For years the summer script on the square was predictable. Tuesday nights belonged to the farmers market. Sunday afternoons belonged to whichever cover band the city booked at the Grinstead. The corner restaurants shuffled owners occasionally, but the anchors held. This summer the script has been quietly rewritten. Two of the Plaza's most watched addresses have new operators, both with deep Sonoma Valley resumes, and the weekly rhythms locals plan their weeks around now run past kitchens that did not exist last June.
If you live here, this is the shape of the season.
The Tuesday Night Market, back on its usual footing
The market returned on May 5 and runs weekly through September 8, 5:00 to 8:00 p.m., in the Horseshoe in front of City Hall. That much is the same as every recent year. The city produces it with the Sonoma Valley Chamber of Commerce, and it draws between 1,500 and 3,000 attendees every Tuesday evening.
| Detail | 2026 season |
|---|---|
| Dates | May 5 – September 8 |
| Time | 5:00 – 8:00 p.m. |
| Location | The Horseshoe, in front of Sonoma City Hall |
| Bike valet reward | $1 Bike Token redeemable with any vendor |
| Pets | Not permitted; trained service animals only |
Two smaller notes worth carrying into a Tuesday. The Grinstead Amphitheater at the north end of the Plaza has been running a youth-band program alongside the main stage this season. On June 16 the market's main act was Showcase the Band, with Sacramento-based Sacramental playing Nirvana covers on the youth stage. If you have teenagers who tune out folk-Americana, walk them to the amphitheater side.
And the flower situation has stabilized around one vendor. Jesus Hernandez of Jesus' Fresh Cut Flowers sells sunflowers by the hundreds from the back of his truck, which is worth knowing if you have been driving to Whole Foods for the same stems at three times the price.
SMASH takes the old bank building
The single biggest change on the Plaza this summer is the ground floor of the Taub Family Outpost at 497 First Street West. The building is a restored 1910 Spanish Colonial bank that went through extensive restoration and seismic upgrades before reopening, and the Beacon speakeasy still occupies the second floor. What is new is the counter downstairs.
SMASH is a fast-casual smashburger and fried chicken concept from Ari Weiswasser, the chef behind Glen Ellen Star and Stella, with Spencer Waite, who runs front-of-house at both restaurants, as a business partner. If you have eaten your way through the Weiswasser restaurants up-valley, the shift is real. Glen Ellen Star and Stella are full-service, ingredient-driven rooms. SMASH is short menu, quick turns, walk-in.
A few things a resident actually needs to know:
- The menu is smashburgers, fried chicken sandwiches, fries, milkshakes, and cocktails, with what the team is calling boozy shakes on the drink list.
- The full SMASH menu is available upstairs and downstairs, and a rotating selection of the Beacon's cocktails is available downstairs seven days a week for lunch and dinner. Spiked shakes, beer, and wine also pour downstairs.
- Located steps from the Plaza, the restaurant benefits from steady foot traffic, and the area allows open container alcohol during certain daytime hours, giving customers the option to take drinks and food into the plaza. That is unusual in California and specific to the historic Plaza license. If you have not walked a beer to a bench before, you can here.
The building's own history is a small local pleasure. Longtime Sonoma columnist Kathleen Hill noted that the upstairs Beacon space once housed her late husband Gerald Hill's law office, and the corner was earlier the medical office of Dr. Carroll B. Andrews, the same Dr. Andrews who bought the Sonoma Grammar School and dedicated it as what is now the Sonoma Community Center. A hundred years of Sonoma foot traffic has passed through that doorway. This summer it is burgers.
Dead Letter, on the Maya corner
The other significant handover is at 101 E. Napa Street, the corner most locals still call the Maya corner. The team behind The Girl & The Fig quietly took over the former Maya Restaurant space in September after the longtime Mexican restaurant closed on its owners' retirement. The new concept has a name now. Dead Letter is a live-fire kitchen concept from the girl & the fig team, opening at the former Maya Restaurant space in Sonoma, with chef John Toulze leading the kitchen.
Two Plaza corners, two teams that have spent decades cooking in this valley, opening within a season of each other. That is not an accident of the calendar. Restaurateurs interviewed by Sonoma Magazine and the Press Democrat point to the same underlying condition. More than 20 restaurants have opened or are slated to debut in 2026, and some restaurateurs attribute the surge to a softening real estate market and easing rents, though for many the explanation is simply optimism. Rents on the Plaza rarely ease. When two anchor corners turn over in the same year, veteran operators pay attention.
The natural-wine anchor stays put
Not everything changed. If your Friday night default is a glass of skin-contact something and a plate of whatever the kitchen is playing with, Valley Bar and Bottle at 487 First St. West is still on the Plaza, pouring local producers and imports with a focus on organic and biodynamic farming, and cooking off seasonal produce from local purveyors. Dinner runs 5 to 9 p.m. Thursday through Monday, weekend brunch 11 to 3 Saturday and Sunday, weekday lunch 11 to 3 Thursday, Friday, and Monday. The back patio remains the quiet answer on a hot Tuesday when the market crowd is loud.
The rest of the summer, in one glance
The Plaza is the stage, but the calendar around it is the reason people cancel weekend trips. From the Sonoma Valley Visitors Bureau's 2026 calendar and the city's event listings:
- Sonoma Sundays on the Plaza. Music In Place brings back "Sonoma Sundays on the Plaza" from June through the first weekend of October, featuring regional and national acts for a free outdoor concert at the Grinstead Amphitheatre.
- Broadway Under the Stars. Transcendence Theatre Company's lineup this season includes "Ain't Too Proud to Beg," "Radio Recall," and "Mamma Mia!" at Jack London State Historic Park in Glen Ellen. It is a fifteen-minute drive from the Plaza and worth the seat cushion.
- NASCAR weekend. June features NASCAR Race Weekend at Sonoma Raceway, including the Toyota/Save Mart 350, along with Broadway Under the Stars, Bear Flag Weekend, and Gay Wine Weekend.
- Gay Wine Weekend, 15th anniversary. Gay Wine Weekend returns to Sonoma Valley July 17–19, 2026 for a 15th Anniversary celebration.
- Battle of the Bands. The second-annual "Battle of the Bands," a youth band competition open to Northern California youth performers, runs alongside the market season.
What this actually means for a Plaza summer
Here is the through-line worth carrying home. For a decade the Plaza's Tuesday and Sunday rhythms were reliable because the surrounding restaurants were reliable. The market pulled crowds; the same rooms fed them. That equation still holds, but the rooms have shuffled. Two of the operators with the deepest Sonoma Valley track records, the Glen Ellen Star and Girl & The Fig teams, now sit on Plaza corners for the first time. If you have watched this square long enough to remember when Maya was Lepe's and when the Taub Outpost was a working bank, you know how rarely both corners turn over at once.
The practical takeaway for residents. Your Tuesday night walk is the same, but the food along the route is different. Plan one visit to each new corner before the summer visitors figure it out.
The Sonoma Community Center is still hosting the same after-school programs Dr. Andrews' donation made possible. The market still closes at eight. The sunflowers still come off the back of a truck. Two kitchens changed hands, and the summer feels new.
Thinking about your own next chapter in Sonoma, whether that is a home closer to the Plaza or a property up-valley you can walk to from Glen Ellen Star on a Saturday night? Del Fava Parker has been representing owners and buyers across Sonoma Valley for decades. Request a Home Valuation and start the conversation.
