Oceanside's October Runs Through One Downtown Corner

How many times will you cross Coast Highway at Pier View Way between now and Halloween? If you go out downtown at all this month, the answer is probably more than you'd guess.

Here's the count. The Ukulele Festival, the Día de los Muertos Festival and the Haunted Market all happen at that corner or the Civic Center Plaza beside it. The weekly Sunset Market takes over the same blocks every Thursday. The restaurant space on the corner, empty since Kettle on Coast closed, is about to reopen as Felix's BBQ With Soul. One intersection carries most of the month, and planning around it is the simplest way to enjoy October.

The Address on Nearly Every Flyer

The address 300 N. Coast Hwy shows up again and again in this fall's listings. Here is the calendar from today, Sunday, Oct. 4, in date order.

• Friday, Oct. 9: Valle celebrates its fifth anniversary with the Cincoañera, a one-night dinner from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. with Chef Roberto Alcocer and guest chef Andrew Bachelier at 201 N. Myers St.
• Saturday, Oct. 10: The first Oceanside Ukulele Festival runs 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Civic Center Plaza, 300 N. Coast Hwy. More activities are planned in the Civic Center Library Community Rooms next door at 330 N. Coast Hwy.
• Friday, Oct. 23: The Haunted Highway Block Party fills Sound By the Sea at 325 S. Coast Hwy from 5 to 10 p.m. with local art, vendors, food and live music.
• Saturday, Oct. 24: The Oceanside Museum of Art hosts ART AFTER DARK: Anatomy of the Surreal from 7 to 11 p.m. at 704 Pier View Way. It's for ages 21 and over, with a costume competition and performances.
• Sunday, Oct. 25: The 25th annual Día de los Muertos Festival runs 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. across Civic Center Plaza and the Coast Highway and Pier View Way corner. It's free and open to families.
• Thursday, Oct. 29: The Haunted Market takes over Pier View Way and Coast Highway from 5 to 9 p.m. with trick-or-treating, a costume parade and contests.
• Saturday, Oct. 31: Sirens & Seafarers: A Haunted High-Seas Soiree is at The Rooftop Bar, 201 N Myers St., the same address as Valle.

Three of those events use the Civic Center Plaza and the corner itself. Two more are a short walk up Pier View Way or onto Myers Street. The Haunted Highway Block Party is the only one that pulls the crowd south on Coast Highway.

The Ukulele Festival listing on Visit Oceanside was first posted in January. It still shows Oct. 10, but it's worth checking the page the morning of.

Thursdays Were Already Taken

The Sunset Market explains why this corner fills up so easily. MainStreet Oceanside runs it every Thursday, year-round, from 5 to 9 p.m., across five downtown blocks that include Pier View Way and Coast Highway.

The Haunted Market on Oct. 29 isn't a separate event. Visit Oceanside lists it as a themed night of the Sunset Market, and MainStreet's 2026 theme-night list includes it on that date. The vendors and the footprint stay the same. The costumes and trick-or-treating are the extras.

That leaves four Thursday markets this month: Oct. 8, 15, 22 and 29. Add the Saturday Ukulele Festival and the Sunday Día de los Muertos Festival, and the plaza hosts a crowd in six of the next four weeks' time slots. A restaurant on that corner sits right in the middle of all of it.

The Storefront on the Corner

Which brings us to the restaurant space at the corner of Coast Highway and Pier View Way. Petite Madeline Bakery ran it for several years.

Kettle on Coast took over next and advertised a June 11 grand opening this year. It was a brunch spot built around quality ingredients, local vendors and hospitality. A few months later it announced on Instagram that it was closing for good because it hadn't gotten enough support early on.

Felix's comes back to where it started

The next tenant at 223 N. Coast Highway is Felix's BBQ With Soul. Felix Berry, who was born in Alabama, opened his first Felix's in Oceanside in 2008, then added locations in Carlsbad and San Marcos. He closed the original Oceanside restaurant in August. The Union-Tribune said a coming rent increase led to the closure. What Now reported that the lease at 3613 Ocean Ranch Blvd had ended.

As of Oct. 2, Berry told What Now that the restaurant was in the last stages before opening and waiting on final inspections. He couldn't give an exact date but hoped to hold a soft opening and a grand opening in October 2026. A liquor license application for the new location has been filed.

The menu covers the South and Louisiana: baby back ribs, brisket, pulled pork, fried chicken, catfish, jambalaya, gumbo, oxtails and shrimp and grits. Sides include collard greens, red beans and rice, mac and cheese and cornbread.

If inspections clear on schedule, Felix's first weeks downtown could overlap with the Día de los Muertos Festival and the Haunted Market, both of which set up right outside its door. That depends on dates nobody has announced yet. Until Felix's posts an opening day, treat it as coming soon.

Two Recent Openings a Few Blocks Away

On event days the corner gets crowded, and two of downtown's newest spots are close enough to be your backup plan.

An's Gate D5, a gelato shop inside the Top Gun House at 250 N. Pacific St., opened July 25. The Union-Tribune reported it opens daily at 10:30 a.m. That makes it a handy stop before or after the Día de los Muertos Festival, which starts at 10 a.m.

Copper Kings Burgers opened its second location Aug. 25 at 326 N. Horne St., in the former Northern Pine Brewing building. It started in San Marcos in 2020 as a smashburger pop-up from Dermot Owens and Jonathan Petr. The bigger Oceanside kitchen made room for four dishes the original doesn't serve: Guinness stew, spice bag chicken thighs, fish 'n' chips and a summer pasta.

Parking When the Plaza Is the Event

Day-of planning gets tricky here, because the plaza that hosts these events also sits next to the Civic Center garage. MainStreet Oceanside lists these options on its Sunset Market page.

That page isn't dated, so posted signs on the day win over the table.

For Oct. 25, the Friends of Oceanside Día de los Muertos say public parking is limited. They point to a free garage with more than 400 spaces one block south on Cleveland, a paid garage of about the same size one block north, and street parking east of Coast Highway. Plan on walking several blocks. The organizers also recommend public transit and link to NCTD's SPRINTER, COASTER and BREEZE, plus Amtrak and Metrolink.

The Oceanside Transit Center at 205 S. Tremont St. connects all of those lines and has a lot with more than 1,200 spaces. NCTD's schedules page asks riders to check service alerts for detours.

The venue map on the festival's attendance page is labeled 2021, so check for an updated 2026 layout before you go. MainStreet notes that regular parking rules stay in effect on market nights.

The Corner Stays Busy Into November

Plaza events continue after Halloween. A Sublime Life Sobriety Festival is listed on Eventbrite for Saturday, Nov. 7, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. at 300 N. Coast Hwy. The organizer describes it as free and open to all ages.

On Thanksgiving morning, Nov. 26, the O'side Turkey Trot 5K starts at 7 and 8 a.m. from 330 N. Coast Highway, next to the library, and finishes at The Strand and Seagaze. The organizer says the race no longer affects the Harbor area this year, so if you live near the harbor, your holiday morning drive should be clear.

Felix's could open on this corner any day now, so if you own nearby, that turnover might have you curious about what your own address is worth. Kara Kay & Associates can walk you through it over a coffee downtown. Request a Home Valuation, and we'll look at your home's value with the same street-by-street detail as this guide.