The Backyard Bagel Team Is Opening Something Different on McGraw. Here's How Magnolia Village Fills November Around It.

Since October 10, the corner of W McGraw Street and 33rd Avenue W has gone back to being an ordinary Saturday intersection. That was the last day of the Magnolia Farmers Market's regular 2026 season, which ran every Saturday from June 6. The fall calendar now runs on four Saturdays, all on or near the same stretch of McGraw. Between the third and fourth, a new bagel shop on that block hopes to open its doors.

Taken together, those dates explain the Village's late fall. Events now land on four specific Saturdays, with open weekends in between. The only new everyday place on the calendar is a bakery that its owner chose not to build as a copy of anything else in the city.

Four Saturdays, three of them on McGraw

The dates below are what the Village organizers have posted for 2026. Two Saturdays in the stretch, November 7 and November 28, have nothing on the Village calendar.

The first one is Saturday, October 31. The Magnolia Chamber of Commerce lists Village Trick or Treat for October 31 from 4 to 6 p.m. W McGraw Street will be closed between 32nd and 34th avenues. The event is free and sponsored by Magnolia Summerfest. Those two blocks of McGraw are where the rest of the season happens too.

November 14 starts off the main strip

The one event in the run that sits outside the Village core is the Magnolia Flea Market, at 4257 24th Ave W. It runs Saturday, November 14, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Its listing promises vintage finds, local makers, handmade goods, sweets, coffee and food, along with a vintage warehouse to browse. The organizer also tells visitors to bring the dog.

The flea market is a series, not a one-off. It is back on Saturday, December 12, with the same hours at the same address. If the November date clashes with something else, the December one gives you a second chance, and it falls a week after the Village's last market of the year.

November 21 brings the market back for Thanksgiving

The Magnolia Farmers Market comes back for two special dates this season. The first is the Harvest Market on Saturday, November 21, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. in Magnolia Village. The market listing says it will bring back familiar vendors alongside new ones, with "seasonal produce for your thanksgiving table and local products perfect for gift giving."

The listing also puts more programming on this date than a regular summer Saturday carries:

• Live music
• Cooking demonstrations
• Free face painting
• Knife sharpening by Magnolia Knife Sharpening, for a fee

The knife sharpening is the item to plan around. If you'll be carving a turkey that week, bring your knives to the market that morning and you're set.

The Seattle Neighborhood Farmers Markets page for Magnolia lists both special markets at W McGraw Street and 33rd Ave W, the same corner the summer market used.

Late November, a bakery that chose not to be a copy

On the same stretch of McGraw as the market sits 3213 W McGraw St, the former Slice Box Pizza space, where Little Boat Bagels is aiming for a late-November opening. Owner Aaron Emas gave that target to What Now Seattle in early October and said the official timeline depends on permitting. Hoodline also identified the address as Slice Box's old storefront.

Emas's team runs Backyard Bagel, which has shops in Fremont and Laurelhurst. The obvious move would have been a third Backyard. He told What Now Seattle that was the original plan. "Our intention was to open another Backyard, but the more time we spent in the new shop, the more it felt like a square-peg-round-hole situation," he said. "When you go to a Backyard, I want the experience to feel the same every time, and this just wasn't it."

So Magnolia is getting its own concept, not a copy. According to What Now Seattle's report, Little Boat will use Backyard's operating systems but have its own menu, branding and experience. It will also have a bagel created just for this shop. Emas described it as a new sourdough recipe "unlike any other bagel in the city," with "open crumb, glassy crust, and lots of blisters."

The bagels will be baked on cedar boards in a deck oven. An open kitchen will let customers watch each batch get boiled, baked and moved into baskets. Emas was direct about what the shop isn't trying to be. "We're not trying to be the bagel of your NYC childhood or compete with someone's nostalgia," he told the outlet. "We're still working within the rules of bagels, but we aim to be different."

The sandwiches come from Copenhagen. Little Boat plans open-faced bagel sandwiches modeled on smørrebrød, the traditional Danish open-faced sandwiches Emas ate while he lived there. The name ties to both places. Emas fishes for salmon from a small boat on Puget Sound. The name also honors the Gerda III, a Danish vessel that helped carry about 300 Jewish people out of Nazi-occupied Denmark.

On the timing, the Little Boat Bagels website gives the address and a countdown that reads "Time remaining: hopefully 6 weeks," with no firm date. The best way to catch the opening is the shop's Instagram, which What Now Seattle pointed readers to for construction and opening news. The other dates in this post will happen on a set Saturday. This one could slip with permitting.

December 5 hands off to Winterfest

The market's second special date is the Holiday Market, on Saturday, December 5, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the same corner. The listing says it comes "right before Winterfest activities kick off."

That is all that has been posted about this year's Winterfest. As of late October, the Discover Magnolia Winterfest page still shows last year's program. That schedule ran on December 6, 2025 and was signed by the Magnolia Chamber of Commerce. The 2025 program had children's crafts and caroling around the Village in the afternoon, then Santa photos and a tree lighting at Magnolia Garden Center at 5:15 p.m. After that came a Jingle Bell Cruise on W McGraw at 6:30 p.m. and live music at Magnolia Village Pub at 8 p.m. That shows what a Winterfest evening has looked like. It is not this year's lineup, so check back on that page as December 5 gets closer.

One more December date lands right after. Registration for Seattle Parks' Winter 2026/27 community center programs opens December 8. That includes the Magnolia Community Center, whose fall drop-ins have included adult pickleball, badminton, futsal and Tot Gym. If you've been waiting on a winter class there, that Tuesday is your date.

What the gaps on the calendar mean

Over the six Saturdays from Halloween to December 5, the Village has four events and two open weekends. The weekly market made every Saturday look the same. This season, each Saturday has its own event. The flea market sells vintage goods, the Harvest Market is built around Thanksgiving, and the Holiday Market leads into a Winterfest whose 2026 program hasn't been posted yet. A bakery that opens in late November would be the first new place in this stretch you can visit on any day of the week, Saturdays included.

I've worked in this part of Seattle for a long time. What the calendar shows is a neighborhood that kept its business district busy after the summer market ended. If one of those Saturdays has you wondering what your own place on the hill would be worth this winter, Seattle Premier Properties can tell you, and you don't have to be planning a move to ask. Request a complimentary home valuation, and we can talk it over in the Village.