"A place you can get your veggies, pick up your bread for dinner − anything you might want." That is how Rishy Studer described the plan for the ground floor of Savoy Place to the Pensacola News Journal in March 2025. She added, "Our wish is just to activate this area."
Eighteen months later, the plan is open for business. In the week of August 17, 2026, two Belmont-DeVilliers buildings that had each waited years for the right tenants opened to the public. Foxtail Coffee Co. opened in a century-old Sinclair gas station on West Jackson Street. A few days later, six businesses on the ground floor of Savoy Place celebrated a joint grand opening. In the same Friday window, the Blocks gained a coffee counter, a bakery café, a farm-to-table kitchen, a bowl shop, a confectioner, a yoga studio and a farm vendor.
The ground floor that waited six years
Savoy Place, the Studer Properties apartment building at the corner of DeVilliers and Wright streets, opened in 2020. Retail on the lower level was always part of the original plan. The PNJ reported that the pandemic and rising construction costs made it hard to sign retailers.
The first tenant was set in early 2025. Great Harvest Bread Company was expected to open in July 2025 and serve breakfast, lunch and coffee, with planned hours of 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday. At that point no other retailer had signed a lease. Studer described a wish list that included a wine bar serving tapas, a sweet and savory bakery, a yoga studio, a gelato cart, and plant and produce stands.
The July 2025 date passed. The businesses arrived during the summer of 2026 instead, and the PNJ described Savoy Marketplace as "stirring up excitement all summer" as one new business after another joined. Comparing the 2025 wish list with the 2026 roster shows how much of the plan made it. A bakery, a yoga studio and a farm vendor all opened, and the wine-and-tapas idea now has a farm-to-table restaurant with a wine list.
Who actually moved in
Local Pulse listed six businesses for the joint grand opening on Friday, August 21, 2026, held from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the corner of West Wright Street and North DeVilliers Street.
| Business | What it is | Detail from opening coverage |
|---|---|---|
| Great Harvest Bakery Café | Bakery and café | Gave a free loaf of Honey Whole Wheat to the first 50 customers on opening day |
| Sage in Bloom | Farm-to-table restaurant | Run by chef Ian Whitcomb and his wife, Stacy; open by mid-July 2026 |
| Sugar Bird's Sweet Confections | Sweets | Served passed hors d'oeuvres with Sage in Bloom at the opening |
| Sweet Blessing Café | Build-your-own bowls | Owned by Gus Rodriguez and Nicole Burford |
| Bliss Yoga & Mindfulness Studio | Yoga and mindfulness classes | Raffled a free class and a membership at the opening |
| Aliff Acres Farm | Local farm vendor | Part of the opening-day lineup |
Sage in Bloom opened before the others. The PNJ reported it open at Savoy Marketplace in a July 13 story about what to order there. At the August celebration, Sage in Bloom ran an all-day happy hour with half-price bottles from its wine list.
Sweet Blessing Café at 301 N. DeVilliers St. had the most detailed menu coverage. According to the PNJ's September roundup of new restaurants, customers build their own bowls from a choice of bases, proteins, toppings and sauces. Chicken, pork and beef are roasted low and slow overnight in Caribbean-style recipes, and Rodriguez said Puerto Rican herbs are his secret ingredient. Toppings include pico de gallo, pickled onions, roasted corn and crispy jalapeños. The café makes ten sauces in-house, from a creamy sofrito sauce to a mango vinaigrette made with Honduran mango pulp. At opening, the café also offered a standing 15% discount for Savoy tenants, first responders and military members. For the many military households around NAS Pensacola, it's worth asking at the counter whether that discount is still offered.
Across the neighborhood, a Sinclair station with a coffee bar
The second building took even longer. Amir Michael Fooladi, president and CEO of ParsCo Construction, bought the old Sinclair gas station at 500 W. Jackson St. years ago, according to the PNJ's June 2026 report. The building is listed as Motor Inn Number 2. He registered it with the National Register of Historic Places and restored it for a new tenant.
That tenant turned out to be Foxtail Coffee Co. It opened quietly to the public on August 19, 2026, and held its ribbon cutting on August 21. That is the same Friday as the Savoy celebration. The café covers 1,924 square feet. The menu goes beyond coffee:
- Small-batch roasted coffee and espresso drinks
- Breakfast sandwiches and pressed paninis
- Teas and baked goods
- Handcrafted gelato, with six affogato pairings
The gelato matters for the neighborhood mix. Gelato was on Studer's 2025 wish list for Savoy Place. It ended up at the restored gas station instead. Taken together, the two buildings cover more of that original list than either one does alone.
The name on the corner
Savoy Place takes its name from the Savoy Ballroom, a famed two-story nightclub that, in the PNJ's words, "provided a safe space for Black artists." The Savoy and the neighboring Abe's 506 Club were stops on the Chitlin' Circuit. That network of venues brought Ray Charles, James Brown, Aretha Franklin and Louis Armstrong to Belmont-DeVilliers. The ballroom was a destination in the 1940s and 1950s. Later it sat vacant and in disrepair until it was torn down in the 1990s.
That history explains how Studer framed the 2025 plan. Her stated goal for the ground floor was to "activate this area" and encourage others to move in. A building named for a place where people once gathered now has tenants that open at breakfast.
A Sunday that already had an anchor
The new daytime businesses join a neighborhood regular. Five Sisters Blues Café at 421 W. Belmont St. lists a Sunday Jazz Brunch every week from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Its weekday hours run from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Thursday and until 10 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays. A Sunday on the Blocks can now start with an affogato on West Jackson, continue with brunch on West Belmont and end with a loaf of bread from DeVilliers to take home.
Check before you head out this weekend. The Five Sisters website posted a storm notice saying all Great Southern Restaurants locations will close Friday, October 9, and Saturday, October 10, 2026, because of the approaching storm. The restaurant asks guests to follow its social media pages for reopening updates. The newer businesses at The Savoy and on West Jackson may adjust their hours around the same weather. A quick call or a look at their pages will save you a wasted trip.
Cindy Zalar has spent 35 years as a Navy spouse and made 14 PCS moves, and she knows a new duty station starts to feel like home once you find your coffee counter and your Sunday spot. If you're settling into Pensacola and want a local who can tell you which neighborhoods have that kind of walkable routine, Cynthia Zalar would be glad to share what she knows. Let's Connect.
