At 1 p.m. on Saturday, November 28, a will-call booth opens at Smitty's Auto, 3441 Adams Ave. An hour later, holiday cocktail tastes start pouring. Bartenders from the avenue's bars and restaurants will be pouring inside an eye-care office, a pet services shop, a cookie bakery and a thrift boutique.
The Adams Avenue Business Association runs the Spirit Stroll as its part of the national Small Business Saturday. This is the event's tenth year. It runs from 2 to 5 p.m., is limited to 500 tickets and admits adults 21 and up only. Tastes and sweet treats are served at 19 independently owned retail stops from University Heights through Normal Heights and into Kensington. The format sends drinkers into stores that a Saturday afternoon crowd might otherwise walk past. This year's list tilts further that way.
The 2026 list adds shops and trims the bar roster
Compare the AABA's 2025 announcement with the October 30, 2026 announcement and you can see the shift.
| 2025, ninth annual | 2026, tenth annual | |
|---|---|---|
| Date | Saturday, Nov. 29 | Saturday, Nov. 28 |
| Ticket price | $35 | $40 |
| Ticket cap | 500 | 500 |
| Named bars, restaurants and breweries pouring | 15 | 12 |
| Shops new to the stop list | Latin Treasures, Soul Side Vinyl, Mission Brewing, Ponce's Mexican Restaurant | |
| Pourers new to the list | Heights Market, Make Cafe |
Artistic Florals, Dia Del Cafe and Salon Bordeaux were stops in 2025 and are not on the 2026 list. AC Lounge, Cantina Mayahuel, Una Mas on Adams, The Vibe and Wormwood poured in 2025 and are not on this year's list.
Two names show up on both 2026 lists. Mission Brewing and Ponce's Mexican Restaurant are both pouring and hosting as stops this year. Last year they only poured. Fewer pourers are spread across the same number of shops, and two of the venues now act as both. That puts the event's weight on the 19 shops.
The full 2026 pourer list is Bosforo, Et Voila! French Bistro, Heights Market, Kensington Club, Make Cafe, Mission Brewing, The Ould Sod, Polite Provisions, Ponce's Mexican Restaurant, The Rabbit Hole, Rosie O'Grady's and Sycamore Den. Make Cafe on Felton Street is the community cafe where a new kitchen crew takes over every twelve weeks. It's one of the few names on the list with an address off Adams, at 4712 Felton St.
Nine of the 19 stops sit in the blocks around will-call
Using the addresses in the AABA business directory and on the businesses' own sites, the stops form four groups. The largest is in Normal Heights, close to the booth at 3441 Adams.
The 3300 to 3600 blocks of Adams, around will-call:
- Noble Learning, 3333 Adams Ave, listed under childcare, education and retail
- Maya Moon Collective, 3349 Adams Ave, listed among the directory's bakeries, coffee and desserts
- Heights Optometry, 3404 Adams Ave
- Coco & Jules Cookies, 3415 Adams Ave
- Rose Reggae, 3524 Adams Ave
- Soul Side Vinyl, 3535 Adams Ave
- Pet Me Please, 3537 Adams Ave
- Back From Tomboctou, 3564 Adams Ave
- Home Start Thrift Boutique, 3611 Adams Ave, selling used clothing, furniture and home décor
Five pourers have listed addresses on the same stretch. Heights Market is at 3355, The Ould Sod at 3373, The Rabbit Hole at 3377, Sycamore Den at 3391 and Rosie O'Grady's at 3402. If you walk to will-call, almost half the stops and five of the twelve pourers are on the blocks around the booth.
Around 30th Street: The Divine Bubble at 4633 30th St and Paleo Treats at 4662 30th St are stops. Polite Provisions, at 4686 30th St, is on the pourer list.
West along Adams: Mud Lily is at 2888 and Zac's Attic at 2922. The Incredible Cheesecake Company is listed at 3161. Et Voila! French Bistro at 3015 and Bosforo at 3201 are on the pourer list. Bosforo serves Turkish meze, cocktails and rakı.
The 4000 blocks toward Kensington: Ponce's Mexican Restaurant is at 4050 and Mission Brewing's taproom at 4067. Both are stops and pourers this year. The taproom serves beer, wine, seltzer and cider. Kensington Club, a bar and live-music venue at 4079, is on the pourer list. Earthwell Refill, at 4114, sells body, hair and household products by the ounce.
Kiko & Sven and Latin Treasures complete the 2026 stop list.
The far ends are about 1,200 addresses apart, from Mud Lily at 2888 to Earthwell Refill at 4114, and the event lasts three hours. Starting from will-call in the middle cuts down the backtracking.
The newest stop is a record shop under a new owner
Soul Side Vinyl at 3535 Adams Ave is new to the stop list this year. The shop's own profile of the store, dated March 3, 2026, says owner Rex Sapasap took it over after finding it listed for sale on Facebook Marketplace. He was there shopping for soccer cleats. In the words the shop's profile quotes from him, "I was looking for soccer cleats and bought a record store."
The same profile describes bins of hip-hop, jazz and soul, much of it from Sapasap's personal collection. The shop kept the "RECORDS" sign over the storefront, and a mural of turntablist DJ QBert covers one wall inside. The record bins sit on wheels so the floor can be cleared, which Sapasap said makes room for events.
Soul Side Vinyl, Latin Treasures and two venues that both host and pour are the new names. The returning shops include Heights Optometry, Noble Learning and Pet Me Please. On November 28, those storefronts are where the tastes are served.
How tickets and will-call work
The AABA's ticket terms set out the logistics.
- Buy online on the Spirit Stroll event page. Tickets are $40 each.
- Keep the email confirmation, either printed or on your phone. The ticket itself is not emailed.
- Pick up your ticket at the Smitty's Auto booth, 3441 Adams Ave, from 1 p.m. on the 28th. Bring your receipt, photo ID or both.
- Every attendee must show state or federal ID at check-in. Tickets cannot be shared.
- All sales are final. The terms say no refunds or exchanges for any reason, including weather.
The AABA's announcement says the stroll sells out every year. The cap stays at 500 for the tenth year, and the event falls two days after Thanksgiving, so households with holiday guests in town need to settle their ticket count before guest lists firm up.
Fifteen days later, the AABA lists Holiday on Adams Avenue for December 13, 2026. It's the association's free, all-ages winter event, held in Kensington Park in past years. For the rest of the avenue's year, from the September street fair to everyday dinners, see our Normal Heights neighborhood page and our list of what's worth walking to on Adams Avenue.
The shops on the stroll list, from optometry to refill goods, are the kind of tenants that keep a commercial corridor busy, and the homes and small multifamily buildings around Adams Avenue sit right next to that corridor. If you own a 2–4 unit property near Adams and want to look at how it's performing, Emerson Group can go through the numbers with you. Schedule a Wealth Call to talk through your portfolio and 1031 options.
