Queen Anne Ave's Halloween Walk Passes Corners That Were Empty Last Year

Every October 31st since anyone can remember, Queen Anne Ave turns into a parade route for about two and a half hours. Crossing monitors post up at intersections, kids in costume work both sides of the street, and dogs get dressed up too. Trick-or-Treat on the Ave runs from 3:30 to 6:00 PM this year, and volunteers meet at Umpqua Bank at 1630 Queen Anne Ave N to pick up vests and assignments before the crowds arrive.

If you've walked this route before, you already know the shape of it. What's different this year is what's actually open along the way. Three storefronts that sat empty or belonged to a different business twelve months ago are now occupied, and the businesses that moved in tell you something about where the neighborhood's foot traffic and spending have gone.

The Corner That Took Two Years to Fill

Orange Goose Coffee sits on the corner of W Roy Street in Lower Queen Anne, and if you were walking that block last Halloween, there was nothing there worth stopping for. The shop didn't open in its permanent form until March 2026. Before that, founder Polu Arsiga had been running it as a pop-up since April 2024, first out of his apartment in Ballard, then through events and fundraising rounds while he built a following one weekend at a time.

That's nearly two years between the first pop-up and the lease. Arsiga built out the interior himself. The menu leans Hawaiian and Korean, with drinks like Da Ube made from espresso, grated ube, and coconut cream, alongside snacks like butter mochi with dried persimmon and strawberry jam. The shelves carry ceramics, bags, and prints from other local makers, which is its own small signal: a new business confident enough in its neighborhood ties to hand shelf space to other small operators rather than fill it with branded merchandise.

A coffee shop taking two years to go from pop-up to permanent address isn't a story about slow real estate. It's a story about a business proving itself to the neighborhood before the neighborhood had to prove anything back.

Eden Hill's Old Address Now Costs $175 a Seat

A few blocks away, the space that used to house Eden Hill has a new tenant: an omakase counter charging $175 per person, run by a chef who spent time at Shiro's, one of the city's most respected sushi kitchens. That's a steep price point for a neighborhood better known for family-style Italian and creole comfort food than tasting menus, and it's worth sitting with for a second.

A restaurant betting on a $175 seat isn't guessing. It's reading the same foot traffic that supports the wine walks and the farmers market and deciding there's a customer on this hill willing to pay for a chef's credentials, not just a filling meal. Whether that bet pays off will show up in whether the space is still open next Halloween. For now, it's occupied, which is more than the corner could say a year ago.

A Bakery That Waited for Valentine's Day

Maddy's Bakeshop, known for cakes and pastry work before it had a storefront, opened its brick-and-mortar location in Lower Queen Anne with regular weekend hours starting on Valentine's Day 2026. By the time trick-or-treaters pass its window this year, it will have been running for roughly eight months, long enough to have settled into a rhythm but still new enough that plenty of longtime residents haven't wandered in yet.

Here's what the walk actually looks like if you're tracking corners rather than costumes:

None of these are chain openings. All three are operators who spent time proving themselves in the neighborhood, whether through pop-ups, catering, or reputation carried over from another kitchen, before signing a lease on the Ave.

The Walk Itself Hasn't Changed

The mechanics of Trick-or-Treat on the Ave are the same as they've always been. It runs 3:30 to 6:00 PM on October 31, it's free, and it's built for families and pets. If you want to close your own block down for the night instead of just walking the Ave, the Seattle Department of Transportation is offering free Trick-or-Streets permits again this year. Applications are due by October 20, and approved block parties can run October 21 through November 2. Residents can close up to three consecutive blocks as long as cross streets stay open, and any closure that runs past dusk needs reflective tape on the barricades and an adult monitoring each end.

If you're headed downhill afterward, Seattle Center is running its Día de Muertos Festival the same weekend, October 31 through November 1, 11 AM to 6 PM at the Armory Food & Event Hall and Fisher Pavilion. It's free, and it turns Halloween weekend into a two-day stretch rather than a single evening.

The Wine Walk Covers the Same Ground, Slower

Two weeks after Halloween, the Ave hosts a different kind of crowd. The Queen Anne Fall Wine Walk runs Saturday, November 8, from 4 to 7 PM. A $35 advance ticket gets you 12 tastings, a wine glass, and a tote, and it's built for couples wandering into the same shops and boutiques that hosted trick-or-treaters two weeks earlier, this time pouring Pacific Northwest wine instead of candy. Proceeds support both the Chamber and the small businesses participating, which means the same storefronts that just filled in over the past year get a second chance to put themselves in front of neighbors who might not have wandered in yet.

It's the same corners, the same Ave, but a slower pace and a 21-and-up crowd. Between the two events, you get a fairly complete read on who's actually running businesses on Queen Anne Ave right now, family-friendly in the afternoon, wine-and-conversation in the evening.

One More Season for the Farmers Market

If you haven't made it to the Queen Anne Farmers Market yet this year, the window is closing. It runs Thursdays from 3 to 7 PM, June through October, at the parking lot on W Crockett Street and Queen Anne Ave N. Once the calendar turns to November, it's done for the season, so any Thursday between now and the end of October is one of the last chances until next summer.

What's Already Booked for 2027

The turnover on the Ave isn't slowing down. The Chamber's own community news feed already has a headline lined up for 2027: Kitchen & Market has announced plans to expand into Queen Anne in early 2027. That's still more than a year out, but it's one more name added to a list that already includes a coffee shop that spent two years proving itself, an omakase counter charging premium prices in a formerly empty space, and a bakery that waited for the right holiday to open its doors.

Walk the Ave this Halloween and you're not just taking your kids around for candy. You're getting a real-time look at which bets on this neighborhood paid off enough to survive a full year, and which corners are still waiting for someone to take the next chance on them.

If you're the kind of person who notices which storefronts fill in and which ones sit empty, that's the same instinct TeamUp Seattle brings to reading the housing market on this hill. If you're curious what a year of turnover like this usually means for home values nearby, we're happy to talk it through.