Taste of Hayward 2026: Explore 25 Stops, Most Off B Street

When the Mercury News previewed the first Taste of Hayward in September 2025, it counted "more than 15" downtown stops. For the second edition on Thursday, October 22, 2026, the Downtown Hayward Improvement Association lists 25. Most of that growth came from spaces that were already there. A tea shop is moving into a former tea shop. A Mediterranean kitchen took over an old pizza house. A bakery franchise opened on Mission Boulevard. And 14 of the 25 stops are on Foothill Boulevard, Main Street, Mission Boulevard or A Street, not B Street.

The roster works as a map. It shows that downtown Hayward filled in over the past year by re-tenanting storefronts across several streets. The block getting the big construction story, the restored BART car at 1060 B Street, isn't on the list at all.

Where the 25 stops actually are

Here's the 2026 participating list sorted by street, with addresses from the Downtown Hayward dining directory and the businesses' own listings.

B Street is still the spine, with eleven stops packed into roughly the 800 through 1000 blocks. The Foothill and Main clusters together match it almost one for one, though, and Mission adds a third. The organizers say the list may change before event day, so expect a few edits.

The anchors held, and the newcomers filled in around them

The 2025 Mercury News preview named 16 participants, and 11 of them are back this year. Those are Acqua e Farina, Buffalo Bill's, Golden Safari, The Bistro, Casa del Toro, Gurkha Kitchen, Erik's Deli Cafe, Khao Hom, Metro Taquero, Snappy's Cafe and Tang Jip. These returning names are spread across B Street, A Street, Foothill and Main. That means the newcomers aren't building a separate district. They're filling in the gaps between places that were already drawing a crowd.

Several of the 14 names that weren't in the 2025 preview can be traced to a specific storefront or opening:

• Dali Tea at 1081 B St. was gearing up for a soft opening in the former Once Tea location, according to an August 2026 Downtown Hayward Improvement Association column in Tri-City Voice. Once Tea was on the 2025 Taste list, so this stop is effectively the same space with a new operator.
• Storybook at 943 B St. replaced The Pizza House with a California Mediterranean menu. The association announced it as a new arrival in its August 2025 dining roundup.
• Teriyaki City Grill at 22501 Mission Blvd. appeared in that same 2025 roundup as a new teppanyaki-style Japanese fast-food spot.
• Butter Pecan at 22656 Mission Blvd. held its ribbon cutting on February 25, 2026. Tri-City Voice reported that it's the bakeshop's sixth location and its first franchise.

The other new names on the list are Sugarmama Sugarcane, BobJip, Tram Cream Coffee, T4, Nomi's Cafe, The Old City Roastery, Sourdough & Co., Aama's Kitchen, Cold Stone Creamery and World Famous Turf Club. The sources don't give opening dates for these, and the 2025 preview only covered names confirmed at that point. So some of them may be longtime downtown businesses joining the Taste for the first time. A few 2025 names don't appear on this year's list, including Craft Pizzeria, Mujiri, Rockit Char Grill and Susie Q's. Sitting out an event is a choice many restaurants make for their own reasons, and the roster doesn't explain why.

Tang Jip shows how quickly this turnover reaches the event. The Korean restaurant opened on August 19, 2025, according to the association's roundup. Seven weeks later it was on the first Taste of Hayward roster, and it's back for the second.

How the evening works

The logistics come from the event details page and the ticket page:

1. Buy a ticket. Tickets are $35 plus a service fee and cover every tasting stop.
2. Check in at the City Hall fountain, 777 B St. Check-in opens at 3:45 p.m. and closes at 7:15 p.m. Your ticket QR code gets swapped for a Taste Passport.
3. Read both sides of the passport. The front has a route map. The back lists every stop and what it's serving.
4. Start anywhere. Show the passport at each stop, get your box checked, and collect your sample.
5. Bring a state-issued ID if you want the alcohol samples. You must be 21 or older.
6. Keep an eye on the clock. Sampling runs 4 to 8 p.m., and the event ends at 8 sharp.

The street spread matters most here. Four hours is plenty for B Street alone. Getting to the Mission Boulevard bakery stops and the Foothill coffee roasters takes some planning, especially since check-in closes 45 minutes before sampling ends. One way to route it is to check in early at City Hall, which sits at the low end of B Street, and work outward. That puts Main and Foothill in the middle of the evening and saves Buffalo Bill's and The Bistro, two returning anchors near the 1000 block, for last.

Parking is also different from the first Taste. The City of Hayward began enforcing time limits on downtown streets, city lots and garages on July 1, 2026, and it plans to add a permit for people who live and work downtown, according to the association's August column. A car left in one spot for the full four hours may now run past the posted limit.

The biggest project downtown isn't on the list

One address has more construction history behind it than any stop on the passport. Arthur Mac's Big Snack at 1060 B St. is a 7,000-square-foot pizza and beer garden built around a restored 1973 BART car. It has fire pits, a large pergola and a full bar with 20 taps. The San Francisco Chronicle reported in June that the project took five years and nearly $2 million.

The Chronicle laid out what that took. The 65,000-pound car was moved by crane five miles from a storage yard, which needed U.S. Department of Transportation approval and a 45-day review by the Hayward Executive Airport air traffic control facility. Because BART's safety data covers powered trains, not a parked car used as a dining room, the site needed a foundation built on real train tracks and a custom concrete fire wall, which cost more than $100,000. Owner Joel DiGiorgio told the Chronicle, "Nobody has ever brought a 75-foot BART train car onto a downtown commercial zone."

The reason he chose Hayward ties straight back to the Taste roster. According to the Chronicle, the owners looked at sites in Martinez, San Leandro and Castro Valley before settling on downtown Hayward, partly because of neighbors like Buffalo Bill's Brewery and The Bistro. Those are two of the Taste's returning anchors, and they're on the same block. Revere Tattoo, a longtime downtown business, has also moved to B Street right next door to the new restaurant, the association reported.

The Chronicle said the owners were aiming for an October opening. The association's late-August column still described the restaurant as "coming to Downtown Hayward" this fall. As of October 11 there's no published opening date, and Arthur Mac's isn't on the Taste roster. Taste ticketholders will walk past 1060 B St. on the way between Metro Taquero and Buffalo Bill's, so that block may look different by the third Taste.

What follows on the fall calendar

The Taste kicks off a busy stretch for downtown and nearby parks. Two days later, on Saturday, October 24, the Hayward Area Recreation and Park District hosts Trunk or Treat from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Kennedy Park, 19501 Hesperian Blvd. In early December, the district runs Holiday Lights at three of its sites on three nights in a row, each from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. The schedule is Mt. Eden Mansion on Tuesday, December 1, McConaghy House on Wednesday, December 2, and Meek Mansion at Meek Estate Park on Thursday, December 3.

If the Taste roster has you curious about which downtown Hayward blocks are filling in and which storefronts are next, Shawn Shokoor follows these changes closely and is glad to talk through what they mean for your part of town. Let's Connect.

This article is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Consult a qualified professional about your situation.