Something worth noticing has happened on the Plaza this year. The two most talked-about restaurant openings both come from chefs who already live and cook here, taking over spaces that had been part of Sonoma's identity for decades. Add a free Sunday concert series that runs through October and the return of the Tuesday Night Market, and the square starts to look less like a stop on a wine tour and more like a shared weekly calendar for the people who live within walking distance.
This is a resident's shortlist. Where to go, when to show up, and what the openings actually tell you about how the Plaza is being remade from the inside.
The corner Maya used to sit on
For years the northwest corner of the Plaza belonged to Maya, a family-run Mexican restaurant that closed after its owners retired. The team behind the girl & the fig quietly took the lease in September, and the concept coming into that space is not another Sonoma-French bistro. Dead Letter, a live-fire kitchen concept from the girl & the fig team, will open in the former Maya Restaurant space in Sonoma.
Chef John Toulze is leading it. That matters because live-fire cooking on the Plaza is a departure from the girl & the fig's established menu, and it signals a bet on grilled and hearth-driven food rather than the bistro repertoire that made the group's name. It is the same operators, a different appetite.
The takeaway for anyone who has watched Plaza turnover for a decade: the retirements of the Maya generation are not being answered by outside groups from Napa or San Francisco. They are being answered by chefs already based in the Valley, moving up-Plaza into the flagship corners.
A smashburger from the Glen Ellen Star team
The second opening comes from the same pattern. Ari Weiswasser, chef and proprietor of Stella and Glen Ellen Star, plans to open a fast-casual burger and fried chicken restaurant called SMASH on the Sonoma Plaza in May.
Here is what makes SMASH interesting rather than just another burger spot. From the Stella and Glen Ellen Star team, this fast-casual spot near the Sonoma Plaza will serve smashburgers, fried chicken sandwiches, fries, shakes and cocktails, including a few boozy ones. It marks a shift from the group's higher-end menus, but a peek at their social media shows plenty of test flipping already in progress.
Glen Ellen Star has a wood-fired reputation and a tasting-menu adjacent crowd. Sending that team into a smashburger format on the Plaza is the kind of move an operator makes when the goal is weeknight neighborhood traffic, not destination reservations. The economics of casual, counter-service Wine Country cooking have been quietly rewriting themselves. In one of the busiest opening seasons in recent years, more than 20 restaurants have opened or are slated to debut in 2026. Despite a challenging economic outlook, some restaurateurs point to a softening real estate market and easing rents as one reason behind the surge. For many of the newcomers, though, the explanation is simpler: optimism, a quality the restaurant world has rarely lacked.
Two of the Plaza's most legacy addresses have gone, in the same year, to chefs already anchored in the Valley. The renewal is coming from inside the county line.
If you have lived in Sonoma long enough to remember when the corner turnover conversation was about who from out of town might buy in, this is a real shift.
The Plaza has a Sunday schedule now
For the second summer, the Plaza has a standing free concert every Sunday afternoon. If you have not walked over yet, this is the year to build it into your routine. Sonoma Sundays on the Plaza is presented by Music in Place and the City of Sonoma, and takes place at the Grinstead Amphitheater each Sunday from 2:00 to 5:00 p.m., June 7 through October 4, 2026. Each week brings a new artist and a wide range of musical styles, from blues and jazz to Americana, swing, and more, creating a lively, welcoming atmosphere in the historic Sonoma Plaza. Bring a blanket or lawn chair, pack a picnic, and enjoy an afternoon of music, dancing, and community.
A few dates worth marking, drawn from the published lineup:
- September 6 — Sascha Jacobsen and Mark St. Mary, tango and zydeco
- September 20 — Tyler Lauren, indie singer-songwriter
- September 27 — Robert Dehlinger's Alpha Rhythm Kings, jump jive and swing
- October 4 — Sonoma Stealth Band and Joe Smiell Orchestra, closing on Oktoberfest
The series is made possible by the support of community partners including the Sonoma Community Center, The Dawn Redwoods Trust, and the McNeely Family Foundation.
Two practical notes for locals. The Grinstead Amphitheater is the small stage at the corner of the Plaza, not the middle green, so sightlines are actually best from a blanket rather than a chair set far back. And because the series runs into October, the late-season concerts often have the best temperatures of the year for lingering afterward at whichever new restaurant you have been meaning to try.
Tuesdays, from five
The other weekly rhythm is back. May marks the return of the beloved Tuesday Night Farmers Market on the historic Sonoma Plaza.
If you have been in Sonoma more than one summer, you know the Tuesday Night Market is less a farmers market than the town's midweek social hour. It runs through the summer and into the fall. The last month of Tuesday Market nights in the Plaza runs 5:00 to 7:00 pm. Earlier in the season it goes until 8.
What is different this year is context. With SMASH opening on the Plaza and Dead Letter's kitchen firing up on the corner, the ecosystem around the Tuesday market has more anchors to walk to before or after. The stroll from a produce vendor to a smashburger counter to a Grinstead concert on Sunday afternoon is now a coherent local circuit rather than three separate errands.
What else to put on the summer calendar
The Plaza is the center, but the summer schedule extends outward through several dependable Sonoma Valley events. A working shortlist, keyed to why a resident might actually care:
| When | What | Why it belongs on your calendar |
|---|---|---|
| June 14 | Sonoma Valley Pride on the Plaza | A free, shaded, open-air festival on the historic Sonoma Plaza with live music, inspiring speakers, local artists and makers, food, wine, family-friendly activities, and community connection in the center of Sonoma Valley. |
| June, various dates | Bear Flag Weekend and NASCAR at Sonoma Raceway | June features NASCAR Race Weekend at Sonoma Raceway, including the Toyota/Save Mart 350, along with Broadway Under the Stars and Bear Flag Weekend. |
| All summer | Broadway Under the Stars | Transcendence Theatre Company's lineup includes "Ain't Too Proud to Beg," "Radio Recall," and "Mamma Mia!" for the 15th season. |
| May 23 through July 12 | Lavender Bloom Fest at Bees N Blooms | Lavender Bloom Fest 2026 takes place May 23 through July 12 on Saturdays and Sundays from 10 AM to 4 PM, with additional evening hours May 29 and every Friday in June from 6 PM to 9 PM. |
| September | Valley of the Moon Vintage Festival, Sonoma Plein Air | September welcomes the Valley of the Moon Vintage Festival, in its 129th year, and the Sonoma Plein Air Festival that attracts artists from around the country. |
For the Vintage Festival in particular, one hundred and twenty nine years is worth pausing on. It predates most of what the tourist map treats as historic. That is the kind of baseline that reminds you why the Plaza feels the way it does under the string lights in September.
The pattern underneath all of this
Read the summer whole and a picture emerges. Two of the Plaza's most visible restaurant addresses have gone to Valley chefs rather than outside groups. The free programming on the Plaza itself, Sunday concerts and the Tuesday Market, has grown into a genuine weekly civic rhythm rather than a tourist backdrop. The seasonal festivals that have been on the calendar for a century keep drawing artists and neighbors instead of pivoting to spectacle.
The Plaza is being renewed by the people who already knew it. That is a good year for residents, and a quietly meaningful one for anyone thinking about the long arc of what Sonoma is becoming.
If you are considering a move within the Valley, thinking about the right time to sell a Sonoma home, or wondering how the neighborhoods just off the Plaza are trading right now, Suzanne Ashimine is available for a complimentary home valuation or consultation. Local stewardship, hands-on project management, and Compass marketing reach, brought together by an advisor who has lived and worked in this Valley for decades.
