New Businesses and Fall Events in Lafayette and Moraga

As Jill Fusari reported, Western Flyer Brewing's roll-up garage door opens to the sidewalk, brewing equipment is visible behind the bar, and its patio wraps the corner of Mt. Diablo Boulevard and Dolores Drive. It is the anchor tenant of The Brant, the three-story building Lafayette residents watched behind construction fencing for most of the past decade. The founders, Logan and Katie Jager, spent years bringing Western Flyer to The Brant. By the time Western Flyer opened, other businesses had also opened nearby.

This fall's Lamorinda calendar includes long-anticipated projects alongside newer businesses and events in Lafayette and Moraga. Together, they offer a snapshot of local options for a Thursday night or a September Saturday.

A Bakery Opens on Moraga Road

As the Bay Area Telegraph reported, The Brant's first proposal surfaced around 2013, when Lennar floated a smaller townhouse project on the site of a long-shuttered restaurant. City feedback sent the developer back to the drawing board, and by late 2015 a revised plan added the 66-unit mixed-use design that eventually got built, with garage access moved off Dolores Drive and onto a new signalized driveway on Mt. Diablo Boulevard to ease neighbors' traffic concerns. The building itself opened in 2025. Western Flyer, its restaurant anchor, didn't pour its first pint until March 2026.

As Jill Fusari reported, Brioche de Paris opened at 998 Moraga Road in late December 2025, with early customers spotting it serving pastries by January 1. That address had been home to Hollie's Homegrown, the tea and artisan goods shop known well enough locally that its temporary closure was treated as its own piece of news months before its planned reopening.

Hollie's didn't leave downtown. It's lined up to reopen inside The Brant, the same building housing Western Flyer, sometime later this year. Jager said in a report by Jill Fusari: "When we started this process, we only wanted to open in Lafayette."

The table below summarizes these and other corridor business updates.

Corridor Business Updates

If you're weighing where to grab dinner before catching live music at Lafayette Plaza, that corridor from the Park Hotel block down to the Dolores Drive corner is worth the walk. The Taste of Lafayette Restaurant Stroll on May 19 sold out at $80 to $85 a ticket and added five new 2026 participants, Western Flyer and Tropa among them, which is as good a measure as any of how much the downtown footprint actually grew this year rather than just shuffled.

Across the Ridge, a 42-Year Tradition Doesn't End Where You'd Expect

Drive over Moraga Way and a similar pattern shows up at Moraga Commons Park, where the Summer Concert Series has run Thursday nights since 1984. This year's schedule carried eleven free Thursday shows from June through August, tribute acts like the Sun Kings, Purple Ones, and Fleetwood Mask filling the bandshell lawn while families staked out blankets on the grass. The last of those Thursday shows landed August 20 with Fleetwood Mask.

But the season's twelfth and final concert isn't a Thursday night at all. It happens on a Saturday, September 26, folded into the Pear and Wine Festival. Houserockers, a rock and soul act, plays the bandshell at noon. Then, at the 1:30 halftime break, the spot goes to Lamorinda Idols, the local youth vocalist showcase.

The Splash Pad Schedule and the Pear and Wine Festival

Moraga Commons Park's splash pad operates daily, 10am to 6pm, Memorial Day through Labor Day. Labor Day this year fell before the Pear and Wine Festival's September 26 date, so the splash pad will be closed during the festival.

The Pear and Wine Festival features pear pies, pear cider, wine from two Lamorinda wineries, a free petting zoo, and the 40.2-acre park's other fixtures, including the nine-hole disc golf course and bocce courts. Families can use that schedule when planning a visit.

Two Corridors, One Pattern

Taken together, the examples show how business openings and community schedules are changing in Lafayette and Moraga this fall. Brioche de Paris opened before Western Flyer, Moraga's September concert schedule includes Lamorinda Idols after Houserockers, and Moraga Commons Park's splash-pad season ends before the September 26 festival.

These details can help with planning: The Brant's businesses include new openings and a planned relocation, while Moraga's festival and splash-pad schedules provide information for a September visit.

Worth Knowing Before You Go

The Pear and Wine Festival runs Saturday, September 26, at Moraga Commons Park, 1425 St. Mary's Road, with Houserockers on the bandshell at noon and Lamorinda Idols at the 1:30 halftime break. Parking at the Commons is limited during major events, so plan on the overflow lot on the west side of Moraga Road between St. Mary's Road and the Moraga Center Shopping Center, or walk in if you're close by.

On the Lafayette side, Western Flyer's patio and Tropa's dinner service both make sense as a stop before or after any downtown event, and Brioche de Paris is worth an early visit, while Hollie's Homegrown is expected to reopen inside The Brant later this year.

We track these small shifts because they are part of what living in Lamorinda feels like this season. If you're curious what else is changing across Danville, Alamo, and the rest of the San Ramon Valley, or you'd like a local's read on what a specific street or building means for your own plans, the team at Darby Properties has been watching these towns for a long time and is always glad to talk through what we're seeing.