On Friday, October 23, the parking lot at 4211 W. Riverside Drive will fill with classic cars and hot rods at 4 p.m., as it does every Friday until 10 p.m. Four hours later and a few addresses up the street, at the Garry Marshall Theatre at 4252 W. Riverside Drive, Dracula takes the center square in Halloween Squares. The theatre runs it as a live-band game show with Jonathan Mangum as host. The show runs under 80 minutes with no intermission, so an 8 p.m. curtain lets out before the car show wraps at 10.
Riverside Drive's fall evenings come from those two places. One has run every Friday for years, and the other publishes a season with fixed dates. The businesses opening around them are a café, a mat Pilates studio and a sandwich shop that's on its way. They fill the hours around the two anchors. None of them is competing for the anchors' evenings.
The two calendars that were already here
Bob's Big Boy Burbank opened in 1949, and Visit Burbank calls it the oldest remaining Bob's Big Boy in America. The car show is the most dependable thing on this stretch of Riverside. It needs no tickets or RSVP and runs every Friday from 4 to 10 p.m. The theatre's calendar works the opposite way. Each night is a separate dated event, and between now and mid-December most of them are already posted.
Here is the fall on this stretch, in order, from published dates only:
| Date | Where | What |
|---|---|---|
| Every Friday, 4–10 p.m. | Bob's Big Boy, 4211 W. Riverside Dr. | Classic car show |
| Sat. Oct. 17 & Sun. Oct. 18 | Garry Marshall Theatre | Hocus Pocus: Scene & Scream, where teens build a large Halloween display on the theatre's exterior |
| Oct. 22, 23 & 24, 8 p.m. | Garry Marshall Theatre | Halloween Squares |
| Mid-November, projected | 4007 W. Riverside Dr. | Sandough's planned opening |
| Sat. Nov. 21 & Sun. Nov. 22 | Garry Marshall Theatre | The Addams Family, youth production |
| Tue. Dec. 8, 8 p.m. | Garry Marshall Theatre | Irish Christmas in America |
| Sat. Dec. 12, 2 p.m. | Garry Marshall Theatre | Do Re Mi youth chorus performance |
The order matters. The Hocus Pocus build is the weekend before Halloween Squares, so the teen-built display goes up on the theatre's exterior just before the October shows. Two of the three Halloween Squares nights fall outside the car show. Thursday the 22nd and Saturday the 24th are theatre-only nights. Friday the 23rd is the only night this fall when both anchors are running.
The Halloween Squares contestants aren't hired actors. Each night, the nine "scare-lebrities" pick contestants from the audience based on the best costume. The theatre lists the age range as "8 to Zombie." That makes it a family outing as much as a date night, and it's the reason a costume belongs in the plan before you leave the house.
The newcomers fill the hours around the anchors
The City of Burbank's economic development office keeps a running list of new businesses. As of this week it lists two businesses on this stretch of Riverside as now open. Neither one is an evening spot.
Last Sip Café is at 3919 W. Riverside Drive. It describes itself as a neighborhood café serving specialty coffee and scratch-made breakfast and lunch. It also offers free Wi-Fi, comfortable seating, and vegan and gluten-friendly food options. If you want to go, call ahead or walk in. Its online menu page currently says it isn't taking online orders.
For Play Fitness at 4002 W. Riverside Drive is a non-heated mat Pilates studio. It also counts as another weekly routine on the block, with regulars on a set schedule, the same way Bob's has a Friday crowd.
Just off Riverside, Flour Pizzeria & Cafe at 4201 W. Alameda Avenue serves New York-style pizza by the slice and by the pie, plus sandwiches and salads. The company's ordering page lists the Burbank location as open. What Now Los Angeles first reported the Alameda location as upcoming in fall 2025, and no exact opening date was ever published. What matters for your Saturday is that it's serving now.
So the city's own records show this stretch adding coffee, Pilates and pizza by the slice in the last stretch of time. Another neon dinner spot or another stage would have competed with what's already here. These businesses don't. A Saturday that starts at Last Sip and ends at a Garry Marshall show now stays within a few blocks.
November brings the two kinds of business together
The next addition follows the same pattern. Sandough is the Melrose Avenue sandwich shop that bakes its bread from 48-hour fermented pizza dough. Owner Hakob Badalyan told What Now Los Angeles on September 29 that the Burbank location at 4007 W. Riverside Drive should open in mid-November. It takes over the former Smashed AF Burgers space. Burbank is set to open first, with Glendale's 126 S. Brand Boulevard location following in late November or early December.
The reported menu leans Italian:
- The Parma has 18-month-aged Prosciutto di Parma, stracciatella, heirloom tomato and wild arugula.
- Mortadella comes with parmigiano ricotta crema and pistachio.
- Funghi has roasted mushrooms, confit garlic and fontina.
- Chicken Parm, Meatball, Pastrami, Chicken Calabrese and The Verde round out the list.
Treat "mid-November" as a projection. The city still lists Sandough under "coming soon," next to its standard note that anticipated openings are subject to change. If it opens on schedule, its first weeks will line up with the Garry Marshall Theatre's busiest stretch of the season. The youth production of The Addams Family plays Saturday and Sunday, November 21 and 22. That would be the first weekend when a new Riverside lunch spot and a dated Riverside show could share a single afternoon.
The theatre's fall reaches beyond this stretch too. Its annual fundraiser, marking 25 years of The Princess Diaries, is set for Friday, November 13, at Verse Restaurant in Toluca Lake. Barbara Marshall is the honoree, and Heather Matarazzo, Héctor Elizondo and Kathleen Marshall are listed as special guests. The December events bring the season back to Riverside. Irish Christmas in America plays on a Tuesday night, December 8, at 8 p.m. The Do Re Mi youth chorus performs on Saturday afternoon, December 12, at 2 p.m.
Planning around the fixed nights
The October 23 evening fits together because the car show starts four hours before the curtain and keeps going after it. Here is that evening, in order:
- 4 p.m. The car show opens at Bob's Big Boy, 4211 W. Riverside Dr.
- Dinner at Bob's, or a few slices at Flour on W. Alameda Ave.
- 8 p.m. Halloween Squares at the Garry Marshall Theatre, 4252 W. Riverside Dr., in costume if you'd like a shot at being picked as a contestant.
- Before 9:20 p.m. The show runs under 80 minutes, so it lets out while the car show is still going until 10.
Saturday, November 21 works the same way in daylight. Coffee and breakfast at Last Sip, The Addams Family that weekend, and, if the projection holds, a Parma from Sandough at 4007 W. Riverside. For other parts of the city, our Burbank neighborhood page and our look at Burbank's residential pockets cover how the Media District relates to the rest of town.
If your Friday nights already run through Riverside Drive, you know this block better than any listing description could put it. Armando & Valerie would be glad to show you what that walkable Media District stretch adds to your home's value. Start with a Free Home Valuation whenever you're curious.
