Happy Tuesday, Walnut Creek!

💡 Did you know: The Iron Horse Trail used to be a railroad. The Southern Pacific opened its San Ramon Branch Line in June 1891, trains stopped running in the late 1970s, and the rails were pulled up by 1979. A few of the old trestles, including ones in Walnut Creek and Concord, were saved. Today the corridor sees roughly a million trips a year, and a stretch of it happens to be closed this week.

This week: a Grammy winning trumpeter at the Lesher on Thursday, Hocus Pocus in a cactus garden on Friday, fruit to taste on Saturday, and a Steely Dan tribute band on Sunday.

A couple months ago, you told us events deserved more space in WCD. We're asking again at the bottom of today's issue to see if that's still true.

Let’s get to it.

— Sean Casey

Nash Studio is a creative studio right here in Walnut Creek. They help small and growing businesses with brand strategy, websites and content, and have worked with a local sourdough bakery, an apparel brand and this newsletter's own audience growth.

Here is what we keep noticing. There are great local businesses doing great work, but you would never know it from their website. Some don’t have a website at all.

So we are building one. Free, start to finish.

What the winner gets: a homepage designed and built for the business, not dropped into a template. Delivered inside a week. Yours to keep, no invoice, no obligation to work with us afterward.

How to enter: reply to this email with the name of a Walnut Creek business that deserves it. Your own, or someone else's. Add their website if they have one. If they don’t have one at all, say so. That is often the whole reason to nominate them.

We will pick one, build it, and share how it turned out. Entries close Sunday, October 11. Watch for a note from us Thursday.

SFJAZZ Presents brings Nicholas Payton to the Hofmann Theatre at the Lesher Center on Thursday night. The New Orleans trumpeter started playing at four, was working professionally by ten, released his first album in 1995 and won a Grammy in 1997 for best instrumental solo. Single tickets for the series are on sale.

If you would rather not spend the evening in a theater, Barebottle Brewing Company hosts Drag Bingo on the second Thursday of every month. It is listed as free to play and family friendly, with Ms. Sweet Nothing hosting.

📍 Where: Lesher Center for the Arts, 1601 Civic Dr. • Barebottle Brewing Company, 1375 S. California Blvd.
📅 When: Thursday, October 8 | Payton 7:30 PM • Bingo 7:00–10:00 PM
💲 Price: Payton tickets through the Lesher • Bingo free

Nicholas Payton Tickets | Drag Bingo

JETSET Pilates is taking its reformer workouts outside Friday morning for a free, music-driven mat class at Civic Park. The hour-long, full-body workout is open to all fitness levels and offers a preview of what’s coming to JETSET Pilates Walnut Creek.

Kalologie will be there with complimentary B12 shots, while Prologue Coffee & Tea is bringing treats. Mats are provided, though you can bring your own, along with water and a towel. Space is limited, so reserve a spot before heading over.

📍 Where: Civic Park, Walnut Creek
📅 When: Friday, October 9 | 9:00–10:00 AM
💲 Price: Free, reservation required

Reserve a Spot

The Ruth Bancroft Garden is showing Hocus Pocus on the plaza Friday night, which beats watching it from the couch. Gates open at 5:30, and the garden and nursery are open to explore before the film. There are craft stations on the patio, hair tinsel from Stardust Sparkle Studio, face painting from Creative Art and Clay, and food from El Donas, with drinks for sale. The movie start time is still listed as TBD, and garden entry closes around 7 PM, so don't arrive too late.

Bring warm layers and a lawn chair or blanket, since the garden only has a limited number of chairs. Tickets are $20 for adults and $10 for ages 5 to 17, children 4 and under are free, and the supply is limited.

📍 Where: The Ruth Bancroft Garden, 1552 Bancroft Rd.
📅 When: Friday, October 9 | Gates open 5:30 PM, garden entry closes about 7:00 PM
💲 Price: $20 adults • $10 ages 5–17 • Free for 4 and under

Movie Night Tickets

The garden follows Friday's movie with a Saturday morning Fall Fruit Tasting Tour, moving from familiar edible plants to some of the garden's more unusual, and occasionally prickly, fruits. Garden Curator Brian Kemble leads the hour-long tour, and you'll go home with seasonal fruit from the garden plus tips for preparing it in your own kitchen.

Registration is required, and you sign a waiver before picking up the fruit, since some of it is spiky. Spots are limited.

📍 Where: The Ruth Bancroft Garden, 1552 Bancroft Rd.
📅 When: Saturday, October 10 | 10:00–11:00 AM
💲 Price: $40 members • $55 non-members

Tour Tickets

Sunday is an outdoor day. The HEAD WEST Marketplace sets up on North Main Street, from Bonanza to Mt. Diablo, with local makers and small brands selling handmade ceramics, locally sourced vintage and more. It is kid and pet friendly and runs light rain or shine. At noon the Sounds of the Street series puts Slinky Thing, a Steely Dan tribute band, on Broadway Plaza Street for two hours of live music.

The market runs 11 to 5 and the music runs 12 to 2, so you can do both in one afternoon.

📍 Where: N. Main Street, Bonanza to Mt. Diablo • Broadway Plaza Street, 1275 Broadway Plaza
📅 When: Sunday, October 11 | Market 11:00 AM–5:00 PM • Music 12:00–2:00 PM

HEAD WEST Marketplace | Sounds of the Street

🚲 Part of the Iron Horse Trail is closed this week. The East Bay Regional Park District has closed the downtown stretch between Mt. Diablo Boulevard and Civic Park from October 5 through October 12 so PG&E can do vegetation management and wildlife enhancement work. No detour is posted, so plan on a break in the route and follow the signs at the work area. East Bay Regional Park District

🚧 A longer trail closure started the same day. The county closed the Robert I. Schroder pedestrian bridge over Treat Boulevard, near Jones Road, on October 5 for repairs and expects it to stay closed through December 31. Trail users cross Treat at street level, with detour signs pointing to the crossing, and the work is scheduled overnight from 9 p.m. to 5 a.m. Sunday through Thursday. Bay Area Telegraph

😋 Salt & Lime has an opening window. Diablo Dish reports the Mexican restaurant at 1521 N. Main St. is set to open in the next few weeks, with scratch-made ceviches, burritos, tacos, enchiladas and quesabirria and a 15-seat tequila bar. Diablo Dish

Pleasant Hill is throwing its first Harvest Festival on Saturday, a full day on Crescent Drive with live music, local food, beer and wine, artisan vendors, a pumpkin patch and pumpkin painting, a petting zoo and kids’ activities. The Pleasant Hill Stampede, a children’s parade in western wear, doubles as a food drive. Music starts with the DVC Viking Pep Band at 1:45 and runs through Zebop at 7:30, so it works as an evening plan as much as an afternoon one.

📍 Where: Crescent Dr., Pleasant Hill
📅 When: Saturday, October 10 | 11:00 AM–9:00 PM

Harvest Festival Details

October is getting crowded. Once Upon a Street returns to Broadway Plaza on Saturday, October 17 for the center’s 75th birthday, free from eleven to two. The Lesher Center hosts its Diwali celebration on October 23 and 24, with a full schedule still to come. And Trunk or Treat takes over Civic Park on Friday, October 23 from three to six.

🥗 Weekly Walnut recipe: Apple-Nut Bread Pudding. It folds three quarters of a cup of toasted walnuts and diced apples into stale bread cubes and custard, makes nine to twelve servings, and takes about an hour start to finish.

🎵 Who we are listening to: Steely Dan - Reelin' In The Years. Slinky Thing plays Steely Dan on Broadway Plaza Street Sunday, so here is the original.

🙏 Positive news around the globe: Max Owobu, an 18-year-old from the Bronx, started a nonprofit that pays for tuition, meals, uniforms and supplies for ten children at a school in Accra, Ghana, and wants to reach fifteen. Read Article

✨ A week with a trumpet, a Halloween movie in a cactus garden and fruit that comes with a waiver is a good week.

As always, we read every reply and truly appreciate hearing from you. If there’s something you’d like to see more of locally, let us know. Thanks for being part of the Walnut Creek Digest community.

Have an event you want to feature or want to advertise your business to our readers in Walnut Creek? Drop us a line here → [email protected]