A sprawling new dining and entertainment venue is taking shape in Lakewood Ranch, and it comes with a tiki bar, a giant lawn stage and the kind of backyard games that made its sister restaurant a Fort Myers hit. Backyard Social is building its second location at 6400 Professional Parkway in Sarasota County, just south of the Urban Air Adventure Park that opened on the same stretch of road.
According to bradenton.com, the Lakewood Ranch venue will include a private event space, food trucks, a built-in coffee shop and a larger lawn area built for local and national touring bands. The project sits on Professional Parkway inside Lakewood Ranch Corporate Park, a detail confirmed by mysuncoast.com after residents raised questions about the proposal.
The company's flagship site is in Fort Myers, where it first opened in 2023 with food trucks, drinks and backyard-style entertainment, the report notes. On its own website, Backyard Social describes the concept as a fusion of dining, live music and gaming entertainment set in an outdoor environment, and the Fort Myers location carries that through with lawn games like giant Jenga and Connect Four, according to the Sarasota Herald-Tribune.
What's Planned for the Lawn and Stage
Construction on the Sarasota County side of Lakewood Ranch is already underway, with the one-story building expected to run about 12,500 square feet, per the same account from Your Observer. The outdoor lawn is designed around a tiki bar and a 6,000-square-foot stage meant to host live music, following the format the company has already established with a full bar, food trucks, games and live entertainment.
Backyard Social plans to keep the venue open to all ages until 9 p.m., after which admission shifts to patrons 21 and older, the outlet reports. That age cutoff mirrors how the Fort Myers location operates and signals the Lakewood Ranch site is meant to serve both families earlier in the evening and an adult crowd once the sun goes down.
A Timeline Still Taking Shape
Exactly when doors will open remains unsettled. One report from bradenton.com cites the company as targeting early 2027, while Backyard Social's own website lists the Lakewood Ranch expansion as planned for winter 2027. The Sarasota Herald-Tribune, meanwhile, has reported a January 2027 target for the venue, which the paper describes as the company's second location overall.
The project adds to a cluster of entertainment options rising on the Sarasota County side of Lakewood Ranch. Your Observer has reported that the nearby SkyTrack Family Entertainment Center is planned to include go-karts, more than 85 arcade and virtual-reality games, a 16-lane bowling alley, indoor mini-golf, a restaurant, two bars and an outdoor stage. Urban Air Adventure Park, with its trampolines, slides and climbing walls, already opened along the same corridor.
The area has also drawn other dining concepts in recent years. Agave Bandido opened at Waterside Place in Lakewood Ranch as the Mexican restaurant's second location after its original spot in Pembroke Pines, according to bradenton.com's earlier coverage. Between that restaurant, Urban Air, SkyTrack and now Backyard Social, Professional Parkway and the surrounding corridor are increasingly shaping up as a dining and entertainment hub for the growing Lakewood Ranch community.
