If you live within walking distance of Courthouse Square, you already know what a Friday in July sounds like from your kitchen window. What you may not have clocked is how much the block has changed since last summer, and how tightly the new places to eat and drink now line up with the weekly programming you were going to attend anyway.
The one thing that actually shifted this year
Music on the Square is running its twentieth season, fourteen consecutive Fridays from May 29 through September 4, with the opener the Santana tribute Carnaval and the closer Pride & Joy. Twenty seasons is not the news. The news is that this summer's edition landed in the middle of the busiest run of independent openings downtown has seen in about a decade. Reef Zaman opened at the end of June. Bay Burgers moved into a brick-and-mortar in March. DeVine Wine & Beer took the old BottleShop space last October. Fireside Books opened on Broadway in early 2025. For the first time in a while, "let's walk over after work" and "let's try somewhere new" can be the same sentence.
That is the whole thesis of this post. The rest is logistics.
The weekday grid, matched to a walk
The Parks, Recreation and Community Services department has spent two decades layering programming across the week, and this year it is dense enough that a resident can plan a full seven days around it without checking the calendar. Below is how the standing weekly events line up with places that are new or newly-relevant this year.
Weekday | What's on downtown | Where to duck into between sets |
|---|---|---|
Wednesday | Music in the Park | Bay Burgers, 976 Woodside Road, five minutes by car |
Thursday | Movies on the Square | DeVine Wine & Beer, 2627 Broadway |
Friday | Music on the Square, 6 to 8 pm, Courthouse Square | Reef Zaman, in the former Sizzler space |
Saturday | Kids Rock! with MC Andy-Z; Pub in the Park at Red Morton | The Baker Next Door, Main Street |
Weekend nights in August | Shakespeare in the Park | Mazra on Broadway, wood-fired kebabs |
Four Fridays this season also carry ART on the Square, the juried fine-arts fair marking its own twentieth anniversary on Hamilton Avenue at Courthouse Square. The dates are June 12, July 10, July 24, and August 28, running 5 to 8:30 pm alongside the concert.
Three openings worth breaking a routine for
Reef Zaman, 2600 block, former Sizzler space
Restaurateur Faris Alqabass, who grew up in Yemen and runs Yemeni Restaurant in New York and Mandi House in San Francisco and Los Angeles, had planned to put this concept in New York. He pivoted when he found the Redwood City building. Reef Zaman soft-opened on June 29, 2026, with a menu of flame-grilled branzino, kebabs, lamb chops, shawarma plates in the twenty-two to thirty-two dollar range, and wraps around thirteen to fifteen dollars. Chef Mohammed Al-Omari, previously at nearby Mazra, is running the kitchen. The room seats about 280 inside with high ceilings, and a 2,000-square-foot patio adding another 300 seats is expected roughly three months out from opening. Beverages are non-alcoholic only, including mint and raspberry lemonades. The name translates to "countryside of the past," which explains the greenery and dark-washed wood tabletops.
The scale matters. Very few downtown rooms can seat you and eight friends on a Friday night without a reservation two weeks out. Reef Zaman can.
Bay Burgers, 976 Woodside Road
Chef Xavier Pereznegron is a Redwood City native who trained in fine dining, then started on a Blackstone griddle at Hoover Park in the summer of 2024, ran a smashburger pop-up out of a tent in an industrial stretch, and opened the brick-and-mortar in March 2026. Rotating specials lean into smoked meats, loaded fries, agua frescas, and warm desserts. It is not walkable from Courthouse Square. It is a five-minute drive, which is the right distance for a Wednesday Music in the Park detour where you would rather not fight the Broadway parking scrum.
DeVine Wine & Beer, 2627 Broadway
Owner Ingrid Campos took the keys to the former BottleShop space in October 2025. The format is a curated wine and beer bar where the food is chosen to match what's in the glass, rather than the other way around. For a Thursday Movies on the Square evening where you want something quieter than a full dinner, this is the new default.
The bench that is still holding
The steady lineup behind the newcomers has not moved, and if you were a downtown regular before 2023 the roster reads familiar with a few updates worth logging.
- Mazra, Broadway, wood-fired kebabs and shawarma. Reopened October 2024 after a June 2024 kitchen fire.
- Limón, the Peruvian restaurant, opened its Redwood City location in October 2024.
- Das Bierhauz for the beer-garden slot.
- Bao for dim sum.
- The Baker Next Door, Main Street, opened August 2024 with head baker Luis Lujan. The green-olive, asiago and thyme boule and the pain suisse filled with vanilla pastry cream and dark chocolate are the ones to walk over for on a Saturday morning before Pub in the Park.
That is a Mediterranean cluster, a Peruvian anchor, a beer garden, a dim sum room, and a bakery inside a fifteen-minute radius from Courthouse Square, which is what the city's own dining guidance has been quietly repeating for a while now.
Between-set detours that are not restaurants
Fireside Books & More opened on February 1, 2025, at 2421 Broadway. Founders Andrew Johnson and Taylor Kubota stock literature next to cards, stickers, birdhouses by LeighLee's Garden, and jewelry from Wandergrove, and they run a Bookshop.org storefront for the online side. Downtown had been without a proper independent bookstore for close to a decade before they opened. It is the right stop for the forty-five minutes between a Movies on the Square screening and dinner.
On Saturday, August 8, from 10 am to 2 pm, Victorian Days runs at the San Mateo County History Museum at 2200 Broadway, inside the 1910 County Courthouse with the stained-glass dome. Free admission, a scavenger hunt, and a fashion show, timed to give you a reason to walk past the Courthouse Square footprint in daylight before the evening programming picks back up.
If you want to leave the grid entirely, the Kings Mountain Art Fair runs Labor Day weekend, September 5 through 7, up in the Santa Cruz Mountains under the redwoods. This year's juried fair welcomes 23 first-time exhibitors among more than 125 participating artists. It is a thirty-minute drive from downtown and closes the season the weekend after Music on the Square wraps.
The parking, briefly
If you take the train in you are already in the middle of it. If you drive, the three downtown garages worth knowing are 750 Marshall (all day), 850 Jefferson (all day), and 900 Jefferson (after 5 pm), each offering 1.5 hours free. On a Friday between 5:30 and 6:30 pm, 900 Jefferson clears out fastest.
That is not a market claim. It is the kind of thing you only know if you have been arriving at Courthouse Square on Fridays for a decade, which is roughly the resident test this post is trying to pass.
Why any of this matters beyond dinner
The eight-unit townhouse project across from Bay Burgers on Woodside Road finished construction this cycle. A nine-story Stanford medical office building is underway on the Redwood City campus. A seven-story affordable housing project is going up at 112 Vera Avenue. Every one of those adds foot traffic to the same fourteen-week festival footprint, and the programming keeps absorbing it without the downtown losing its neighborhood scale. Twenty seasons in, Music on the Square is still free, still fits on one square, and still ends at eight so you can walk home.
If you live here, you probably did not need a reason to go downtown this summer. You needed a shortlist of what is actually new since last year. That is what the last two thousand words were for.
When you or a neighbor eventually starts a conversation about what a home in the blocks around Courthouse Square is really worth, or what it takes to sell one well, the Mary Murphy Team is a short walk away. We would be glad to talk. Request a complimentary home valuation and consultation when the timing is yours.
Mary Murphy | 650-773-4999 | [email protected] | Menlo Park and Atherton's trusted guide for life's next chapter
DRE# 00675838
FAQ
Q: How long has Music on the Square been running?
A: This is its twentieth season, fourteen consecutive Fridays from May 29 through September 4, 6 to 8pm, free of charge. The opener was a Santana tribute called Carnaval and the closer is Pride & Joy.
Q: What new restaurants opened near Courthouse Square this year?
A: Reef Zaman soft-opened June 29, 2026 in the former Sizzler space, seating about 280 with a 2,000 square foot patio expected roughly three months after opening. Bay Burgers opened its brick and mortar location on Woodside Road in March 2026 after two years as a pop-up. DeVine Wine & Beer took over the former BottleShop space at 2627 Broadway in October 2025.
Q: Is there an independent bookstore downtown again?
A: Yes. Fireside Books & More opened February 1, 2025 at 2421 Broadway, the first proper independent bookstore downtown had seen in close to a decade.
Q: What is ART on the Square?
A: A juried fine arts fair also marking its twentieth anniversary, held on four Fridays this season, June 12, July 10, July 24, and August 28, alongside the concert, 5 to 8:30pm.
Q: What is the weekly events lineup downtown?
A: Wednesday is Music in the Park, Thursday is Movies on the Square, Friday is Music on the Square, Saturday brings Kids Rock! and Pub in the Park at Red Morton, and weekend nights in August feature Shakespeare in the Park.
Q: Where should I park downtown on a Friday?
A: The three main garages are 750 Marshall and 850 Jefferson, both all day, and 900 Jefferson, free after 5pm. Each offers 1.5 hours free. On Fridays between 5:30 and 6:30pm, 900 Jefferson tends to clear out fastest.
Q: What older downtown restaurants are still around?
A: Mazra reopened in October 2024 after a kitchen fire. Limón, a Peruvian restaurant, opened its Redwood City location in October 2024. Das Bierhauz and Bao remain the beer garden and dim sum options, and The Baker Next Door opened on Main Street in August 2024.
Q: What development is happening near downtown Redwood City?
A: An eight unit townhouse project across from Bay Burgers on Woodside Road finished construction this cycle. A nine story Stanford medical office building is underway on the Redwood City campus, and a seven story affordable housing project is being built at 112 Vera Avenue.
Q: What does this mean for someone considering a home near Courthouse Square?
A: The area is absorbing new foot traffic and development while keeping its neighborhood scale, which is relevant to anyone weighing value and daily life in the blocks nearby. Mary Murphy offers a complimentary home valuation and consultation for that conversation.
