The Sunday Market That Keeps Stocking Palisade Avenue

"I was just doing it on the weekends as something I really enjoyed," Jane Yang told the Riverview Farmers Market this September. "I started serving it at Riverview because that's the park that I'd go to with my dog and I thought it'd be really fun to bring something that I really enjoyed to the community where I lived."

That weekend side project is now Jane's Matcha at 93 Franklin Street, a shop modeled on Japanese tea houses. Its path runs through the same lawn as several other storefronts in the Heights. The Sunday market at Riverview-Fisk Park, 498 Palisade Avenue, has spent 16 seasons as more than a produce stop. The businesses that started there tend to open within a few blocks of the park. This fall, the market's own programming is following them out onto the avenue.

From a Sunday Line to 93 Franklin Street

Jane's Matcha opened as a market pop-up in May 2024. It was the market's first matcha vendor, and the market's roundup says the line was easy to spot on any given Sunday. Yang credits that growth to people who live in the neighborhood more than to any campaign.

"I feel like we didn't even do an amazing job marketing! It was just a lot of people that actually live in The Heights and they all shared with each other and then they would come every single Sunday. It became like a weekly routine for them."

The storefront took time. Yang said she had been looking at a permanent home for about two years before committing. The Franklin Street shop soft-opened on July 8, 2026, built around what Jersey Digs called slow mornings and premium Japanese teas. Its last day at the market was August 9. Late in September, The Hoboken Girl's fall roundup listed the shop as open, serving hand-whisked matcha and Japanese loose-leaf teas. Hours posted during opening week may have changed since, so check the shop's own channels before a weekday visit.

The Short Walk From 498 Palisade

Jane's Matcha is the newest example of something the market has been doing for years. In its 15th-anniversary post in June 2025, the market said it had "served as the incubator for several local businesses that now have physical brick and mortar locations in the Heights," and it named three. Mapped, they sit close together:

• Modcup Coffee, 479 Palisade Avenue. It is directly across the street from the park. Its owner told the market that Riverview was one of the few markets that let the business sell its product, and that this led to the Palisade Avenue location.
• Lucky Honeybee Goods + Gifts, 487 Palisade Avenue. Its owner credited the market with helping show off the shop's goods and build a loyal customer base.
• Rudo Plants & Home, 394 Palisade Avenue. Owner Rusel joined the market in 2021 to sell propagated plants. By May 2022 the business had opened a store in the former Milk Sugar Love space.
• Jane's Matcha, 93 Franklin Street. Pop-up in May 2024, storefront in July 2026.

Modcup and Lucky Honeybee both sit within 20 street numbers of the park's own address. The pattern makes sense for a small business. A Sunday stall shows a vendor who comes back every week, what sells, and how long the line gets before it commits to rent. The market's 15th-anniversary list was a sample, and its wording was "just to name a few."

Not every newcomer is on the market's list. Hybrid Coffee + Kitchen opened at 573 Palisade Avenue in March 2026, and the market has not named it as one of its alumni. Still, the street's mix of coffee, plants, gifts and tea now includes a noticeable share of businesses that tested the neighborhood from a folding table first.

Who Is Standing at the Tables Now

Graduations leave openings, and the market has been filling them. To take over the matcha slot, it brought in Ritual House, a vendor that also works the Hamilton Park and Cole Street farmers markets. Earlier this year, the 2026 season announcement listed Earth's Garden, Little Bagel and New Leaf Flavors among its new vendors.

Nothing in the research says any of them are scouting storefronts. They do sit in the same position Modcup, Lucky Honeybee, Rudo and Jane's Matcha once did, selling to the same Sunday crowd. Hamilton Park has its own version of this rhythm, which we covered in our look at the corner by the dog runs.

This Year, the Festival Takes the Same Route

What makes fall 2026 different is that the market's programming is now moving out of the park too. The Day of the Dead celebration grew large last year, with hundreds of people, giant skeleton puppets parading around Riverview-Fisk Park, dances by Sueño Americano, mariachi from El Mariachi Oro de Mexico, and the first La Catrina Costume Contest.

The 2026 plan adds a new piece. Working with the Central Avenue Special Improvement District, the market is putting up decorative banners on Central Avenue, skeleton-puppet window displays in local storefronts, and food, drink and craft activations at businesses along the corridor. The announcement does not list which businesses are taking part, so the storefront windows themselves will show who joined. It started early, with a JCAST art show of Día de los Muertos work and local youth art at Los Tres Chilitos, 456 Central Avenue, on October 2, curated by Athena Toledo.

The vendors went from park to Palisade one lease at a time. This year the festival is making the same move to Central in a single season.

October Through December, Around the Park

Most of the fall still happens on the lawn at 498 Palisade, along with a few dates at other Heights green spaces. Here is what remains as of today, October 4.

The bird walks are run by Jersey City Birds with the city's Recreation and Youth Development department. The Pershing Field Fall Festival, organized by Pershing Field Garden Friends, includes crafts, games, face painting, a photo booth and a costume parade.

The two Day of the Dead dates have the most going on. On the evening of October 29, the market builds a large communal altar in the gazebo. The unveiling includes Sueño Americano dancers, Calaverita readings and a youth theater play by Educational Arts Team students, and residents are invited to bring photos and offerings for loved ones who have died. The November 1 festival brings back the giant skeleton puppet parade led by artistic director Santiago Cohen. The La Catrina contest returns with individual and group categories, and contestants join the parade. Mariachi Oro de Mexico plays, Athena Toledo paints memorial portraits, and there is face painting and family crafts. Workshops in sugar skull making, mask making and alebrijes run in the weeks before.

Where the Season Ends

The Sunday market wraps up on November 22, and a different kind of market follows. The Heights Holiday Market returns to Riverview-Fisk Park on Saturday, December 5. It advertises more than 150 local makers, artists, food vendors and small businesses. The market says the holiday event was added recently, alongside its older traditions: the Peach Pie Contest, the Fall Harvest Festival and Day of the Dead. The market began on June 12, 2011, and since then the walk from its lawn to a Palisade Avenue storefront has been made by a plant seller, a coffee roaster, a gift shop and now a matcha bar.

The blocks around Riverview-Fisk Park are some of the most closely watched in The Heights, and the businesses on Palisade and Central help shape what living near them is like. If you're curious how that street life is showing up in your block's value, Hudson Realty Group would be glad to walk you through it. Contact Us.