At 11 a.m. on Saturday, Oct. 31, a pack of costumed dogs and their people will leave Noe Valley Pet Company at 1451 Church Street, head up Comerford Alley between 27th and Duncan, cross to Sanchez Street and end at Noe Café near 26th for the Pet Costume Contest. According to the October 2026 Noe Valley Voice, the judges are scoring originality, attention to detail and stage presence. Dogs of every size are welcome, and so are their humans, ideally in costume too.
None of that route touches 24th Street. Halloween falls on a Saturday this year, so the Voice expects the festivities to run all day. The way the day is laid out says something about how the neighborhood uses its streets. Saturday's organized events all happen on side streets or an alley. The commercial corridor is left to do what it already does on a weekend.
24th Street is the one place nobody is programming
Kristen McCaffery, president of the Noe Valley Merchants Association, told the Noe Valley Voice that 24th Street merchants will hand out candy, "but we're not planning anything special this year." Her reasoning was practical. The street will already be busy with weekend crowds.
That busyness starts early. The Noe Valley Farmers Market runs year-round at the Town Square, 3861 24th Street, on Saturdays from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. On Halloween, that means the market overlaps the pet parade on Church Street. A household with a dog in costume can do the market first and still be on Church by 11.
The schoolkids get their turn the day before. McCaffery told the Voice that the St. Philip's parade will likely march on 24th Street on Friday morning, Oct. 30.
The day, in order
| Time | What | Where |
|---|---|---|
| Fri., Oct. 30, morning | St. Philip's costume parade, likely | 24th Street |
| Sat., 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. | Noe Valley Farmers Market | Town Square, 3861 24th St. |
| Sat., 11 a.m. | Howl-O-Ween pet parade and Pet Costume Contest | 1451 Church St. to Comerford Alley to Sanchez, ending at Noe Café near 26th |
| Sat., around 3 p.m. | Halloween Stroll on Slow Sanchez | Sanchez between Clipper and 27th |
| Sat., all day | Merchant candy handout | 24th Street storefronts |
| Sat., 5:30 to 8 p.m. | Proposed street closure for trick-or-treating | Fair Oaks Street, 22nd to 26th |
After the morning market, Saturday's schedule moves across the neighborhood. The parade is on Church in the late morning, the stroll takes the afternoon on Sanchez and the closure finishes on Fair Oaks after dark. 24th Street runs underneath all of it.
Sanchez keeps it small on purpose
The afternoon belongs to Sanchez Street. Dave Olson of Resilient Noe Valley told the Noe Valley Voice that the Halloween Stroll on Slow Sanchez will continue as a "low-key [tradition] where families just come out to enjoy a walk in costume." It starts around 3 p.m. on the stretch between Clipper and 27th.
There's no stage and no registration, and the street is already set up for walking. The low-key framing is the plan, and it suits a block that sits a few minutes' walk from 24th Street's weekend crowd.
For costume ideas, One Stop Party Shop's owner told the Voice that Tim Curry, Dolly Parton and Michael Jackson are "huge" this year.
Fair Oaks takes the evening, with one caveat
The traditional last stop is Fair Oaks Street. The Voice reports it will close to traffic from 22nd to 26th Street between 5:30 and 8 p.m., "for that last chance to score treats." The city's street-closure permit data matches those four blocks and that window. In the Oct. 18 snapshot, though, the application was still listed as "Application In Review." If you're driving through the area on Saturday evening, check for posted closure signs and plan around those blocks either way.
Dinner is where 24th Street comes back in
Once trick-or-treating winds down around 8, the night moves back to 24th Street. This year it has two kitchens it didn't have last Halloween.
Fresca, 3945 24th Street. After six years dark, the Peruvian restaurant welcomed diners back on Aug. 24. The Noe Valley Voice's Store Trek column reports that brothers Ivan and Jose Calvo-Perez now run it. Their father opened the first Fresca in 1996, and the 24th Street location dates to 2004. The menu leans on seafood and Nikkei dishes, which blend Peruvian and Japanese cooking. It includes four ceviches at $24 to $28, a Causa Limeña with Dungeness crab at $29 and a list of pisco cocktails. Saturday hours run 11 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. The Voice says reservations are highly recommended because the restaurant has been packed, especially on weekend nights.
Jose Calvo-Perez told the Voice he has been pleasantly surprised that people are booking past 8 p.m. "I remember Noe Valley being more of a brunch or lunch crowd, especially on weekends," he said. On a Halloween that ends at 8 on Fair Oaks, the late seating is the one families will want, so book ahead.
Bonita Taqueria y Rotisserie, 4063 24th Street, between Noe and Castro. Bonita opened July 8 in the former Tacolicious space. It's the third San Francisco location of a family-owned chain that started in 2014. It fits the earlier part of the day. The "Bonita Brunch" menu runs from opening until 3 p.m. every day, and Saturday hours are 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. The space also comes with a dog-friendly back patio, which works well after the pet parade.
A half rotisserie chicken is $16 and a whole one is $26. Owner Jawad "JJ" Sweidan told the Noe Valley Voice that the Noe Valley location already sells more rotisserie chicken than his other locations. "For whatever reason, this neighborhood clearly loves rotisserie chicken," he said. There's also a kids' menu with mini tacos, quesadillas and rice and bean bowls at $8 to $9.
The square in the middle is getting new lights
The farmers market's home, the Noe Valley Town Square, turned 10 this month. It opened to the public in October 2016, three years after the city bought the site from the Noe Valley Ministry for $4.2 million. Before that, the lot was a former gas station and parking lot. The Saturday farmers market started there after the Real Food Company's 24th Street location closed in 2003. When the church decided to sell, the neighborhood ran a campaign to turn the lot into a park and a permanent home for the market.
The 10th-anniversary party, scheduled for Oct. 24, was also planned as the debut of the square's new lighting, with installation timed to finish before it. Avenue Greenlight, a nonprofit, gave the Noe Valley Association a $25,000 grant for 75 bulbs that are 50 percent brighter than the old setup. "To have stage lighting is important for the Noe Valley Night Market and other events," Moira Leslie Crawford, who oversees community events at the square, told the Noe Valley Voice. Elise Jacobsen, Avenue Greenlight's deputy executive director, told the Voice that lighting helps bring people out to a commercial corridor at night.
The Town Square's events page currently lists nothing after the Oct. 27 Night Market and asks visitors to check back for future dates. No winter calendar for the new lights has been posted yet.
What you'll pass on 24th Street between stops
Between Church and Sanchez, the walk crosses a stretch of 24th Street where several storefronts are changing hands. Pressed Juicery at 3901 24th Street, at Sanchez, closed in mid-August, and its roughly 1,000-square-foot space is looking for a tenant. Small Frys, the children's clothing store now at 3985 24th Street, is moving back to 4066 24th Street, where it first opened 34 years ago. That's the space Moonshot Studio has occupied since 2018. Owner Carol Yenne told the Voice that the remodel will be extensive. She hopes to reopen in January with more clothing for older kids "and lots of sunlight coming through the front windows." Yenne told the Voice that she will vacate the current store at 3985, across from Just for Fun, at the end of the year.
Halloween is a good example of something Eric Turner watches all year: how a neighborhood's calendar, its storefront turnover and its new restaurants affect what a home there is worth. If 24th Street's changes have you wondering what your Noe Valley home would bring today, get your instant home valuation.
