulls the neighborhood out of the 7-to-9 dinner window and back into a full-day rhythm.
The rest of the calendar is where the neighborhood does its work. Fourth-Tuesday kayaking. The next POA gathering. A quiet loop around Flora Wylie before it gets hot. Those things have not changed. What has changed is the option, on any given Tuesday, to end the walk with an espresso instead of a drive.
If you are thinking about how any of this affects the value or presentation of your own Snell Isle home, or you are curious what the recent Vinoy-adjacent activity has done to the market at the north end of the island, the team at Pedone Elite is happy to talk it through. Schedule a free consultation and we will bring the numbers, the context, and an honest read on what your property looks like against the backdrop of the neighborhood as it stands right now.
