For fifteen years, a Saturday in Scotts Valley started at the Boys and Girls Club parking lot on Scotts Valley Drive. That's over. As of June 27, 2026, the Farmers' Market lives at Graham Plaza, 219 Mount Hermon Road, and the small change reshapes the whole day. Skypark used to be the magnet that pulled foot traffic west from the market. Now the market itself has moved west, closer to Skypark, closer to Safeway, closer to The Point Market's new outpost, and the walkable summer rhythm here has quietly reorganized around a different stretch of road.
That's the thesis of this post. Not that Scotts Valley has a lot happening this summer, which residents already know. But that the corridor along Mount Hermon Road is doing more work than it used to, and if you plan a Saturday around the old geography you'll spend the morning driving in circles.
The Move That Restacked Everything
The relocation was practical. Renovations at the Boys and Girls Club site pushed the Santa Cruz Community Farmers' Markets to look for a new home, the Scotts Valley City Council approved the move in May, and the market opened at Graham Plaza's upper parking lot the following month. Hours shifted too. The market now runs Saturdays 8am to noon, an hour earlier at both ends than the old schedule.
That earlier close matters. It leaves the middle of the day open in a way the old market didn't, and it puts you within a two-minute drive of Skypark by the time lunch decisions come up.
The vendor lineup is worth memorizing before you go:
- Casalegno Family Farm — heirloom tomatoes, tender beans, basil, and a heritage red garlic the family brought from Italy over a century ago
- Companion Bakeshop and Beckmann's — bread
- Adorable French Bakery — their storefront on Mount Hermon Road serves the same pastries under the oak canopy on the patio
- Hidden Fortress Coffee — the market cup
- Empanadas La Linda, El Salchichero, Freckles Pickles — the prepared-food anchors
The Market Match program is still running. Fifteen dollars in CalFresh or EBT gets matched with fifteen dollars in tokens for fresh produce.
What The New Geography Does To A Saturday
Here's the walkable version, assuming you're starting from the market:
| Time | Stop | Why |
|---|---|---|
| 8:15am | Graham Plaza market | Coffee from Hidden Fortress, produce round |
| 9:30am | The Point Market, 245-Z Mt. Hermon Rd | Breakfast burrito or the new smash burger |
| 10:30am | Skypark | Kids loose, dog walked, coffee number two |
| 11:45am | Penny Ice Creamery | The reward |
| 12:30pm | Adorable French Bakery patio | Slow lunch under the oak |
The Point Market is the piece that makes this route new. Pleasure Point's cash-only original has been a Santa Cruz institution for years, and this is owner Hassan Ayyad's third location, opening in 2025 in the former Flashbird spot next to Safeway. The Scotts Valley Point takes credit cards, skips the actual market shelves, and sells a smash burger that reportedly moved more than 200 units on day one. The breakfast burrito menu carries over from East Cliff.
You couldn't have built this Saturday two summers ago. The market was on the other side of town, The Point hadn't opened yet, and Adorable French Bakery was still a farmers' market booth. Right now, four of the five stops sit within a short stretch of a single road.
The Friday Counterweight
Food Truck Fridays at Skypark are the other summer anchor, running the fourth Friday of each month, 5 to 8pm, at 361 Kings Village Road. The 2026 schedule to circle:
- July 25 — Food Truck Friday returns to the calendar
- August 22 — Cringe on stage, back-to-school themed
- August 28 — Second August date with Cringe
- October 24 — Season closer with a Halloween lean and a Parks & Rec movie night showing Hocus Pocus
The rotation of trucks moves, but repeats include Tacos El Jesse, Italia Fire, Kuki's Bowl, S.C. Eatery, Pana, Taquizas Gabriel, Scrumptious Fish and Chips, Cracked Cookies, and Rollin Snack Shack. The SVEF beer and wine garden pours Laughing Monk beer and runs proceeds to the Scotts Valley Education Foundation. Face painting is Brenda's, and it has been Brenda's long enough that most local parents know to bring cash.
The Kiwanis-run Music at Skypark series is the other Skypark tradition worth planning around. Two dates left this year: August 24 and September 28, free, 2:30 to 6pm, with Fishhook, Extra Large, The Inciters, and The Houserockers across the two shows. The series has raised close to $250,000 for local school music programs across its sixteen seasons, which is a specific number worth stating because it explains why the volunteer energy behind these Sundays is so durable.
The Two Days August Belongs To
August 16 and 17 is the Scotts Valley Art, Wine & Beer Festival. More than 100 artists, food trucks, a classic-car component at the Cops event, and live music headlined by James Durbin & The Lost Boys. Free admission. It occupies both weekend days, which is worth noting because it collides with the Farmers' Market on that Saturday morning. You can do both, but the market needs to happen first.
For anyone still holding onto a Fourth of July memory from a previous year: the 2026 parade extended its route again. It now starts at Scotts Valley Drive and Carbonero Way, runs north to El Pueblo, U-turns, comes back south to Civic Center, U-turns again, and finishes where it began. That's a longer viewing window than the pre-2024 route, and the accessible viewing area sits at 5007 Scotts Valley Drive. Parade steps off at 11am and wraps around 1pm, with the Skypark parties and food trucks continuing to 3pm.
The In-Between Hours
The stops that don't fit a schedule but keep coming up in local conversation:
Laughing Monk Brewing & Gastropub stays the reliable weeknight answer. Rooftop, dog-friendly, and enough event space that it absorbs the birthday-dinner overflow when Bruno's is booked.
Bruno's Bar & Grill is the other end of the bar spectrum. Ro and Jo Guzman took it over six summers ago and turned the old BBQ concept into a full bar and grill. The Vault behind the vintage phone is a cocktail speakeasy hidden inside the building. Dial the code, walk through the old vault door. It reads as a novelty until you go once.
Saison Cellar & Wine Bar, opened by sommelier and winemaker Mark Bright, is the quieter option and is starting to draw people who used to drive over the hill for a comparable wine list.
For the recent ramen and Asian-food additions that opened over the last eighteen months: Oreno Ramen, Alley Oop, Tai Er Sichuan, Blissful Noodle, and Wagyu Master. It's the fastest that segment of the Scotts Valley dining scene has grown in memory.
Two neighborhood retailers that keep the outdoors going: Cali Style and Scotts Valley Cycle Sport carry the trail and skate-park gear, and both have owners on the floor most weekends. HOME by Zinnia's, owned by Dedra and Tim Bennett, is where a lot of local remodels quietly source their furniture.
The One Thing That Isn't On A Calendar
Fire season is the piece of summer here that doesn't get a Skypark event. Post-CZU, defensible space checks, gutter clearing, and knowing your Zonehaven evacuation zone are the seasonal chores that share the calendar with market Saturdays. Scotts Valley Fire and Cal Fire run the outreach. If you've moved to town since 2020 and haven't looked up your zone yet, that is the summer errand to do this weekend, before the next Food Truck Friday.
That's the honest shape of a Scotts Valley summer in 2026. A Saturday that used to end at Kings Village now starts at Graham Plaza. A Friday that used to be leftovers-and-a-movie is a fourth-Friday appointment at Skypark. And an August that used to feel like a lull now has the Art, Wine & Beer Festival and two Music at Skypark shows stacked between it and Labor Day.
If your Scotts Valley summer includes any thoughts about what your home would sell for in this market, that's a conversation Ryan Fontana is glad to have on the patio at Adorable French Bakery or wherever you'd rather meet. What's My Home Worth?