"The overall goal is building the vibrancy of the town so it's a destination not just on Saturdays, but all the time," Betsy Benson of the Mount Lebanon Partnership told The Lebo Beat this summer.
That goal gets tested now. The Uptown Market's last Saturday was Oct. 24. The 2026 season ran from May 30, with stalls set up from 9 a.m. to noon across from Washington Elementary School, and it stayed open later into October than usual because of strong community support. Washington Road's next scheduled crowd is the Uptown Winter Market on Saturday, Dec. 5. No street event is scheduled in the six weeks between them. The Partnership's only item in that gap is a holiday window contest, which means the storefronts carry that stretch, and that was always the plan.
The market was built to graduate its vendors
The Partnership runs the Uptown Market as a nonprofit working with the municipality to support local businesses. Dorene Ciletti and Betsy Benson staffed its information booth every week.
The Lebo Beat reported that Anthos Bakery and Cafe and Panaderia Jazmin both sold at the Uptown Market before they opened permanent storefronts. On a November Saturday morning, those two businesses are the market in its off-season form. Their products started at the folding tables on Washington Road, and you can still buy them after the tables are packed away.
The vendors who remain market-only are the ones you'll miss until spring. Coyne Family Farms brought farm-raised beef, pork and chicken from Burgettstown every week. Jamal Etienne-Harrigan sold homemade sauces and spice blends at Uncle Jammy's. Ben Carozza has sold focaccia at the market since 2025. Carozza told the Lebo Beat that people sometimes come just for him. Those are the customers the market's model is supposed to turn into storefront traffic over time.
This fall's new doors
Several businesses picked this fall to open or reopen in Mt. Lebanon. Their timing lines up with the gap the market leaves:
- Crown and Raine planned to open its head spa in the lower level of 603 Washington Road the weekend after Oct. 21, according to a Mt. Lebanon Magazine report published that day. Weekend hours run Friday through Sunday, 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., so it's one of the few Uptown businesses that stays open well into Saturday evening.
- Stevie's is the former Lisa Marie Salon under new owner Stevie Covart Garvey. Mt. Lebanon Magazine reported in September that the staff and core services are staying, with interior updates and a new fragrance line.
- Koala Boutique is expected to open at 299 Beverly Road in mid-November, selling women's clothing and accessories. Owner Nicki Saini told Mt. Lebanon Magazine she hoped to open before the holidays.
- Field House has no storefront yet. Mt. Lebanon residents Abby Vernon and Lizzie Chiappetta launched their women's spirit-wear business at a Sept. 2 pop-up, The Lebo Beat reported. They plan to return part of their sales to partner teams and clubs and to create work opportunities for neurodivergent people.
Field House is in the same position Anthos and Panaderia Jazmin were in before they signed leases. It sells through temporary setups and builds its following one event at a time. Koala Boutique's mid-November target gives it a couple of weeks of trading before Beverly Road's own holiday night.
The holiday calendar runs through shop windows
Mt. Lebanon's late-fall events don't take over a street the way the Saturday market did. Most of them send people into stores. Here's the sequence from now until the Winter Market:
- Wednesday, Nov. 25: Deadline for Uptown businesses in the Mt. Lebanon Partnership's Holiday Window Contest to finish their displays.
- Saturday, Nov. 28, Small Business Saturday: Public voting opens. Under the official contest rules, you can vote once a day. The Partnership says it will post a map of participating businesses and the voting link on its contest page when voting begins.
- Thursday, Dec. 3, 7 to 8:30 p.m.: Beverly Brite Nite on Beverly Road, with extended shopping hours, holiday festivities and Santa. Admission is free.
- Saturday, Dec. 5, noon to 5 p.m.: The Uptown Winter Market on Washington Road, presented by the Partnership and the municipality. The Partnership lists regional vendors, seasonal treats, handmade gifts, family activities, Santa, a 911 Chili Cook-off, a model railroad, music and holiday food. The municipality's listing adds shopping, dining and musical performances, and admission is free.
- Dec. 15: The official rules list Dec. 15 as both the last day of voting and the day window contest winners are announced.
Look at what that list asks of you. The window contest starts on Small Business Saturday and runs more than two weeks, and voting means walking past storefronts. Beverly Brite Nite is built around stores staying open late. The Winter Market is the one day that looks like the summer market again, and even then the vendor tables share Washington Road with open shops. The Partnership describes the window contest prizes as a reward for displays that bring "festive energy and joy to Washington Road throughout the season." The street event lasts one afternoon. The windows stay up for weeks.
Beverly Road's night falls two days before Uptown's afternoon. Koala Boutique, the newest Beverly Road arrival, is aiming to open before both.
The Saturday routines that don't change
With the market gone, some Saturday anchors in Mt. Lebanon stay put through the winter, and one is about to pause.
The constant is Frank Gill Ice Rink. Under its Fall/Winter 2026-27 schedule, Saturday public skating runs 2:10 to 4 p.m. on the Main Rink. A 7:10 to 9 p.m. evening session on the Studio Rink is limited to the first 30 skaters. Sunday has a 2:10 to 4 p.m. session. The Friday TGIF Late Skate runs 7:40 to 10 p.m. through May 28. Weekday mornings have public sessions, and Tuesday's Playdate on Ice from 9 to 11 a.m. is for PreK and kindergarten skaters. The rink lists Nov. 24 as a closed day. Staff answer at (412) 561-4363.
The pause is at the ballfields. The municipality's renovation of the Middle and Clint Seymour fields was scheduled to start Oct. 26, with the Seymour parking lot closing the same day. The fields and batting cages stay open only through Nov. 9, when lighting work begins, and turf replacement is planned for winter and spring 2027. If your weekend includes a last round in the batting cages, the next two weekends are the window.
Spending the six weeks Uptown
Put it all together and the off-season Saturday has a clear outline. Mornings now go through storefronts that grew out of the market, like Anthos Bakery and Cafe and Panaderia Jazmin. Afternoons have the rink's Main Rink session. Evenings have the Studio Rink's 30-skater session, or a weekend appointment at Crown and Raine, which keeps its doors open until 8. From Nov. 28 on, every walk down Washington Road is also a chance to vote in the window contest. The first weekend of December closes the stretch with Beverly Road's Thursday night and Uptown's Saturday afternoon.
In July, Benson framed the market's purpose as making Uptown a destination on days without one. The next six weeks are the first real test of that this year, and the businesses carrying it are already open or about to be.
If you'd like to know what Washington Road and Beverly Road look like week to week, we follow these storefront openings and holiday dates closely, whether you're settled here or helping a colleague who's just arrived in town. Reach out to Black Key Partners to Request a Concierge Consultation, and we'll send the Uptown calendar along with an introduction to the blocks behind it.
