At 2720 Sidney Street, the door opens at 7 a.m. and closes at 9 p.m., seven days a week. Inside are matcha chocolate croissants, pork floss pastries, Vietnamese coffee, lounge seating and a row of claw machines. The space is Opa Fé Bakery, which held its grand opening on Oct. 22 after a soft-opening run. TribLive reported those daily hours when it covered the opening.
Those hours give the bakery more open time this season than all of SouthSide Works' holiday events put together. Running from Nov. 14 through New Year's Eve, the district's own calendar holds three events, about nine and a half hours in total. A South Side holiday season with a tree lighting, a market and a Christmas play still happens. Most of it, though, happens in the gaps between those events, and two storefronts half a block apart carry those gaps.
The official calendar fits in four rows
SouthSide Works' events page lists three items for November and December. Add City Theatre's holiday production, a few blocks west on Bingham Street, and the whole South Side season looks like this:
| Date | Event | Where | Hours |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sat., Nov. 14 | Holiday Glow tree lighting | Town Square, 27th & Sidney | 5 to 7:30 p.m. |
| Nov. 14 to Dec. 6 | Georgiana and Kitty: Christmas at Pemberley | City Theatre, 1300 Bingham St. | Performance schedule |
| Sun., Dec. 6 | I Made It! Merry & Bright mini market | Town Square, 27th & Sidney | 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. |
| Thu., Dec. 31 | NOON Years Eve | CoHatch, 2681 Sidney St. | 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. |
The two Town Square events match the start and end of City Theatre's run. The tree lighting and opening night fall on the same Saturday, and the holiday market falls on the play's closing Sunday. So the busiest part of the South Side season fits into a little more than three weeks, Nov. 14 through Dec. 6, with the Works' scheduled events at either end.
Saturday opens the season twice
SouthSide Works calls Holiday Glow an annual event. This year it's free and open to all ages, and it takes over Town Square on Saturday evening, as WPXI reported on Nov. 3. Based on that report, the evening goes like this:
- 5 p.m. Activities begin. DJ Wade plays music, PGH Party Creations runs children's crafts, glitter tattoos are on offer, and everyone gets a free light-up wand.
- 5:30 p.m. Santa arrives and lights the tree.
- Through the evening The Speckled Egg runs an outdoor pop-up bar selling a Cranberry Cucumber Spritz, a Chocolate Peppermint Martini and a classic Old-Fashioned, along with mocktails. Hot cocoa is free for children. Frosty the Snowman and Rudolph make appearances.
- 7:30 p.m. The event ends.
According to WPXI, the Santa photo booth is open to guests and their pets, and each visit comes with printed and digital pictures.
That same night, City Theatre opens Georgiana and Kitty: Christmas at Pemberley by Lauren Gunderson and Margot Melcon, directed by Bria Walker-Rhoze. The theater calls it the final installment of its Christmas at Pemberley series. This chapter follows Mr. Darcy's younger sister Georgiana and Kitty Bennet, two best friends. For anyone who has made the series a December habit, this is the last year to see it. The production page lists audio-described, open-captioned, signed and assistive-listening options, and the box office is at 412-431-2489.
The South Side's arts calendar actually starts two days earlier. Tonight, Thursday, Nov. 12, Brew House Arts at 711 S. 21st St. holds a 6 to 8:30 p.m. opening reception for Notes on Prints and Printmaking: Entanglement. The show was organized by the Pittsburgh Print Group, curated by Michaela Blanc and Hannah Turpin, and is the second of three exhibitions that take their title from the group's 1973 founding document. It runs through Dec. 19.
The weeks between are open seven days
After Saturday, the next date on the SouthSide Works calendar is Dec. 6, three weeks later. Opa Fé's reported hours cover that stretch at 14 hours a day, every day.
Those hours fit how the season actually unfolds on Sidney Street. The early opening covers anyone getting coffee before work, and the 9 p.m. close is late enough for someone leaving an evening show on Bingham Street. The bakery was created by Andy Qian, founder of Opal Group. Its menu runs from house-made doughnuts to fresh-fruit teas, and NEXTpittsburgh describes its fruit-shaped desserts as an "edible optical illusion," with mousse and fruit compote hidden under thin chocolate shells. With a dessert case, places to sit and claw machines, the bakery works well as a stop on the way to or from Town Square on Saturday night. On the quiet weeknights that follow, it's one of the few spots on the block with a holiday feel.
Six doors down, The Shop at SouthSide Works at 2708 Sidney Street plays a similar role for a different kind of errand. Patterns of Meaning runs the space as both a gallery and a working studio. Artists Cory Bonnet and Mia Tarducci paint on site, so the walls show a mix of finished and in-progress work. The stock ranges from large paintings to ceramics, small framed pieces and prints, so it covers most gift budgets.
One of the two has an end date
The gallery is tied closely to the ground it stands on. Patterns of Meaning notes that The Shop sits on the site of a former LTV Steel mill. Its work starts from historic foundry patterns and the industry that built the city, which the Patterns artistic team and guest artists turn into new pieces. Art made from foundry patterns and sold a block from where the mill stood is about as close to the South Side's own history as holiday shopping gets.
The arrangement is also temporary. The organization says it opened The Shop in May and has extended it through the end of 2026, which keeps it open for the holidays. The bakery opened in October with daily hours and no stated end date. The gallery's announced run ends with the year.
Dec. 6 closes both bookends at once
The first Sunday in December is the season's second shared date. From 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., the I Made It! Market brings its Merry & Bright pop-up to Town Square. The organizer describes it as a mini market made in partnership with small businesses and says more details are coming. That same Sunday is the final day of Georgiana and Kitty on Bingham Street. For anyone planning one more South Side outing before the holidays, Dec. 6 is the one day that has both the market and the play's final day.
After Dec. 6, the South Side has three things left on its 2026 holiday list:
- Through Dec. 19: Entanglement stays up at Brew House Arts, featuring work by Bec Young, Eriko Hattori, Leslie Golomb, Sara Jean Ruiz and nine other artists.
- Through Dec. 31: The Shop at SouthSide Works keeps its holiday season going until its extension runs out at year's end.
- Dec. 31, 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.: NOON Years Eve at CoHatch, 2681 Sidney St., is the last item on the SouthSide Works calendar.
Opa Fé's hours, as TribLive reported them, are 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. every day.
A season like this one, made of a few fixed dates with storefronts carrying the time between, is the kind of detail that rarely shows up in a listing description but matters once you live on the block. When clients ask us what a neighborhood is like in December rather than in a brochure photo, this is the answer we give. If you're weighing a move to the South Side Flats or anywhere else in the city and want the street-level picture, Black Key Partners can walk you through it. Request a Concierge Consultation.
