Downtown workers and residents are familiar with the old bank building at Grace and Fourth streets changing owners, themes, menus and purpose. (Is it a nightclub this week or a Caribbean restaurant?)

But Scott Davison plans to be more permanent.

Aurora, the new bakery/restaurant opening in that spot in a few weeks, is a family-run affair, with Davison and his stepson, George Gapanovitch, handling the details.

The family are former owners of Java Mio coffeehouse in Petersburg and want to make the bakery at Aurora the initial focal point of their new venture.

"The bakery supports the restaurant, the bakery supports the bar, the bakery supports the nightclub," Davison said.

Initially, Aurora will open at 7 a.m. and offer customers gourmet pastries and coffee from a corner inside the giant space.

"My stuff is not typical to this area," Davison said. "Around here, 'sweet' is a flavor. We're going to be very health-oriented."

Davison's background includes such accolades as winning the Eastern European Culinary Olympics in Moscow in 1997, training under several master pastry chefs and creating such delicacies as an Asian Apple Napoleon while at The Hay-Adams Hotel. He said the bakery will do "aggressive sampling."

But Aurora isn't all about sugar and spice.

Lunch -- and eventually dinner -- will have a Mediterranean influence. A tentative bar menu includes Duck Confiture Spring Roll Sticks, an Anti Pasta Burger with pancetta and provolone, and Pork Carnitas served over seared polenta cake.

Gapanovitch says the idea for lunch is to have regular sit-down service Aurora will seat 150 -- and also a quick buffet, grab-and-go option.

Though a lunch menu is still being hammered out, Davison said with a smile, "we know we need to keep our [lunch] meals around $10."

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The Bass Pro Shops in Hanover County (intersection of I-95 and Lewistown Road) is now equipped with The Islamorada Fish Company.

The restaurant, a chain that began as a snack bar in the Florida Keys in the 1940s, is inside the Pro Shops. Customers enter from inside the store or a separate front entrance.

Considering its name, it's no surprise that the menu features shrimp, crab cakes, calamari, tuna and fried catfish, along with wild game offerings (venison, buffalo and alligator) and more traditional meat (steaks, rotisserie chicken).

For a complete menu, visit www.fishcompany.com.

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Shackleford's will celebrate its 15th anniversary Dec. 23, but the restaurant is starting the commemoration early with a new fall menu from executive chef Philip R. Barradell.

Some of the selections are Oysters Rockefeller, Norfolk Risotto (sautéed jumbo shrimp and lump crabmeat risotto with applewood smoked bacon, tarragon and fresh peas), Pork Roulade (sage and sausage stuffed pork loin served over a sweet potato galette with wilted spinach and finished with an apple balsamic reduction) and Zachary's Gingerbread Sundae (vanilla ice cream with homemade ginger caramel).

Shackleford's is in the Gleneagles Center, 10496 Ridgefield Parkway. For more information, visit www.shacklefords.com.

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Verbena will have its monthly wine dinner at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday. Wine from five vineyards from the Bordeaux region of France will be available for sampling.

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Open: Guido's in Kings Charter Shopping Center in Hanover.

Closed: Miss Hathaway's Café, on Forest Hill Avenue.

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