Murphy Avenue or Redwood Square? Planning an October Weekend in Downtown Sunnyvale
Nandana Hazarika was an intern at 193 S. Murphy Ave. when it was still The Oxford Kitchen & Gastropub. She later took over the space. In August she opened Khaar there, which is being called the Bay Area's first dedicated Northeast Indian restaurant. She was born in Assam and spent about 18 years in the Bay Area working as a software engineer and data analyst before culinary school. Khaar soft-opened on Aug. 14 and held its grand opening on Sept. 12.
Khaar is one of this year's new restaurants downtown, and all of them chose historic Murphy Avenue. The free fall programming is happening a block over at Redwood Square, the plaza in Cityline, the mixed-use project built on what had been a parking lot. On Saturday, Oct. 24, the farmers' market on Murphy and a festival at Redwood Square happen on the same day, which makes it the easiest October day to spend entirely downtown.
Murphy Avenue has an advantage that new streets can't build: decades of regulars. Paul & Harvey has been a fixture there since 1937. Fibbar MaGees opened in 1994, and Heather Howard has worked there since its first year. The 100 block has also been pedestrian-only since the City Council voted in 2023 to make it a permanent pedestrian mall. In a citywide survey before that vote, more than 90% of respondents supported closing the block to cars. Because the street is closed to cars, restaurants can set up dining right on it. Three openings this year show what that's attracting.
Khaar, 193 S. Murphy Ave. The restaurant seats 135 inside and has more seating outdoors. The name comes from "khaar khuwa axomiya," a phrase meaning "the Khaar-eating Assamese people." Khaar itself is an alkaline extract made by burning sun-dried banana peels and filtering water through the ashes. The kitchen builds dishes around ingredients more than heavy spice, cream or dairy. Dishes include a khaar croquette with flaky fish and fermented mushroom for $18 and a black sesame heritage plate of slow-cooked chicken or pork with sticky rice for $29. The chef's special, the golden blossom, is stuffed squash blossoms with cracked wheat pulao for $32. One of the desserts is an Assam tea crème brûlée. Khaar has a full bar with $15 cocktails and $11 mocktails, plus vegetarian and vegan options. Much of the menu is naturally gluten-free and dairy-free.
Zareen's, 135 S. Murphy Ave. Zareen Khan opened her first restaurant in a small Mountain View storefront in 2014. She added California Avenue in Palo Alto in 2016 and Broadway in Redwood City in 2020. Sunnyvale is now the chain's southernmost location, and it was open by June 1. Earlier this year Khan was named a 2026 James Beard semifinalist for Best Chef: California. The 2020 Michelin Guide called the chicken Memoni samosas a "must-order." Hours are 5 to 9 p.m. daily.
Shake Shack, 275 S. Murphy Ave. It opened in June on the ground floor of the Martin. Josh Rupert of Hunter Properties, who led the Cityline project, said the opening drew lines down the street. Its address shows how the two parts of downtown overlap. The restaurant is on Murphy Avenue but sits under a Cityline building.
Zareen's and Khaar have already been well tested. Khan built a following one city at a time over a decade, and Hazarika learned the room before she took it over. Both chose a block that already has steady foot traffic.
Redwood Square is new by downtown standards. In the late 1980s and '90s, this part of downtown was mostly the Sunnyvale Town Center mall. The mall was torn down in 2007, and the redevelopment stalled until Cityline took it over in 2016. Since then, Cityline has added nearly 200 homes and more than 100,000 square feet of retail. It also brought in the AMC theater, Whole Foods and the Martin, an apartment building with nearly 500 units that opened in 2024. "For years and years, it was just a parking lot," Howard told the Mercury News in June.
That former parking lot now hosts downtown's fall festivals. Cityline's Harvest Festival is on Saturday, Oct. 24. It's free, and plans include a pop-up pumpkin patch with carving stations, a set by the teen band Osada3 and a Monster Mash dance lesson led by Alyssa from On One Studios. There will also be a Día de los Muertos performance, face painting by Summer Sky, trick-or-treat stations around the square, ceramic painting, ping pong, cornhole and a table of local makers.
A week later comes the Sunnyvale Autumn Food Festival, Saturday, Oct. 31, and Sunday, Nov. 1, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. It will have food and craft vendors, live performances, Halloween activities and a pet costume contest. Parking in the Cityline garages is free, and Cityline asks guests to RSVP through Eventbrite.
The Sunnyvale Farmers' Market sets up on Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Murphy and Washington avenues. The city's October calendar lists it on Oct. 10, 17 and 24 but not on Oct. 31. Check the city calendar before you plan around a market that weekend. Here is how the rest of October looks with every date in one place:
| Date | Murphy Avenue | Redwood Square |
|---|---|---|
| Sat., Oct. 10 | Farmers' Market, 9 a.m.–1 p.m. | — |
| Thu., Oct. 15 | Sunnyvale Tech Expo, 11 a.m.–1:30 p.m., 100 block of S. Murphy | — |
| Sat., Oct. 17 | Farmers' Market, 9 a.m.–1 p.m. | — |
| Sat., Oct. 24 | Farmers' Market, 9 a.m.–1 p.m. | Harvest Festival, free |
| Sat., Oct. 31 | No market on the city calendar | Autumn Food Festival, 10 a.m.–5 p.m. |
| Sun., Nov. 1 | — | Autumn Food Festival, 10 a.m.–5 p.m. |
Oct. 24 is the only Saturday when both columns have something scheduled. Oct. 15 is a weekday lunchtime event on the pedestrian block, so Murphy will be busier than usual that Thursday.
The four Cityline streets that border the project are Mathilda Avenue, Sunnyvale Avenue, Washington Avenue and Iowa Avenue, and Murphy runs right through the middle. A full Saturday downtown means very little walking.
For Oct. 24, one plan would be the market at Murphy and Washington in the morning, then Redwood Square in the afternoon for pumpkin carving and the dance lesson. Brunch fits in between at Keke's Breakfast Cafe, which the Mercury News says can have very long waits. Zareen's opens for dinner at 5 p.m.
Oct. 31 is Halloween, a Saturday this year, and the Autumn Food Festival runs from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. that day and the next. If you plan to eat at the festival and then go to dinner on Murphy, Khaar's 135 indoor seats and outdoor seating make it a good option for a larger group. The pet costume contest is on the festival schedule, so plan ahead if your dog is coming along.
For a later evening, Murphy has Fibbar MaGees and Paul & Harvey, plus Fuego and Pure, which the Mercury News describes as a sports bar that turns into a nightclub and a nightclub known for long lines.
Three more businesses are listed as "Coming Soon" in Cityline's directory: Haldiram's, Joe & The Juice and Sana'a Coffee House. The listings don't give opening dates. The city has said it will post winter holiday events near the end of 2026, but no tree-lighting date has been announced yet.
Downtown Sunnyvale changes one storefront and one Saturday at a time, and at Red Door Real Estate we follow those changes as closely as we follow the housing market. If you'd like to know what's changing on your block, or which new opening is worth trying first, let's talk.
You’ve got questions and we can’t wait to answer them.