Happy Wednesday, Round Rock! 👋 October starts tomorrow, and this weekend it shows up all at once: the Pumpkin Festival opens Friday on Palm Valley, the Longhorns baseball team play next door at Dell Diamond on Saturday, and Market Days turns into a trick-or-treat downtown.
Plus: a hometown baker who opened her shop at 21 and now runs a 24/7 cake ATM, a honey spill that turned into a feast for the bees, a renovated two-story with a fire pit for $362K — and where Round Rock's first big cattle drive was headed. Let's dig in.
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🎃 October Shows Up Friday
Pumpkins, college baseball, and a costume-friendly market, and the first two sit side by side on East Palm Valley. Here's the weekend:
Round Rock Pumpkin Festival · Opens Friday, Oct 2, 10am–7pm · Old Settlers Association, 3300 E Palm Valley Blvd
Year five of the Williamson Museum's festival runs Fridays through Mondays, 10am–7pm, until Oct 31. Admission is $12 and covers most of it: the giant corn pit, pumpkin painting, archery, cornhole, a bounce house, and farm animals including a longhorn. A few attractions cost extra. Teachers, military, first responders, anyone 65 and up, and kids under 2 get in free.
Texas vs. Houston Baseball · Saturday, Oct 3, noon · Dell Diamond, 3400 E Palm Valley Blvd
The Longhorns play their only fall exhibition right next door to the pumpkin patch: a full nine innings, with Texas as the home team in the third-base dugout. Gates open at 11am and tickets are on RRExpress.com. Parking is $15 per car, card only, and Dell Diamond is clear-bag and cashless.
Round Rock Market Days · Saturday, Oct 3, 9am–4pm · Prete Main Street Plaza, 221 E Main St
October's market doubles as a trick-or-treat. Costumes are encouraged and most vendors take part, so it's a free, low-stakes dress rehearsal for the 31st. Do the market in the morning and you'll still make first pitch.
🔥 Food Spotlight: Paige's Bakehouse
Paige Morgan Perry grew up in Round Rock, went off to culinary school, and baked her way through Denver and Alaska before coming home. At 21, with a small kitchen and her own savings, she opened Paige's Bakehouse in a little house. That was 2008. Eighteen years later it's a downtown fixture on Anderson Avenue, and she still talks like the 21-year-old: "I knew my recipes, my style, and my aesthetics could bring brightness and positivity to Round Rock," she told Go Round Rock.
Start with the BabyCakes, the house signature: 2-by-2-inch squares, two layers of cake with icing and filling in between. They're also stocked in Paige's cake ATM, which runs 24/7 with BabyCakes, cookies, and merch, so a late-night birthday emergency is covered. For October, the order menu has gone spooky: a Halloween BabyCake Box ($78), a Coffin Cake ($32), and Jack-O-Lantern Matterhorns ($42), plus spiced pumpkin pie ($30, or $15 for the small).
One more reason to order: her new Paige's Cakes for Kids program makes birthday cakes for kids in foster care through Central Texas Table of Grace, and customers can sponsor one.
Open Mon–Fri 7:30am–6pm, Sat 8am–2pm. Closed Sundays.
📍 110 E Anderson Ave, Ste 400 · (512) 255-5222
See the menu →
💸 Midweek Dinner Deals
Two weeknight reasons to skip cooking:
The Dime
$25 Steak Night — Wednesdays, from 4pm — steak frites (an 8 oz New York strip with shoestring fries and a spring salad) or the 10 oz Dime Ribeye with sautéed portobellos and Yukon mash. House wine is $10 and house pours are $7.
📍 103 E Main St · See the details →
Besos Cocina & Cantina
$9.99 Ladies Night — Thursdays, 7–10pm — a quesadilla with rice and beans plus a drink, with DJ Victor on the music.
📍 3107 S I-35, Ste 820 · See the details →
🗓 Events This Week & Just Ahead
A whodunit's final stretch, two free Saturday-night bands, food and wine at Kalahari, and Main Street's fall concerts starting up again.
Clue at Penfold Theatre
🗓 Thursday–Sunday, Oct 1–4 (runs through Oct 11)
📍 Penfold Theatre, 2120 N Mays St, Ste 290
The comic whodunit is into its last two weeks and selling well enough that Penfold added Saturday matinees on Oct 3 and Oct 10. $29–$39; check showtimes on Penfold's page.
Trailside Market
🗓 Saturday, Oct 3, 9am–noon
📍 Memorial Park, 600 N Lee St
Handmade goods, baked goods, and specialty foods along the creek trail. Free. The Round Rock Farmers Market runs 10am–2pm the same morning at Rock Creek Plaza, 2111 N I-35.
North of Luck at Kalahari
🗓 Saturday, Oct 3, 7–10pm
📍 Amatuli Outdoor Stage & Bar, Kalahari Resorts, 3001 Kalahari Blvd
Rock hits, party favorites, and "songs you forgot you loved" on the outdoor stage. No cover, all ages, and parking is free.
Shakedown at Bar Louie
🗓 Saturday, Oct 3, 8–11pm
📍 Bar Louie, 270 Teravista Pkwy
Shakedown Rock and Soul Revue is an Austin dance band that plays hits from the '60s through today. Wear shoes you can move in.
The Kalahari Food & (Not Just) Wine Festival
🗓 Sunday, Oct 4, noon–4pm
📍 Kalahari Resorts, 3001 Kalahari Blvd
Chef demos, dishes from local vendors and restaurants, wine, Texas craft beer, cocktails, and live music. Tickets run $125–$200.
Hometown Lunchtime Parklet Show
🗓 Tuesday, Oct 6, 11:30am–1pm
📍 Main Street parklet in front of Brass Tap, downtown
Ruby Dice plays a free midday set. Grab lunch on Main and eat it with a soundtrack.
Music on Main: Cold Heart Cash
🗓 Wednesday, Oct 7, 7–9pm
📍 Prete Main Street Plaza, 221 E Main St
The free Wednesday-night series opens its fall season. Bring a chair or a blanket.
Just ahead: St. Richard's Pumpkin Patch opens Thursday, Oct 8, at 1420 E Palm Valley Blvd and runs through Oct 31, with proceeds going to the Round Rock Area Serving Center and other local causes. On Friday and Saturday, Oct 9–10, Navratri fills the Round Rock Sports Center with garba and dandiya dancing from 7 to 11:30pm (ticketed; sticks provided). Saturday, Oct 10, brings a free Oktoberfest at Amatuli at Kalahari, 5–9pm, with a stein-holding contest, cornhole, and Jean-Pierre & the Zydeco Angels. And Clue takes its final bow Sunday, Oct 11.
📰 Community News & Headlines
Good things happening around town this week:
Round Rock's bees found a free lunch — on Sunday the bottom came off a storage container at Round Rock Honey's warehouse, and honey started flowing out. Thousands of worker bees showed up for what owner Konrad Bouffard called "a giant feast. I mean, who wouldn't." Nobody was hurt, the Round Rock Fire Department helped with cleanup, and Bouffard asks that you skip the sightseeing trip so crews can finish. Read more…
Hutto's Cottonwood Creek Brewery is coming to Palm Valley — the locally owned brewery and smokehouse, run by Bobby Delmonico, plans a Round Rock taproom at 1201 E Palm Valley Blvd, opening in November or December. It will brew on-site, with some beers made only at each location, plus smokehouse food and a full bar. A food truck follows in spring 2027. Read more…
Downtown's Sociedad is Alcove again, with a honky-tonk next door — the bar and restaurant at 117 and 119 E Main St has gone back to its original name, and owners Michelle Ly and Erik Hall opened a country-western room called The Fair on Friday, Sep 25, with a stage, a pool table, a full bar, and the same menu. Both names come from businesses that once operated in the building. Read more…
Boom Ball picks Dell Diamond for its 2027 tour opener — the six-inning "show baseball" game, with trick plays, music, and crowd participation, comes to Dell Diamond on Saturday, April 17, 2027. Boom Fest starts at 5pm and the game runs 7–9pm. Round Rock is the first stop on the tour. Tickets run $20 for the lawn up to $150 for VIP, and they're sold only by lottery, which is open now. Read more…
Seven local authors take over the library Oct 24 — the Round Rock Public Library hosts a Local Author Meet and Greet on Saturday, Oct 24, 11am–1pm, across its first and second floors. The authors will have books for sale, and 10% of sales go to the Friends of the Round Rock Library. Read more…
🏡 Real Estate Corner
Thinking about buying, selling, or simply curious what homes are selling for around town? Our Real Estate Corner highlights notable local listings, market insights, and trends shaping the Round Rock housing market.
2602 Andres Way, Round Rock 78664
$362,000 · 3 bed · 2.5 bath · 2,110 sqft
Everything in this 1999 two-story has been redone except the shade trees, and those are the best part. Out back, mature trees cover a picnic area and an open fire pit. Inside, the house was completely renovated: brand-new kitchen appliances, granite counters, and a walk-in pantry, plus a wood-burning fireplace in the family room and a home office downstairs. All three bedrooms are upstairs, and each one has a walk-in closet. The listing says you can walk to H-E-B and to Bradford Park, which has a pond and a walking trail. Assigned schools are Gattis Elementary, Ridgeview Middle, and Cedar Ridge High.
Market note: Round Rock's median sale price was $383,746 in August, down 4.1% from a year earlier, so this one lists a little under the middle of the market.
See the listing →
🪨 Poll of the Week
In 1867, 35,000 head of cattle set out on the first trail drive from Williamson County, headed up the Chisholm Trail. Where were they going?
That's a wrap for this week. If you make it to Market Days in costume on Saturday, hit reply with a photo. We'd love to see what Round Rock is wearing this year. See you next Wednesday! 👋
-Doing Round Rock Team
🪨 Trivia answer: Abilene, Kansas! The first drive out of Williamson County left in 1867, taking 35,000 head of cattle north to the market at Abilene. For years afterward, herds of anywhere from a few hundred to 40,000 came through. Many crossed Brushy Creek at the round rock itself and were driven right up the main street of Old Town, sometimes taking several days to pass. The math explains why: a steer worth $3 or $4 in Texas sold for $30 to $40 up north. Barbed wire (invented in 1873), the spread of the railroads, and Texas Fever eventually ended the drives. Read more →
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