The bunting goes up on Sheridan the second week of September, and by the time the last pumpkin comes down at the Hermitage in mid-October, the borough will have staged four distinct community events inside a twenty-eight day window. Four events, one small downtown, one historic house on Franklin Turnpike, and a footprint tight enough that most residents can walk to every one of them.
If you have lived here a season or two, you already know the individual entries on the calendar. What is easier to miss is how tightly they stack. Between Saturday, September 12 and Saturday, October 10, Ho-Ho-Kus asks its residents to show up almost every weekend, and each event feeds the next one. This post is a planner for that stretch, with the restaurants that make the sequencing easier.
The Twenty-Eight-Day Window
Most Bergen towns program a big day in September, then quiet down until the tree lighting. Ho-Ho-Kus does something different. The borough runs the fall as a continuous arc, and the anchor institutions, downtown merchants and the Hermitage, publish their calendars against each other rather than around each other.
| Date | Event | Location |
|---|---|---|
| Sat, Sept 12, 12–6pm | Ho-Ho-Kus Day | Downtown, closed to traffic |
| Sat, Sept 19 | Civil War Event | The Hermitage |
| Sun, Sept 27 | Richard's Run HHK 5K (21st annual) | Streets through town |
| Fri, Oct 2 | Tavern Night with the Enslows | The Hermitage |
| Sat, Oct 10 | Harvest Fest | The Hermitage |
Five weekends. Two producers. One small walk radius. That is the argument.
September 12: Downtown Becomes the Venue
Ho-Ho-Kus Day returns to downtown from noon to six on Saturday, September 12, with a stretch of the town closed to vehicles for the afternoon. The borough has run this since 2022, and the shape has settled into something residents can plan around: live music through the afternoon, carnival-style rides and games, local merchant tents lining the streets, and a rotation of gourmet food trucks that in past years has included Empanada Lady, Rollin' in the Dough Pizza, The Mozzarella God, Fossil Farm's "The Game Changer," Merry's Ice Cream Truck, The Brownie Bar and Cuphead Coffee.
The Ho-Ho-Kus Inn & Tavern operates a beer garden on the festival grounds. In previous years that has meant seasonal craft, domestic and imported pours alongside Oktoberfest offerings and a shortened version of the Inn's wine list. If you live within walking distance, this is the day to leave the car in the driveway. If you do not, the borough closures push parking into the residential grid, and the earlier you arrive the shorter the walk.
Vendor and sponsor registrations closed July 1, which is a useful tell for how tightly this is organized on the borough's end and why the merchant lineup is more curated than a typical street fair.
The Hermitage's Three-Act Fall
The Hermitage at 335 North Franklin Turnpike programs almost year-round, but its fall lineup is the one that reads like a season rather than a series of unrelated ticketed nights. Three events, three different registers:
| Date | Event | Register |
|---|---|---|
| Sept 19 | Civil War Event | Living history, daytime, family |
| Oct 2 | Tavern Night with the Enslows | Music, evening, adult |
| Oct 10 | Harvest Fest | Outdoor, daytime, all ages |
The Civil War Event is the one to bring kids to. Reenactors on the grounds, the house open for tours, the kind of afternoon that is educational without asking the eight-year-old to sit still. Tavern Night is the sleeper. The Enslows have played the Hermitage's fall tavern format for several years, and the room, one of the seven fireplaces on site, holds a small crowd. Tickets tend to move quickly.
Harvest Fest on October 10 is the closer. It reads as the borough's exit ramp from fall programming into the quieter stretch before the Hermitage flips into its holiday tour season, which residents may remember from the candlelight tours the Friends of the Hermitage run in December.
One practical note. The Hermitage sits on the edge of Ho-Ho-Kus Brook, and the front lawn where the outdoor shows are staged is tree-shaded. Bring a layer for evenings and expect the grounds to run cooler than downtown by a few degrees once the sun drops behind the tree line.
The Sunday in Between
The 21st Annual Richard's Run HHK 5K is on Sunday, September 27, and it slots into the middle of the Hermitage's stretch like a hinge. The Ho-Ho-Kus Education Foundation runs it, the course winds through the residential streets most participants know from their own walks, and the post-race party lands in the center of town.
Two things worth understanding if you have not run it before. Proceeds split between the Ho-Ho-Kus Education Foundation and Go4TheGoal in support of pediatric cancer research, which is the legacy the run honors. And the route is fast. It is not a trail 5K, it is a road 5K through a compact borough, and the finish times skew accordingly. If you have been thinking about your first race, this is a friendlier one than most.
Where to Land After
The rhythm of these four weekends only works if you know where to eat before or after, and Ho-Ho-Kus has an unusually strong restaurant roster for a town this size. The trick is matching the restaurant to the event, not just picking the one with a table open.
For Ho-Ho-Kus Day, the answer is to eat on the festival grounds. The Inn's beer truck and the food trucks are the point. If you want to sit down when the crowds thin around five, the Ho-Ho-Kus Inn & Tavern itself is a block away, in the 1796 building at the intersection of North Maple, Franklin Turnpike and Sheridan. Its bluestone patio runs alfresco dining Wednesday evenings from June to September, so mid-September is the tail end of that window.
For the Hermitage's Friday Tavern Night on October 2, the sensible pre-show is Graze at Night around the corner. Graze runs BYOB and pushes a tasting-menu format at dinner with ingredients sourced tight to the region. Reserve early. Their supper club fills out before the week starts.
Restaurant A on Sheridan, formerly Albert's, is the walk-in room. New American and Italian, café register, the place to end up when you did not book anything and Harvest Fest ran later than you planned. Steel Wheel Tavern handles the after-race Sunday crowd well. St. Eve's, whose Chef Stefan the borough has partnered with on garden programming, is the choice when you want to stretch the day into dinner. Chorn Thong, tucked near the railroad by Latour, is the quiet Friday when you skip the Hermitage entirely.
A Sequenced Fall
Read the calendar as one arc rather than five separate Saturdays and the fall gets easier:
- Sept 12 — Walk to downtown for Ho-Ho-Kus Day. Eat off the trucks. Take a bag home from a merchant tent.
- Sept 19 — Bring the kids to the Civil War Event at the Hermitage. Coffee at Graze after.
- Sept 27 — Run, cheer, or watch Richard's Run. Steel Wheel or Restaurant A for lunch.
- Oct 2 — Book Graze at Night for six, then walk to the Hermitage for Tavern Night with the Enslows.
- Oct 10 — Harvest Fest at the Hermitage. Close the arc with dinner at the Inn.
The point is not the individual entries. The point is that a borough this small does not usually get to run five weekends in a row where every event is within walking distance of the train station and the same twenty restaurants. That is the fall Ho-Ho-Kus offers, and the residents who plan around it get the version of the town outsiders rarely see.
If you are thinking about how a home in walking distance of downtown or the Hermitage changes what your fall looks like, or you already have that home and are curious what it is worth heading into the winter market, My Bergen House is happy to talk. Get your home valuation, or reach out for a quieter conversation about the block you have been watching. We live where you live.
