Menke Park Was Renovated for Days Like Oktoberfest

The ribbon was cut at Menke Park on the afternoon of September 19. There was free Lappert's ice cream and a set from Rocky Road featuring Sal, Rich and friends. The Corte Madera Community Foundation sponsored the event, and it marked the end of a renovation that had kept the park closed since spring. The reopening ran for two hours. Three weeks later, on Saturday, October 10, the park hosts Corte Madera Oktoberfest, an event built around the parts of the park that changed most.

Look at the Town's list of improvements and one thing stands out. Most of the work went into moving people around, giving them places to sit, and updating the Piccolo Pavilion for events. The list includes no new playground equipment.

What the Renovation Changed

The Town posted the project scope on March 31, a week before construction started. Here is what the Menke Park Improvements Project covered:

• A new ADA-accessible pathway connecting the park's upper and lower areas
• A low retaining wall built to double as informal seating
• New benches and a full irrigation replacement
• New native trees, shrubs and groundcover
• Piccolo Pavilion updates, including a new roof, fresh paint and a railing modified for event support
• Removal of seven trees that were in poor health or in the way of the improvements

The pathway and the pavilion are the items that matter on a festival day. Before the renovation, getting between the upper and lower parts of Menke meant using whatever route the slope allowed. The new path joins those two levels with an accessible route, and that matters most when strollers, wheelchairs, food lines and a beer-tasting crowd all share the same few hundred feet. The retaining wall adds seating along the edge without bringing in folding chairs. The Town's own description of the pavilion work says the railing was modified "for event support," alongside a new roof and fresh paint.

Construction was scheduled to start the week of April 6 and run through mid-July, depending on weather and site conditions. The grand reopening took place on September 19. That means Oktoberfest falls just three weeks after the park returned to public use, which may be one of its first full days with a big crowd.

Oktoberfest, Saturday, October 10

The festival runs from noon to 5 p.m. at Menke Park, 220 Corte Madera Ave. Visit Marin lists the location as Menke Park / Old Corte Madera Square, which helps place it for anyone who knows the area by the square rather than the park.

The Corte Madera Lions Club lists ticket prices on its event page:

Buying ahead saves $5 per drinking adult. For a group of four that adds up to $20 before the first pour. Advance tickets are sold through the Lions Club's ticketing page. The $15 tier for non-drinkers 12 and up means a teenager costs less than half of an adult tasting pass, and younger children get in free. That fits the organizers' description of the day: "ice-cold beer from local breweries, amazing food from local food trucks and vendors, live music, and fun for the whole family."

The organizers have not published a list of breweries, so the beer lineup will be clear only once you get there. The event pages do name the music and food.

Performers, according to Visit Marin:

• Corte Madera Town Band
• Grand Isle Fire Brigade
• Bubba's Taxi

At the food vendors:

• Pig in a Pickle
• Zonda Fine Meat
• Kito's Taco Shop

The Corte Madera Town Band on the bill, three weeks after a ribbon cutting, is about as hometown as a fall Saturday gets. The festival runs five hours in a park whose pavilion was just updated for event support.

Where the Money Goes

Oktoberfest is a fundraiser. The Corte Madera Beautification Committee and the Corte Madera Lions Club co-sponsor it, according to the Lions' event page. The Beautification Committee's own page also names the Corte Madera Community Foundation, the same group that sponsored the park's reopening.

A Town staff report prepared for the September 1 Council meeting says net proceeds support charities and community-beautification projects chosen by the Beautification Committee. That gives the day a neat symmetry. A tasting pass bought at a freshly landscaped park helps pay for the next round of landscaping somewhere else in town. Anyone curious about what the Committee funds can find the full report in the Town's document center.

Carrying the Weekend Past Menke

Oktoberfest takes up one Saturday afternoon. The rest of October happens mostly at the town's two shopping centers, where several new arrivals have opened since late summer.

Town Center Corte Madera has a new place to eat. Asian Box, a Palo Alto-based fast-casual Vietnamese chain, opened its first Marin location there in late September. It took over the space Veggie Grill held from 2015 until 2023. The Marin IJ reported that the whole menu is gluten-free. That includes the banh mi, served on a house-baked gluten-free baguette called the Gracie Jones Roll, and a pho that chef Grace Nguyen changes three or four times a year with the seasons. Hours are 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Sunday. The space is on the same side of the center as Safeway.

Town Center also hosts the month's other big community afternoon. Its Halloween Trick-or-Treat is Sunday, October 25, from noon to 4 p.m., with participating merchants, free treat bags and face painting while supplies last. The farmers market there runs every Wednesday all year.

The Village at Corte Madera has a standing weekend option in Acoustic Weekends, with live music in Center Court every Saturday and Sunday from noon to 2 p.m. through December and a rotating lineup of performers. The Village's refresh has also brought in several new stores. ON celebrated its opening at 1618 Redwood Hwy on September 6. The Southern Marin Ledger reported that Reformation opened on August 18. SKIMS is open in Center Court, and Mango and Mejuri appear on the center's list of retail additions. Aerie and Ana Luisa are still listed as coming soon, with no opening dates announced.

Taken together, these make a simple October plan. Spend October 10 at Menke Park, catch Acoustic Weekends at The Village on any Saturday or Sunday at noon, and finish the month at Town Center with trick-or-treating on the 25th. Of the three, only Menke has just reopened after a renovation, and the Town's project list includes a pavilion railing modified for event support.

At Emily Schaffer, we keep track of the changes that shape everyday life in Corte Madera, from a renovated park on Corte Madera Ave. to a new tenant in a long-empty Town Center space. If you want to talk through what the town's recent public investments could mean for your own plans, Request a Private Consultation.