Through October and November, the most dependable days in Corte Madera are Wednesday and Thursday. Town Center has the farmers market on Wednesdays, and The Village has food trucks on Thursdays. Book Passage fills the evenings in between with weeknight author talks. The weekend dates are fewer, and civic volunteers and the bookstore put most of them together. That gives the season two layers to plan around: a weekly loop from the shopping centers and a short list of single dates that come from Old Corte Madera Square and Tamal Vista Boulevard.
October 10 is the one Saturday when both layers fall on the same afternoon. The rest of the fall falls into place once you know it.
Wednesday belongs to Town Center
The Corte Madera Farmers Market runs year-round at Town Center on Wednesdays. Its operator lists the hours as noon to 5 p.m. and shows no change for fall. Town Center's own page gives a slightly earlier start, so the operator's schedule is the safer one to go by.
As of this fall there's also a new place to eat after the market. Asian Box opened its first North Bay location at 147 Corte Madera Town Center Drive in September. The North Bay Business Journal reported a ribbon-cutting on September 18 and a first service the next morning. The roughly 2,400-square-foot restaurant is on the Safeway side of the center, in the space Veggie Grill held from January 2015 until it closed in August 2023.
The menu is 100% gluten-free. It covers build-your-own boxes, pho, banh mi, spring rolls and boba teas, with beer and wine and vegan and vegetarian options. Co-founder and chef Grace Nguyen was previously sous chef at Slanted Door under Charles Phan. Regular hours are 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Sunday, so it stays open well after the market's 5 p.m. close. The Marin IJ covered the opening on September 22.
Thursday moves across the freeway to The Village
The Village has its weekly rhythm one day later. Its October food truck schedule alternates two vendors. Chikis Tacos comes on October 8 and 22, and Casa du Soleil on October 15 and 29. Both serve from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. in the east parking lot by Gap. All four of those dates are Thursdays, so the midweek loop runs from the Wednesday market straight into the Thursday trucks.
The shops have changed around that parking lot too. On opened at The Village on September 3 at 1702 Redwood Highway, Space 039. The company's July release describes a 4,000-square-foot store. The center now shows SKIMS as open in Center Court. Aerie and Reformation are both listed as opening soon. Neither listing gives a date, so plan around them only once the doors are actually open.
Book Passage fills the weeknights
The weekly loop covers lunch and early afternoon. The evenings fall to Book Passage at 51 Tamal Vista Boulevard, whose fall calendar puts a lot of its programming on weekdays. These are the weeknight author events on the store's current listings:
- Tuesday, October 6, 6 p.m.: Gary Lucks, We Are the Power
- Wednesday, October 7, 6 p.m.: Robert Kolker, The Vanishing Family
- Thursday, October 15, 6 p.m.: David Benac, Rainforest Radicals
- Wednesday, November 4, 4 p.m.: Richard Louv, Noticing
- Wednesday, November 4, 6 p.m.: Kristen Naiman, Real Style, and Mark Danner in conversation with Adam Hochschild on Crossing the Rubicon
November 4 is the busiest single day of the season, with three author events at the store between 4 and 6 p.m. Louv starts in the late afternoon. The two 6 p.m. events overlap, so plan on choosing one.
The weekday classes run on the same schedule. Dominique Bremond's French conversation classes start Tuesday, October 6. Intermediate meets from 10:30 a.m. to noon and Beginner from noon to 12:45 p.m., for eight meetings through December 1, with no class on November 24. Anna Gonzalez's Author's Club meets on third Thursdays from 4:30 to 5:30 p.m., including October 15 and November 19. In November, Reba Ets-Hokin teaches American Mah Jongg in two three-session series: Mondays from November 2 to 16 and Wednesdays from November 4 to 18, both from 2 to 4:30 p.m.
Civic life also runs midweek. The Town Council candidates forum is Wednesday, October 7, from 6:30 to 8 p.m. at Town Hall, 300 Tamalpais Drive. That's the same evening as the Kolker talk across town.
The weekend dates come from the volunteers
Corte Madera's two biggest fall weekends this year come from community groups and merchants, not from a single program. Here are the dates worth putting on the calendar:
| Date | Where | What |
|---|---|---|
| Sat, Oct 10, noon–5 p.m. | Menke Park, 220 Corte Madera Ave | Corte Madera Oktoberfest |
| Sat, Oct 10, 11 a.m.–2 p.m. | Book Passage | Angelica Page, April Snow, Laurie McAndish King |
| Sat, Oct 17, 1 p.m. | Book Passage | Marina Richie, Feathered Forest |
| Sun, Oct 25, noon–4 p.m. | Town Center | Free merchant trick-or-treat |
| Sun, Nov 1, 1 p.m. and 4 p.m. | Book Passage | Jacob Weisberg; David Gottfried |
| Sun, Nov 15, 1 p.m. | Book Passage | Mary Reynolds Thompson, The Wild Scribe |
Oktoberfest is the one date that brings the whole west side of town out together. The Corte Madera Lions Club and the Corte Madera Beautification Committee co-sponsor it at Menke Park, and the Corte Madera Community Foundation is also named as a sponsor. The Visit Marin listing names three performers: the Corte Madera Town Band, Grand Isle Fire Brigade and Bubba's Taxi. It also names three food vendors: Pig in a Pickle, Zonda Fine Meat and Kito's Taco Shop. Kids get games, crafts and face painting. The Town Band's own calendar has its set at noon to 1 p.m., so arrive early to hear it.
Tickets bought in advance cost $35 for five beer tastes, $5 less than the $40 door price. Non-drinkers 12 and older pay $15, and children under 12 get in free. Sales go through the Lions Club ticket page. The organizers say the beer comes from local breweries but haven't named them.
That Saturday, Book Passage also has three back-to-back events from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Families can catch April Snow's Big Feelings, Big Joy at 1 p.m. and still reach Menke Park well before the 5 p.m. close.
Town Center's trick-or-treat on Sunday, October 25, is free and runs from noon to 4 p.m. It comes with treat bags and face painting from participating merchants. On Thanksgiving morning, one family events listing shows a Turkey Trot at Town Park from 8:15 to 9:15 a.m. on November 26, credited to the Town's Fall 2026 activity guide. Confirm that one with Corte Madera Recreation before you build the morning around it.
Two things still in progress
Two changes residents are waiting on won't be finished before the holidays.
The first is Marin Joe's at 1585 Casa Buena Drive. The restaurant opened in 1954. A restaurant company that includes Barrel House Tavern in Sausalito bought it in 2025. In April 2026, the Planning Commission approved a 97-square-foot front addition so the façade can meet the town's safe-exit rules. It also approved a variance for 46 onsite parking spaces instead of the required 79, with valet service at peak hours on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. Asking for weekend valet suggests the owners expect weekend crowds. At the end of 2025, the Marin IJ's year-end food roundup said the reopening date was still unknown. None of the 2026 coverage gives a reopening date, so check before you plan a dinner there.
The second is on Paradise Drive. The Town's FY 2026–27 road plan schedules resurfacing from Tamalpais Drive to San Clemente Drive between August and December 2026. That's a planned window, not a confirmed crew schedule, but it covers the whole calendar above. The larger Paradise Drive project comes later. It adds an 8-foot multiuse path, crossing and striping upgrades, narrower lanes and a raised roadway, and it's scheduled for May through November 2027. Paradise Drive also got a new place to eat this year. Super Duper Burgers opened at 5839 Paradise Drive on February 11.
New restaurants, a former Veggie Grill space filled again and a landmark getting ready to reopen all change how a street feels, and they can also change how buyers look at the homes nearby. If you've been wondering how this fall's changes on Town Center Drive, Casa Buena or Paradise Drive affect what your home is worth, Sharon Kramlich is glad to walk through it with you. Request a Complimentary Home Evaluation.
