Walk 9th Avenue North on a Thursday evening and the block reads differently than it did two summers ago. A breakfast spot with a line out the door on weekends. A Brazilian bar with string lights and a soccer match on the TV. A dessert counter. A wine bar with four tables. None of it looks like much from a car window, which is the point. This stretch was never built to be seen from a car window. It was built, slowly and in pieces over about two years, for people who already live close enough to walk it.
That patience is finally paying off. What used to be a scattered handful of storefronts opening one at a time, disconnected from each other, now functions as an actual loop: breakfast, dinner, a drink, dessert, and on the right night, live music two blocks over. The businesses that make up that loop share one trait that matters more than any of their individual menus. None of them were built big enough to need a parking lot, and that turns out to be the whole reason they exist here at all.
What Actually Filled In
Winna's Kitchen anchors the block at 507 9th Avenue North, known around town for lemon ricotta toast and shrimp and grits. Owner Jess Sagun opened this second location while the original Main Street spot goes through renovation, with plans to eventually run both at once. That detail matters more than it sounds like it should: a second Winna's means a shorter wait on a Saturday morning for anyone who has stood in line at the first one.
A few doors down, Boteco VIP brought Brazilian food and a livelier bar scene to the same stretch when it opened in August 2024. Owner Fabiana Olivera set out to bring a piece of home to the beach, and the space runs on a schedule built for regulars rather than tourists passing through: open seven days a week from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m., stretching to 11 p.m. Thursday through Saturday.
The Dolly Llama filled in with desserts and waffles. The Tasting Room on 9th brought a slower pace, wine by the glass, small plates meant for sitting rather than grabbing. Nance Plaza, just off the same corridor, now hosts seasonal concerts, which means live music without driving out to Broadway at the Beach.
| Stop | What it does for the block |
|---|---|
| Winna's Kitchen (507 9th Ave N) | Breakfast and lunch, now with a second location easing weekend waits |
| Boteco VIP | Brazilian bar and kitchen, open daily on a neighborhood schedule |
| The Dolly Llama | Dessert stop that caps off a night without a drive |
| The Tasting Room on 9th | Wine and small plates for slowing down |
| Nance Plaza | Seasonal concerts within walking distance |
Small on Purpose
None of this happened by accident, and it did not happen because a single developer decided the block needed a food hall. It happened because the city removed the one requirement that usually keeps small storefronts empty.
In December 2020, Myrtle Beach City Council adopted the Arts & Innovation District, a zoning designation covering Main Street, Broadway Street, Oak Street, and 9th Avenue North across roughly 155 parcels. One of the district's defining features has nothing to do with art or innovation directly: there is no minimum parking requirement. The market decides how much parking a business needs, not a zoning formula written for a strip mall.
That single change explains why a narrow storefront that sat empty for years could become a wine bar or a breakfast counter without anyone having to buy up a lot next door for parking. Compare that to what else opened across the Grand Strand this year. Ole Smoky Distillery and Yee-Haw Brewing Co. opened a 40,000-square-foot combination distillery, brewery, and live music venue at Broadway at the Beach in May 2026. Guy Fieri's Downtown Flavortown is planned at roughly 50,000 square feet inside the former JC Penney at Myrtle Beach Mall. Those projects need acreage and a regional draw to justify their footprint. Winna's needs a griddle and a line that moves.
The Loop, Block by Block
Here is what that difference in scale actually buys someone who lives within walking distance. Breakfast at Winna's on a Saturday, no longer stuck behind the entire Main Street crowd since there are now two locations splitting the wait. An early dinner at Boteco VIP before it fills in for the evening crowd on a Thursday. A glass of wine and something small at The Tasting Room on 9th afterward. Dessert at The Dolly Llama to close it out. On a weekend when Nance Plaza has a show booked, that becomes the whole evening, start to finish, without anyone getting in a car.
None of these businesses would draw a visitor from three states away on their own. Together, within four or five blocks, they add up to something a downtown resident can actually use on a random weeknight, which is a different kind of success than the one measured in tourism dollars.
Two Blocks Down, One More Stop Is Coming
The next piece of this loop is still under construction, and it has a longer story behind it than a typical restaurant build-out. At 807, 809, and 811 Main Street, the city is restoring three buildings dating to 1938: the old Helen Mates Dress Shop, the J&J Drug Shop next door, and the original Broadway Theater itself. The City of Myrtle Beach broke ground in July 2024 in partnership with Coastal Carolina University, and the plan calls for a 300-seat venue with a lobby, a performers' lounge, dressing rooms, and a rooftop patio, targeted for a grand opening this summer.
Once that opens, the loop gets a fifth stop within walking distance of everything already on 9th Avenue: a place to end an evening with a show instead of driving out to the Carolina Opry or Broadway at the Beach for entertainment.
The Construction Starting the Same Month
Here is the part that will actually affect how you use this street over the next few weeks. Crews have been working through the Arts & Innovation District all summer, currently finishing underground utility and sewer improvements on Oak Street near 10th Avenue North, a phase the city expects to wrap by August 31. The next phase, set to begin in September, moves directly onto 9th Avenue North between Kings Highway and Oak Street, the exact stretch these five businesses call home. City officials say they have been meeting with the business owners along that block to keep them informed as work begins.
So the timing lands in an odd but telling way. The loop just finished coming together after two years of scattered openings, and now the same block goes back under construction right as the season turns. That is not a reason to avoid the street. It is a reason to expect the fall version of this loop to look a little different than the summer one, with some sidewalk work in progress even as the businesses on either side of it stay open through it.
By the time that phase wraps and the theater finishes down at Main, 9th Avenue North will have both a finished street and a finished loop for the first time since any of this started. Anyone who has watched the storefronts fill in one at a time already knows how long that took to get here.
If you already call downtown Myrtle Beach home and you're curious how changes like these tend to ripple through a neighborhood over time, from foot traffic patterns to what a corner storefront can support, that's the kind of local read Larisa Esmat tracks closely. Let's Connect — Book a Consultation, or just say hello next time you're in line at Winna's.
