Last September, a walk down Broadway between La Cruz and Victoria meant one festival weekend, one farmers market morning, and the same short list of dinner options residents had rotated through for years. This September looks different. The same six blocks now host two separate festivals two weekends apart, a Saturday market that keeps humming between them, and a dinner lineup that gained a real anchor on the El Camino side in February.
If you live here, the practical question is not whether Millbrae has more going on this fall. It clearly does. The question is how to string it together without doubling back.
The two September weekends are not the same festival
They get lumped together in conversation, but the Art & Wine Festival and the Mid-Autumn Festival draw different crowds, different vendors, and different food. Treating them as one thing is how people miss the one they would have actually enjoyed.
The 55th Annual Millbrae Art & Wine Festival runs September 5 and 6, 2026 on Broadway Avenue, and it is the one most longtime residents already know. Gourmet food vendors, specialty food trucks, fine wines, craft beer, live entertainment, hundreds of artisan exhibitors, continuous music, and children's activities stretch the length of downtown. If you have been to it before, you know the drill: come early, park south of the festival footprint, and expect the crowd to peak mid-afternoon Saturday.
Two weekends later, the Millbrae Mid-Autumn Festival runs September 19 to 20, 2026, from 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM, admission free, on the 200 to 400 block of Broadway. It is organized jointly by the MCC, the City of Millbrae, and O.M.G Entertainment, and the character on the ground is meaningfully different. Expect a mix of food, art, and cultural entertainment, arts and handmade goods from local makers, a Kid's Zone, and a main stage with live music, dance, and cultural performances including Kung Fu demonstrations. The 2024 edition drew more than 150 food and arts and handicrafts vendors, and the organizers put on-site attendance in the 20,000-plus range.
A short way to think about the difference:
- Sept 5 to 6, Art & Wine: wine pours, craft booths, classic Peninsula street-festival energy, the widest footprint.
- Sept 19 to 20, Mid-Autumn: food-first, cultural programming on stage, tighter geography on the 200 to 400 block, best experienced on foot with kids.
If you only pick one this year, pick the one you skipped last year.
The Saturday in between is the one to protect
The weekend between the two festivals is when Broadway is most itself. That is also the Saturday to lean on the Millbrae Farmers Market, held every Saturday from 8:00 AM to 1:00 PM in the City Parking Lot on Broadway between La Cruz and Victoria Avenue. The Chamber has sponsored it since its founding in 1993, and while that fact is not new, its position on the fall calendar matters more this year. With two festival weekends bracketing it, the mid-month Saturday is the one where you can actually get a parking spot on Broadway, do the market, and land at a Broadway table for lunch without a wait.
That is a small planning point, but it is the kind of thing only a resident notices.
The dinner map got a new corner in February
The Broadway dinner list has been stable for years: 16 Mile House on the north end for a steak-and-seafood room, wonderful at 270 Broadway for Hunanese and Sichuan, and a rotating cast of Cantonese and Hong Kong-style spots up and down the street. What changed in 2026 is not that Broadway itself added a headline restaurant. It is that the block one over finally did.
Slice House by Tony Gemignani opened its Millbrae location on February 21, 2026. Locationally, this matters. Slice House Millbrae sits on El Camino Real near Fiddlers Green, a half block from Broadway in the city's bustling downtown and walking distance from Millbrae Square Shopping Center. That puts a fast-casual pizza option, open seven days a week from 11 a.m. until 9 p.m., exactly where the Broadway dinner cluster runs out and the El Camino corridor picks up. The operators are not new to the format either. Founder Tony Gemignani framed it plainly at opening:
"Slice House is officially opening in Millbrae, and we couldn't be more excited to be part of the dynamic Peninsula community. From our craft pizza and fresh pastas to our signature slices, this opening represents another meaningful step in our Northern California growth. Partnering again with the Yuksel Family, whose hands-on leadership has shaped the success of our Haight Street and Belmont locations, makes it even more special."
For residents, the practical upshot is that a family that could not agree on Broadway now has a real fallback three minutes away. The seating footprint is small, indoor seating for 16 guests, plus takeout, online ordering, and delivery, so treat it as a weeknight or takeout play rather than a group-dinner destination.
The rest of the Broadway lineup earned its place this year by staying good. wonderful at 270 Broadway carries a Michelin recommendation, not a star, but the guide's explicit endorsement of a restaurant worth seeking out. The kitchen focuses on Hunanese and Sichuan cooking, which puts it in a different register than most of Broadway's Cantonese and Hong Kong-style spots, and the line out the door on weekends is not a rumor. A few doors down, New Broadway Bistro at 349 Broadway is a women- and Asian-owned Hong Kong-style cafe with a tight menu built around dishes like Dried Scallop Bitter Melon with Egg White Rice Noodles and Ovaltine French Toast, with Cantonese-influenced comfort food at the kind of prices that make it a Tuesday option, not a special occasion.
If out-of-town guests are in for a festival weekend and want the sit-down dinner conversation, wonderful is the answer. If it is you and the kids on a Saturday night after the market, New Broadway Bistro or Slice House will get you fed faster.
A one-day Broadway loop, if you want it stitched together
For the Saturday between the two September festivals, a workable route:
- 8:30 to 9:30 AM. Farmers Market at the Broadway lot between La Cruz and Victoria. Bring a bag, hit produce first, coffee after.
- 10:00 to 11:30 AM. Walk the length of Broadway before crowds. Duck into 349 for a late Hong Kong-style breakfast, or hold out.
- 12:00 PM. Slice House on El Camino near Fiddlers Green for a fast lunch, or a table at wonderful if you called ahead.
- Afternoon. Head home with market haul, or extend into an errand loop toward Millbrae Square.
- Evening. 16 Mile House if it is a milestone night, or takeout from Broadway if it is not.
This is not a tourist itinerary. It is a residents' Saturday that assumes you already know where to park.
The winter bookend already has a date
The 2026 fall season has an unusual property. It ends with a scheduled event that will reshape how residents shop in 2027. T&T Supermarket, Canada's largest Asian grocery chain, will open in Millbrae at Friendship Plaza, 95 Murchison Dr. and 135 to 143 South El Camino Real, in Winter 2026. The store is 52,000 square feet, and its position matters as much as its size. It sits between the Broadway corridor and the Gateway development, which means the city's commercial geography, historically anchored by Broadway alone, is about to gain a third node on the south side of downtown.
For a sense of what to expect on opening day, look at the June 18, 2026 San Jose debut at Westgate Center, where the opening ceremony kicked off at 8 a.m. and doors opened at 9 a.m. That store spans 55,000 square feet and is expected to create about 300 jobs. Millbrae's is slightly smaller and will create 350 jobs for the local community.
Closer to Broadway, another quieter arrival is on the docket. Millbraes Cafe is preparing to open at 1663 El Camino Real, taking over the former location of Otto's Appliance Service, with Maria Guadalupe Davalos listed as owner. The filing shows an application for a license to sell beer and wine, and no opening date has been announced through the filing. Worth watching between now and December.
Why the fall matters more than usual
The through-line across all of this is that Millbrae's downtown is no longer a one-corridor town for its own residents. Two festival weekends, a stable Saturday market, a real fast-casual anchor on the El Camino side, a Michelin-recommended sit-down room on Broadway, and a full-scale grocery destination arriving before spring means the choices you had last fall have quietly doubled. If you had drifted into a habit of driving to Hillsdale or downtown San Mateo for anything beyond breakfast, this is the fall to reset that muscle memory.
If you're weighing a move, a sale, or an investment purchase in Millbrae or another Peninsula pocket and want to talk through how a shifting downtown affects value on your specific block, Luis Vasquez is available for a market consultation. Grab the free Buying & Selling Guide, then schedule a time to talk through your plans.
