Trumansburg's Fall Runs on Daylight, Starting at the Old Hazelnut Corner

At 3 p.m. on a weekday, the kitchen at 53 East Main Street stops taking orders. The grocery shelves stay open until 6. A year ago the same building was getting ready for dinner service. Now it runs from 8 a.m. to mid-afternoon, and the rest of Trumansburg's fall calendar keeps much the same hours.

A dinner room became a breakfast counter

Hazelnut Kitchen's chef-owner, Matt Hummel, planned to end service on Thursday, October 30, last year. He said he wanted to hold onto the space for local food pop-ups and events until he was ready to open another restaurant. No local report has confirmed that those pop-ups happened. The building went another way.

In late June 2026, Lauren McKinzey filed a variance application with the village for 53 East Main. It says plainly what happened:

"We have purchased the building at 53 East Main Street and are currently completing renovations, after which we will be moving our cafe/grocery, the Main Street Market, to this new location."

Tburg Main Street Market's website now says "We've moved!" and lists 53 E. Main Street as home. The site doesn't give the reopening date. It does give the hours, and those matter more:

• Store: Monday through Saturday, 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.
• Kitchen: breakfast and lunch, 8 a.m. to 3 p.m., Monday through Saturday
• Sunday: closed
• Phone orders: accepted, with a four-item limit, and they may take longer or not be possible depending on the time of day

The cooks will make reasonable changes to menu items. To cut waste, the market asks customers not to request parts of a meal "on the side."

The same application asked to put two four-person tables with shade umbrellas on the brick strip between the street and the sidewalk out front. It describes the spot as the first thing people see "as folks crest the hill driving in to Trumansburg from Ithaca." It also says both neighboring businesses, Trumansburg Liquor and Homespun Boutique, supported the tables, and that the loading zone beside them would stay clear. The research found no record of how the village ruled. Whether there are tables out front come spring is still an open question.

The rest of the fall calendar keeps the same hours

Line up this fall's scheduled events in the village and they cluster where the market's kitchen does. They start in the late morning or early afternoon and finish by early evening.

Two evenings break the pattern, and both are at the conservatory. The Fall Invitational opens with a free reception on Saturday, October 10, from 7 to 9 p.m. Pianist Joe Pepper is playing, and wine and light refreshments will be served. The Halloween Open House runs until 8 p.m. on October 31, with candy, hot chocolate, coffee and apples. Every other date on the list wraps up by 7.

The conservatory carries more of the season than any other single building in the village. The Fall Invitational shows paintings and prints by Gillian Pederson-Krag and paintings and drawings by Vincent Joseph. After the opening, the gallery keeps afternoon hours through November 22, and an artist and gallery talk is set for that final Sunday. TOiVO, on November 1, is a community dance to traditional social-dance music, held on the conservatory's restored wooden dance floor. The Draw-A-Thon two weeks later welcomes every skill level. Five McLallen Street and 53 East Main are a short walk apart. A Saturday could start with a late breakfast on Main and end with an afternoon on the dance floor or at the drawing tables.

October 28 is the last outdoor Wednesday

The Trumansburg Farmers Market's 2026 season runs May 6 through October 28, Wednesdays from 4 to 7 p.m. at Village Park. The final date has Nate Marshall on the music calendar along with Halloween festivities.

After that, the market moves indoors, and its schedule gets harder to pin down. According to the market's Friends page, the winter market is hosted at the American Legion, and the Harvest and Holiday markets have moved inside. The page doesn't give dates. The market's events calendar lists Curt Osgood & Friends on November 23 and Tractor Family on December 21, both from 4 to 7 p.m. Neither listing says it's a market day or names a venue. Until the market posts its winter schedule, treat those as music dates.

In the meantime, the library's Tuesday Harvest Table, 4 to 6 p.m. at 74 East Main, is a weekly stop for free local produce, open to all ages. The library's calendar lists October dates, so check there before counting on it later in the season.

Three Falls closes at dusk and has almost nothing on site

The daylight pattern also covers the newest park in the area. New York State formally named the former Camp Barton property Three Falls State Park on March 9. It covers 90 acres north of Taughannock, with half a mile of Cayuga Lake shoreline and the 128-foot Frontenac Falls.

It's open dawn to dusk, and the current rules make it a park you pack for:

1. Parking is limited to the gravel areas off the road, so read the signs.
2. There's no drinking water on site.
3. There's one portable toilet.
4. It's carry-in, carry-out, so take your trash with you.
5. Hiking and biking are allowed where trails are marked open. Closed trails are marked too, and they're closed because they're unsafe or sensitive for birds and wildlife.
6. No swimming, camping, campfires or motorized watercraft.

The docks, kayak launches, nature center, new trails and permanent parking that people have talked about are still proposals. The state says timing depends on final plan review and funding. At the Three Falls Local Development Corporation's August 6 meeting, board member K. Olson suggested scheduling a fall meeting with Parks "to understand where they are and prepare for next season." The minutes also expected the next meeting to discuss staffing for the 2027 season. This fall, Three Falls is a quiet walk to the falls and the shoreline, finished before dark.

Taughannock Falls State Park, next door, reported that all its trails fully reopened on April 17, 2026. The park still suggests calling ahead for current trail conditions.

Weekday mornings have new rules near the school

Daytime errands in the village also run into new rules this fall. Trumansburg now bans parking on the south side of Whig Street, between School House Lane and Truman Street, from 7:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. on school days. The village also added 15-mph zones on Whig and Truman Streets and a 20-mph zone on South Street. Tompkins Weekly reported the change on August 18, 2026. Those parking hours line up closely with the market's kitchen hours, 8 to 3. If your route to Main Street usually runs along Whig, plan your parking around them.

What hasn't been settled at the corner

Several pieces are still open as the season goes on. The research turned up no confirmed tenant or plan for 21 East Main, the market's old address. The market's own website still shows that address in its header next to the "We've moved" notice. No ruling on the outdoor-table request has surfaced. The winter market dates at the American Legion haven't been posted. Three Falls is still working out its 2027 staffing. For now, the confirmed facts are hours: the kitchen at 53 East Main is open 8 to 3, the last outdoor farmers market runs 4 to 7 on October 28, and Three Falls closes at dusk.

When a Main Street building like 53 East Main changes hands, what it becomes depends on things buyers rarely see from the sidewalk: renovation scope, village variances, and how the space fits the blocks around it. If you own a building in the village or are weighing a storefront purchase in Trumansburg, I'm glad to walk through what's involved, from construction to permits. Brian DeYoung. Let's Connect.