7 Florida Publix Locations Worth Going Out of Your Way For
There’s a Civil War cemetery in the parking lot of a Publix in Orlando, fenced off and kept up under a condition written into the land sale.
Publix opened its first store in Winter Haven in 1930 and runs nearly 900 across Florida today.
Many of those stores follow the same blueprint.
These are the Florida Publix locations worth going out of your way for.
1. Silverleaf Market, St. Augustine
Publix opened Silverleaf Market in St. Augustine on March 26, 2026, and the store measures 55,701 square feet.
The Jax Daily Record called it the largest grocery store in Northeast Florida.
Publix lists a Pours cafe serving beer, wine and coffee, a Publix Liquors, a pharmacy drive-thru, and counters for burritos, bowls, pizza and pasta.
There’s a specialty popcorn station too.
Publix lists deli, produce, bakery, meat and seafood departments inside as well.
That’s a lot of store.
Publix marked the opening by giving $5,000 in non-perishable food to a St. Johns County hunger charity.
2. Town Center at O-Town West, Orlando
Publix built its Town Center store in Orlando’s O-Town West development around a landmark it didn’t put there.
A fenced Civil War cemetery sits inside the parking lot, holding the graves of two Union soldiers.
They’re Washington Ludwig of the First New York Light Artillery and Charles H. Foster of the Third Massachusetts Cavalry, and the plot runs a little over 500 square feet.
Scott Henderson, a former land planner, looked after the graves for about 30 years starting in the 1970s before he sold the land to a developer.
The buyer agreed to raise a memorial obelisk, put up a wrought iron fence and maintain the plot permanently.
Publix opened the store on Daryl Carter Parkway in December 2022.
Two graves, one parking lot.
You get a piece of Civil War history with your grocery run.
3. Publix at Bay Street, Sarasota
Publix at Bay Street in Sarasota has an escalator that carries your shopping cart down to the parking lot.
Sarasota Magazine, ranking the area’s stores in November 2023, called the ride “just plain fun.”
Publix opened the Bay Street store in November 2011, a short drive from downtown Sarasota.
The cart rides down.
Psst! How much do you know about Publix’s history? Take our quiz and see how many you can get right.
Quiz
Publix History IQ
Answer these questions on Publix’s history, from its slogan to its stock. We bet you can’t get them all right. Prove us wrong?
A Fleming Island man claims he invented the Chicken Tender Pub Sub. What does Publix’s paperwork show?
4. Lake Miriam Square, Lakeland
Publix reopened its Lake Miriam Square store in Lakeland on November 13, 2025, after a rebuild that took 16 months.
The replacement measures 55,701 square feet, the same size as Silverleaf Market.
A second-story mezzanine looks down over the aisles and holds cafe seating and Wi-Fi, and a Pours counter serves beer, wine, coffee, tea, smoothies and acai bowls.
The building Publix knocked down had opened as a Food World in 1977.
Publix rebuilt on the same site rather than moving the store down the road.
Publix hung a mural from the old Grove Park store inside the new one.
Sixteen months, same lot.
Why New Publix Stores Look Like This
Publix ran a separate store banner called GreenWise Market for years, and in 2023 it began converting the last eight of those stores back to the standard Publix name.
Publix said its shoppers liked what the specialty banner offered but wanted it in a more traditional setting.
The company said it would carry some of what it learned into a new store design it calls the 55.3 prototype, and it named the Pours section as one example.
That's why Lake Miriam Square and Silverleaf Market both landed at 55,701 square feet, and why both have a Pours bar near the front.
5. Publix at Lauderdale Beach, Fort Lauderdale
Publix at Lauderdale Beach opened on North Ocean Boulevard in Fort Lauderdale on June 19, 2025, a few steps from the sand.
The store measures 29,495 square feet, a little more than half the size of Lake Miriam Square and Silverleaf Market.
Publix still fits a scratch bakery, a deli carrying more than 200 artisan cheeses and a seafood counter with fresh, never frozen whole fish into that footprint.
Sushi gets made there daily, and the meat case carries the GreenWise all-natural and organic chicken.
The produce section carries locally grown items alongside more exotic choices.
Small footprint, whole store.
6. Monza Avenue, Coral Gables
Publix has run its Monza Avenue store in Coral Gables since August 8, 1963.
That's well over half the time Publix has existed, and the company only took the Publix Super Market name in 1940.
It's an older building, and the footprint sets what the store can hold.
Coral Gables has newer Publix stores within a few minutes' drive, including Riviera Plaza on South Dixie Highway, which opened in September 2025.
Sixty-three years, one corner.
7. Shoppes at Bay Isles, Longboat Key
Publix keeps a store at the Shoppes at Bay Isles out on Longboat Key, and it opened there in December 2012.
Longboat Key is a barrier island, so anyone driving in from the mainland crosses a bridge to get there.
Sarasota Magazine ranked it first among ten Publix stores across Sarasota and Manatee counties in November 2023.
The magazine pointed to a deli overflowing with artisanal cheeses and gourmet grab-and-go items, then to a wine department with a wine steward on hand.
It described high-end whites, reds and Champagnes of the sort usually kept behind a restaurant list.
That's worth the bridge.
A wine steward isn't standard at a supermarket.
That's what put the store at the top of the list.
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