What's New in Downtown Opelika This Fall, and What's on the Holiday Calendar

Two storefronts share one address at 404 S. 10th St. One is a Tex-Mex kitchen that smokes its own meats. The other, in Suite B, is a Korean-inspired bakery known for its streusel bread. A few blocks away on 1st Avenue, an early-1900s cotton warehouse now has a screening room, a stage, a gallery and a café.

Some of downtown Opelika's newest places spent years building an audience before they had a permanent address. Banditos started as a food truck. Boxcar grew out of four years of weekly pop-up screenings. Both are now in older downtown buildings off North Railroad Avenue, and the season ahead, from Halloween films to Snopelika to the porch tour, brings plenty of people past their doors.

Two doors on South 10th Street

Banditos began as a food truck run by husband and wife Jacob and Gabi VanHorn. In a roundup published by Bham Now on October 13, the restaurant is described as known for brisket crunch wraps, meats smoked on site, and what it calls "Alabama's Best-Mex" street food. The downtown location held its grand opening in early May, which the Opelika-Auburn News covered at the time.

Boris Bakery is right next door in Suite B. The menu covers breads, pastries, coffee and matcha, and the Korean streusel bread gets the most attention.

Their hours barely overlap, so it helps to know them before you go:

Wednesday through Saturday, you can have breakfast and lunch at the same address. On Sunday, only the bakery is open. Neither one opens Monday or Tuesday.

A cotton warehouse on 1st Avenue

Boxcar, at 706 1st Ave., is a nonprofit. Before it had a building, Bay Kelley and Jeff Bennett spent about four years hosting weekly film screenings and creative events at The Jailhouse in Opelika. The Bama Buzz reported that the idea grew from there into a permanent space for film, visual art and live performance under one roof.

The building has a long local history. Kelley told The Bama Buzz it dates to the early 1900s and started out as a cotton warehouse, and that in the 1970s and 1980s it housed a refrigerator repair shop. Original features and older artwork are still part of the space, including a piece referencing the Class of 1980. Boxcar started soft-opening events in January with silent films and live music: The General from 1926 and The Gold Rush from 1925.

Auburn-Opelika Tourism's list of what's new since last football season calls Boxcar home to the Opelika Auburn Film Arts Collective, with a microcinema, performance stage, art gallery and café. The same list includes its next-door neighbor, Karvelas Pizza Co. at 704 1st Ave., a family-owned pizzeria serving East Coast-style pies, wings, salads and appetizers. Pizza at 704 and a movie at 706 makes for an easy night out.

The tourism list also includes KLM Tasty Donuts at 1534 2nd Ave., a family-owned bakery known for apple fritters that also serves breakfast sandwiches and specialty coffee.

What's on Boxcar's screen right now

Boxcar programs dated events rather than keeping regular weekly hours, so its events page is the place to check. Between now and mid-November, the schedule mixes international film with a Halloween run:

• Thursday, October 29. The Korea Screening Series shows Memories of a Murder from 2003 at 6 p.m. and Zombie for Sale from 2019 at 9 p.m. The series is presented by the Korea Center–King Sejong Institute and Auburn University's Department of World Languages, Literatures, and Cultures.
• Friday, October 30. "Ode to the Final Girl" runs three films back to back: They Will Kill You from 2026 at 6 p.m., Scream from 1996 at 8 p.m., and Halloween from 1978 at 10 p.m.
• Tuesday, November 10. Das Boot from 1981 screens at 7 p.m. as part of the German Language Film Series, presented with the Alabama Germany Partnership. A meet-and-greet starts at 6 p.m.

Also on the 29th, The Fired Fox Art Studio at 207 S. 8th St., Suite 120, has a handled resin tray class from 6 to 8 p.m., according to Opelika Main Street's downtown calendar. Up on North Railroad, the Opelika Chamber has a ribbon cutting for Manning's Magnolia Mercantile at 850 North Railroad on Friday, October 30.

The holiday stretch, from Food Truck Friday to the front porches

Beginning in mid-November, the downtown calendar fills up week by week. These are the dates the Opelika Chamber and Auburn-Opelika Tourism have posted for 2026:

The Chamber listings for Holiday Open House and Small Business Saturday don't include hours yet. Check individual shops as those weekends get closer.

Snopelika, December 4

The Opelika Chamber hosts Snopelika with the City of Opelika as its partner, and it's billed as rain or shine. The 2026 parade theme is "Christmas Movies." The Chamber says last year's night parade had more than 90 entries. After the parade, artificial snow falls over Courthouse Square, and the night ends with the lighting of what the Chamber calls the tallest tree in town.

A movie-themed parade arriving the same season Boxcar is screening films a few blocks away feels like a good fit for downtown this year.

The Victorian Front Porch Christmas Tour, December 9 to 13

The porch tour started in 1993 with only a few homes. Today it includes about 60 homes on North 8th and 9th Streets in the Northside Historic District. The porches are decorated with life-size Santas, angels, toys, carousel horses and other Christmas figures, and the tour has been featured in Better Homes and Gardens and Southern Living.

Most nights it's a self-guided driving tour. One night is for walking only:

1. December 9, 10, 11 and 13: driving tour, 5 to 9 p.m.
2. Saturday, December 12: walking tour, 6 to 9 p.m., with the streets closed to everything but foot traffic.

The walking night is a Saturday, and Boris Bakery is open until 4 p.m. and Banditos until 8 p.m. on Saturdays. You can stop at 10th Street in the afternoon or for an early dinner, then walk north to the porches when the tour opens at 6. The tour has contact details on its Auburn-Opelika Tourism event page for anyone with questions before they go.

Where the new places fit

The 10th Street pair and the 1st Avenue pair sit just off North Railroad, in buildings that were already part of the downtown grid. Snopelika fills Courthouse Square on December 4. The porch tour takes over North 8th and 9th the following week. The newest places are close enough to any of those events to share the same evening.

Downtown Opelika is a big part of why we love this town, and the railroad half of our name comes from here. If you're out at Snopelika or on the porch tour this December and start wondering what it would be like to live within walking distance of it all, our team at Oak & Rail Real Estate Collective would be glad to talk it through over coffee at Boris Bakery. Contact Us whenever you're ready.