October 8, 2026
"The commercial strip that seemingly never stops changing." That was how Palo Alto Online described California Avenue in early June. It wrote the line after a Thursday evening when electric guitars, giggling children and cheering politicians drifted past Joanie's Café to open the city's new concert series.
Four months later the street is changing again, and the change has to do with the clock. The last event in that Thursday series is on a Saturday at 10 a.m. Every other date on Cal Ave this October falls in the morning too, and so do the businesses lining up for its empty storefronts. The car-free stretch between El Camino Real and Birch Street is becoming a weekend-morning street.
Thursday Live began on May 28 with a car show. Maico and Franco Campilongo, who co-own iTalico and Terún on Cal Ave, curated a lineup of classic cars, and the night had two music stages, food, games and a photo booth. When the series launched, the plan was one event a month through September.
The City's event listing now shows the full run, and it got longer:
The Palo Alto Recreation Foundation and the City put on the series, with Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan, Stanford Research Park and the Palo Alto Weekly as sponsors. The Halloween date breaks from the pattern in two ways. It's on a weekend, and it runs from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. on the car-free block instead of in the evening. For Oct. 31 the City lists a photo booth sponsored by Stanford Research Park, orange drawstring bags and mini-pumpkin decorating. No Oktoberfest food or beer vendors have been announced yet, so plan on the street's regular restaurants until a list appears.
Put Cal Ave's October dates in sequence and they share a time of day. Every weekend this month has something before lunch, and two Saturdays add a second morning:
The pet parade comes with fine print. It's free, but pre-registration is required, so you can't just show up with a dog in a costume. The contest has three categories: Best Dressed/Costumed Pet, Most Unusual/Cutest Pet, and Best Pet Trick/Talent. Any well-behaved pet can enter, and so can a stuffed animal, which helps households without a pet. The City hasn't published a walking route beyond the address block.
Downtown keeps a similar morning rhythm a day earlier. The Downtown Palo Alto Farmers Market runs Saturdays from 8 a.m. to noon on Gilman Street between Forest and Hamilton, all year. On Oct. 17 and Oct. 31 you could visit the Gilman Street market early and still reach Cal Ave before the costumes come out.
The events are temporary. The leases aren't. Palo Alto Online's September roundup of upcoming cafes and bakeries lists three projects on or near Cal Ave, and all three are morning businesses.
Croissante, 321 California Ave. Owner Sean Kang told the paper the former Antonio's Nut House space probably won't stay empty much longer, and the roundup lists a late-November target. The Nut House, the dive bar it replaces, closed in 2020. Croissante was founded in Santa Clara in 2023 and opened in Los Gatos in 2024. It's known for cube-shaped croissants, croissants filled with fresh mango, and danishes filled with spinach artichoke dip. That address went from a bar to a bakery, from late-night business to early-morning business.
Arsicault Bakery, 388 Cambridge Ave. The San Francisco croissant bakery, which CEO Armando Lacayo started in 2015, is going into a new mixed-use building near California Avenue. At the end of 2025 the expected opening was September or October 2026. The September update moved it to the first quarter of 2027.
Backyard Brew, 444 California Ave. This coffee shop has been on Cal Ave since 2016 and closed temporarily in February 2025 over permit violations. Owner Ryan Khalil had hoped to reopen over the summer, but permitting has taken longer than expected. As of mid-September he planned to reopen about two months after permits are issued, and the date was still listed as to be announced. Its regulars knew it for outdoor seating and drinks like the Nutella mocha.
So Croissante and Arsicault both bake croissants, and the third project is a coffee shop. If all three open on schedule, the 300 and 400 blocks of Cal Ave and the corner of Cambridge will have more breakfast options by spring 2027 than they had this summer. Both bakery dates are targets rather than confirmed openings, and Arsicault's has already moved once.
The established restaurants keep their own hours. Terún, at 448 California Ave., serves lunch and dinner daily. iTalico, at 341 California Ave., is open in the evening. La Bodeguita del Medio, the Cuban restaurant at 463 S. California Ave., holds weekly Neighbor Nights. Zareen's has an active Palo Alto location and was named as a Cal Ave business in the June coverage.
Both October Saturday events end at noon or 1 p.m., right as Terún starts lunch service. On Oct. 31, for example, you could decorate a mini pumpkin at 11 a.m. and sit down for pizza when the event wraps up. The City's event page encourages attendees to stay, dine, shop and explore Cal Ave before and after each event.
The morning crowds will gather on a street whose design isn't finished. On June 1 the City Council voted 6-1 to adopt pre-approved parklet designs that restaurants can use for faster city approval. There are three options: a roofless parklet, a cabana with a sloped roof, and a pergola with a flat roof. Any other design goes through a longer review.
At the same meeting, the council asked staff to develop a bike-free alternative for the pedestrian stretch. Staff had proposed thermoplastic bands across the street to slow fast cyclists. Council members leaned toward steering bikes onto other streets instead. Council member George Lu, who argued that most cyclists ride carefully, cast the lone dissenting vote. Michael and Lara Ekwall, who co-own La Bodeguita del Medio, wrote to the City that the mix of bicycles, e-bikes, scooters, pedestrians, delivery traffic and outdoor dining has at times made conditions congested and confusing.
The City's Car-Free Streets project page still ends its list of merchant updates at February 2026.
The City points event visitors to the Cal Ave parking garage at 350 Sherman, which has 627 car spaces and more than 50 bicycle spaces, plus several surface lots in the business district. Biking to the event is encouraged. Bike parking is plentiful, even though the council wants bikes off the promenade itself. The Sunday market sets up at the El Camino end of the street, so if you're coming from that side, the market is the first thing you'll reach.
At Tony Ngai, we follow blocks like Cal Ave closely: which storefronts are filling, which dates are slipping, and how a street's busy hours change over a year. In Santa Clara County, that kind of detail shapes what a home nearby is like day to day. If you'd like a read on your part of Palo Alto, in English, Cantonese or Mandarin, request your free neighborhood market report and home valuation.
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