At 2:30 p.m. on Saturday, the City Rec booth opens at the corner of Morro Bay Boulevard and Main Street and starts handing out maps of participating businesses for Morro Bay Downtown Trick-or-Treat. The Morro Bay Main St Saturday Farmers Market runs year-round at that same corner, and its posted hours are also 2:30 to 5:30 p.m.
October 31 falls on a Saturday this year, so the two schedules land on top of each other. They name the same intersection and the same three hours. The overlap also shows how much of downtown Morro Bay's calendar now runs along one short stretch of Main Street. Beignets open that stretch in the morning, a costume party closes it at night, and a juried craft show takes over a few addresses away five days later.
Four Listings, One Block
Here is how Halloween Saturday looks when you lay the published schedules for the 800 block of Main side by side:
- 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. The Second Line, 897 Main St., serves coffee and beignets. These are the weekend hours on the cafe's own website.
- 2:30 p.m. Trick-or-treat maps go out at the City Rec booth on the corner of Morro Bay Boulevard and Main. The listing also includes a photo booth, face painting with tickets sold at the booth, live music, a haunted trolley and a bounce house.
- 2:30 to 5:30 p.m. The state's certified farmers market list, dated October 1, 2026, gives these as the Saturday market hours at Main and Morro Bay Boulevard.
- 6 to 10 p.m. The Spooky Soirée runs at 875 Main St., Suite C, with a costume contest at 8 p.m.
The Second Line's weekend hours end at 2 p.m., half an hour before the map booth opens. If you want beignets and trick-or-treat on the same day, plan for two separate trips to the block, not one long stop.
The Morning Shift Moved Indoors at 897 Main
For several years, The Second Line was a farmers market stand. The Tribune reported that owner David Perlis began making beignets in 2020 while working as a barista at Cambria Coffee Roasting Co. A year later he started pop-ups at the Cambria and Morro Bay farmers markets, and he added the Downtown SLO Farmers Market in 2023. Perlis grew up in Baton Rouge. The shop's name refers to the "second line," the people who join a New Orleans jazz funeral procession as it moves down the street, and in his case that means his customers.
The space at 897 Main was home to Savory Smoke, a barbecue restaurant that closed in February 2026. Perlis took over the lease that month. After permitting and remodeling, the shop opened in September, according to the Tribune's September 9 story. "This was the space it was supposed to be," Perlis told The Tribune.
Inside, The Tribune described maroon curtains over the windows, wooden chairs, colorful couches, books Perlis is reading, paintings, a wardrobe that holds the drip coffee station, and a turntable playing jazz classics and soft rock. The menu prices on the cafe's website:
- Single beignet, $6
- Three beignets, $16
- Dozen beignets by the box, $40
- Drip coffee, $4
- Cafe au lait, $4.75
- Espresso, $3.50 to $5
The hours differ depending on where you look. The Tribune's opening story listed the shop as open every day from 7 a.m. to noon. The cafe's website now lists 7 a.m. to noon Monday through Thursday and 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. Friday through Sunday. The website is the more recent of the two. Perlis also told The Tribune he planned a fuller menu over the following months, including New York bagels, po' boys, soups, salads and breakfast items, so check the menu board before you order.
Inside the Circle Inn After Dark
The 875 Main address has hosted a Halloween tradition of its own for a while. According to the event listing on Visit Morro Bay, the shop in Suite C turns the hallway of the historic Circle Inn into a Haunted Hallway "every year for Morro Bay's downtown trick-or-treat." The hallway will be open again during Saturday afternoon's trick-or-treat, and the shop plans to hand out treats to kids.
This year the shop is also hosting a party that night. The Spooky Soirée runs from 6 to 10 p.m. with Halloween projections, interactive games, kava specials and tarot readings, which are sold separately. Admission is $15 and includes your first kava shell. The costume contest at 8 p.m. names three winners, with prizes from the shop and other local businesses. The organizers write that they wanted a place to go out on Halloween night that doesn't revolve around alcohol. Tickets are sold through a link the shop posts on social media.
Taken together, the block's Halloween runs from afternoon into night. Trick-or-treat at the corner gives way to the Haunted Hallway, and the same address picks up again at 6 p.m. with a party for adults.
The Market Keeps Its Corner After the Costumes
The farmers market came before the costumes and will still be there after them. The Morro Bay Main St Saturday Farmers Market is listed as year-round at Main Street and Morro Bay Boulevard, with Jeff Nielsen as manager. The schedule does change in the colder months. Visit Morro Bay's market listing gives the usual 2:30 to 5:30 p.m. window and notes that the market closes at 5 p.m. in winter.
The town also has a second market. The Morro Bay Thursday market runs year-round from 2 to 4:30 p.m. at Spencer's Fresh Markets, 2650 Main St., between Pico and Elena streets. This post goes up on a Thursday, so if you're reading it the day it publishes, that market opens this afternoon. SLO County Farmers' Markets lists Jessie-Lynae Bonfield as its contact.
That makes Main Street the address for both of Morro Bay's weekly markets. The Thursday market sits farther north at Spencer's, and the Saturday market sits at the downtown corner where this weekend's trick-or-treat booth will go up.
A Few Addresses Down, the Art Center Takes November
Five days after Halloween, the 800 block gets another regular. The Morro Bay Art Association's Annual Winter Faire & Juried Craft Show opens November 5 at Art Center Morro Bay, 835 Main St., and runs through January 4, 2027. It's open from noon to 4 p.m. daily. According to the show's listing, it includes paintings, photography and fine crafts in fiber, wood, glass, sculpture, pottery and jewelry. The artists' reception is Sunday, November 8, from 2 to 4 p.m.
The schedule lines up with the rest of the block. The gallery's noon opening comes right as The Second Line's weekday hours end, and on a Saturday the gallery closes at 4 p.m., partway through market hours. Through the end of the year, then, three addresses on one stretch of Main cover the whole day: 897 in the morning, 835 at midday and the market corner in the afternoon.
When the Calendar Moves to the Water
In December, the holiday events move to the Embarcadero, but the published plans still send people back through downtown. Santa's House at the corner of Embarcadero and Front Street is free and opens the first three weekends of December. Hours are 5 to 8 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays and noon to 4 p.m. on Sundays. On Friday, December 4, the listing says Santa starts at the Tree Lighting at City Park and arrives at his house at 6 p.m.
The free Lighted Boat Parade is the next evening, Saturday, December 5, starting at 6 p.m. Boats from the fishing, leisure and yachting community will be decorated with lights. You can watch from anywhere along the Embarcadero between Tidelands Park and the Rock. That night, Santa's House near the Giant Chessboard opens at 5 p.m., and the Morro Bay White Caps Band plays holiday music at the South T-Pier starting at 5:30 p.m. The parade listing recommends parking downtown and walking to the Embarcadero to avoid parking and traffic congestion at the waterfront. If the weather or wind makes the parade unsafe, it won't be rescheduled. Boat owners can apply to join the parade through the Morro Bay Rotary website.
So the parade crowd starts downtown too, and the walk to the water begins on the same blocks around Main and Morro Bay Boulevard. December 5 is also a Saturday. On the winter schedule, the farmers market at that corner closes at 5 p.m., one hour before the first boats go out.
If you own a home within walking distance of Main and Morro Bay Boulevard and want to know how a downtown location like yours is valued today, Ronca Real Estate can help. Tracy and Stephanie offer a personalized market valuation, and they're happy to talk it through over coffee at The Second Line some weekday morning before noon.
