From now through mid-December, almost every event on the downtown Los Altos calendar is set on State Street or at Veterans Community Plaza, at the corner of Main and State. A lot of them are also set at, sponsored by, or listed on the calendar of one building: State Street Market, the food hall at 170 State St. After the last farmers' market on Oct. 29, the food hall becomes the season's base, and in December the Thursday 4 to 8 p.m. slot comes back as a holiday market in front of it.
Two Thursdays and a long weekend left outdoors
The Downtown Los Altos Farmers' Market runs Thursdays from 4 to 8 p.m. on State Street through Oct. 29. That leaves the Oct. 22 market and a final one on Oct. 29 that includes a Fall Fest. The Los Altos Village Association and the Pacific Coast Farmers' Market Association present the market. State Street Market, the Los Altos Mountain View Community Foundation and the City of Los Altos are its sponsors.
Between those two Thursdays comes the busiest stretch of the fall:
- Friday, Oct. 23: Witches & Warlocks Wine Stroll, 6 to 9 p.m. Check-in is at Veterans Community Plaza and 333 First St.
- Saturday, Oct. 24: Darling Doodle Art & Sensory Play Pop Up, a children's art and play event listed on State Street Market's own calendar.
- Sunday, Oct. 25: HEAD WEST Marketplace season finale, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., on State Street between Second and Fourth streets. LAVA presents it and State Street Market sponsors it.
- Thursday, Oct. 29: The last farmers' market of the season, with Fall Fest.
- Friday, Oct. 30: A BOO-tiful Downtown Halloween. Trick-or-treating starts at noon, and Veterans Community Plaza hosts games and activities from 2 to 4 p.m.
That's five events in eight days. Four of them sit on State Street or at the plaza at the end of it, and the fifth, the Darling Doodle pop-up, is booked at the food hall itself. State Street Market lists the Wine Stroll, HEAD WEST and Halloween on its events page next to its own programming.
The food hall's hours outlast the events
The building matters because of timing as much as location. State Street Market lists its hours as 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Sunday through Tuesday, 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Wednesday and Thursday, and 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday. Individual vendor hours may vary.
Compare those hours with the calendar. The farmers' market closes at 8 on Thursdays, and the food hall stays open until 9. The Wine Stroll ends at 9 on a Friday, and the food hall is open until 10. HEAD WEST wraps at 5 on a Sunday, three hours before the hall's 8 p.m. close. Each outdoor event downtown has an indoor building next door that stays open past its end time.
The bar inside makes the overlap even tighter. In March 2026, Laughing Monk Brewing took over the space that had been Murdoch's Bar inside State Street Market. Palo Alto Online reported in May that the Los Altos spot runs as a bar rather than a restaurant, with nine beers, one cider and two cocktails on tap plus wine. Its cocktail list includes a lychee martini, espresso martini, mezcal Negroni, black Manhattan and old fashioned, and the zero-proof options include a prickly pear spritz, hibiscus tea and lemonade. In the same article, owner Sam Ghadiri said the to-go cocktails are popular during the downtown farmers' market. So the bar already works with the outdoor market. When the market ends on Oct. 29, the bar stays.
What's inside 170 State St. right now
State Street Market's current list of food stalls is mostly shared plates and casual counters. Here's who is cooking, based on the market's own menus:
| Vendor | What it serves |
|---|---|
| Konjoe Burger | Thick or smash burgers, plus fried chicken and brisket sandwiches |
| Konjoe Eatery | Pasta, New York-style pizza, barbecue and chicken |
| Little Blue Door | Indian-subcontinent cooking with a street-food focus |
| Little Sky Bakery | Naturally leavened breads, pastries, muffins and cookies |
| The Good Salad | Signature and build-your-own salads |
| The Penny Ice Creamery | Scratch-made seasonal ice cream with local and organic ingredients |
| Orenchi Ramen | Ramen, including pork-broth and vegan options, plus Japanese street food |
| Orenchi Sushi | Sushi, rolls and bowls |
| Laughing Monk Brewing | Beer, cider, wine and cocktails |
That mix fits the downtown calendar. A family coming from Halloween activities at the plaza, a couple finishing the Wine Stroll and a group shopping at HEAD WEST can all end up at the same long tables and still order different things.
The next tenant is still on its way
One more addition is coming to the building, and it's running later than first announced. Coffeebar, the coffee company founded in Truckee in 2010, is building a location at 170 State St. It already has Peninsula and South Bay shops in Menlo Park, Redwood City and Sunnyvale.
The opening date has slipped more than once. The Los Altos Town Crier reported that construction delays pushed an original summer plan into fall, with an end-of-September target. The Almanac put it at early October in a Sept. 15 roundup. As of an Oct. 10 update, Coffeebar's locations page still listed Los Altos as "Coming October 2026" and "OPENING SOON!" Check that page before you walk over for a latte.
The Los Altos shop will also have a production role. WhatNow reported that the location will eventually become Coffeebar's main pastry production facility for its Bay Area stores. During the soft opening, pastries will come from the Menlo Park location. The opening menu includes lattes, cappuccinos and cold brew, and recent coverage lists seasonal drinks such as a pistachio rose mocha, marzipan latte and yuzu caramel latte. That gives the building a morning business. The food hall opens at 11 a.m., and a coffee counter would put people on State Street before lunch, every day of the week, whether or not anything is on the calendar.
November and December come back to the same corner
Once Halloween is over, the calendar thins out but doesn't move. Every date LAVA has posted is on State Street or at Veterans Community Plaza at Main and State:
- Friday, Nov. 13: LAVA's 23rd Annual Holiday Stroll, 5 to 9 p.m., with carolers, lights and promotions at downtown shops. The participating businesses and musicians are still listed as TBD.
- Saturday, Nov. 28: Small Business Saturday downtown.
- Friday, Dec. 4: Holiday Tree Celebration, 6 to 8 p.m., at Veterans Community Plaza.
- Thursdays, Dec. 10 and Dec. 17: Downtown Los Altos Holiday Market, 4 to 8 p.m., on State Street at State Street Market, with live music and Santa visits planned.
The two December holiday markets fall on Thursdays from 4 to 8 p.m., the same day and hours the farmers' market kept all season, and they're set at the food hall that sponsored it. The street keeps its weekly slot over the winter, with Santa and holiday vendors filling the space the produce stands used. The Tree Celebration and Holiday Market listings were posted in January, so check LAVA's events calendar closer to each date for final details.
The plazas behind State Street are on a longer clock
The parking plazas behind the downtown blocks are where the slower change is happening. The Los Altos Town Crier covered a July 10 community meeting that showed five revised downtown-park concepts for Parking Plazas 1 through 3. The options combined park space, parking structures and plaza improvements, and staff planned to collect feedback through September before going back to Council.
The city's downtown park project page calls the concepts preliminary. It says Council directed the design team away from underground parking, and it gives a conservative estimate of four or more years: two-plus years of design and two-plus years of possible construction, with no construction start date set. Some smaller work around the plazas is already done, according to the same page. It lists five ADA stalls on Main, standardized parking stalls, wider bike lanes, new pedestrian safety markings, and CalWater water-main and hydrant upgrades near the plazas. So nothing on this fall's calendar runs into construction. State Street keeps its events, and any bigger change behind it is still years out.
If the walk between 170 State St. and Veterans Community Plaza is part of your week, or you'd like to know which downtown blocks you could walk to State Street from, Aaron Buntin can go over the Los Altos streets around the Village with you, from Holiday Stroll weekend through the December markets.
