If you own here, you already know the beach block empties earlier than it used to. What is less obvious, until you look at where new rooms are opening and where the September crowds actually park, is that the island's late-summer gravity has migrated off the sand and onto the bay. Amherst Avenue is doing the heavy lifting now, and it will keep doing it well past Labor Day.
This is a playbook for people who live on the island and want to plan the next eight weeks with intention. It is not a visitor guide, and it is not a roundup. It is one argument, told through named places and dated events: the Barbary Coast dining cluster plus the Fall Funfest promenade have turned Margate's shoulder season into a genuine second peak, and the residents who plan around that shift eat better, park easier, and see their neighbors more often than the ones still trying to relive July.
The Amherst Avenue Sunset Bloc
The single largest change to Margate's dining map in a decade sits at 9317 Amherst, on the footprint of the old Capt. Andy's Marina. Tideline Sunset Bar & Grill opened on Friday, June 13, 2025 after roughly nine years of legal and permitting work, a three-story bayfront room with dock mooring in the city's Marina Special District. The ownership story matters for how the place will run over time: Margate residents Sean and Jaime Gormley purchased the site in December 2016, and about a year before opening they partnered with Alex and Ray Leotta and Cameron Fickling-Rone from Tomatoes across the street to manage service. That is Tomatoes Restaurant Group hospitality behind the counter, which is why the room found its footing in weeks rather than months.
Tideline did not land on an empty block. It joined an already dense operator cluster locals have been calling Barbary Coast for years, one that now reads like a small district: Tomatoes, Maynard's, Sofia's, Steve and Cookie's, and Betty's Seafood Shack all within walking distance, with Margate Fish House adding a counter-service raw bar and indoor-outdoor seating for the seafood-and-a-lobster-roll crowd. A block over, Luciano Lamberti's Restaurant & Sunset Marina, the two-story bayfront room with the Naples-via-Brooklyn backstory, is now open year-round, which quietly removes one of the biggest complaints about winter on the island.
The through line is not "new places to try." It is that the bay side finally has enough operator depth to hold a Friday night on its own, without anyone having to drive off-island. That is new.
Weekday Rituals Still Worth Blocking Off
August is short. The two standing weekly rituals worth keeping on the calendar:
- Steve & Cookie's Farmers Market, Thursdays through August, 8:30 to 11:30 a.m. Small, local, and organized by an operator with skin in the game.
- Free movies on the beach, same Thursdays, right after the market wraps. Bring a chair, do not bring anything you cannot carry back.
Both are the kind of low-lift routine that becomes the reason someone stayed an extra Thursday night instead of driving back to the city.
The September Anchors, In Order
The reason not to pack the house up on Labor Day is on the calendar below. These are the dated anchors that carry the island from mid-September through the first weekend of October.
| Date | Event | What to know |
|---|---|---|
| Fri, Sept. 11 | Margate 9/11 Memorial Services | Annual civic observance, brief and well-attended |
| Late August | Margate Memorials (WWII Memorial Lifeguard Races) | Long-running lifeguard race series drawing locals, athletes, and out-of-town crews |
| Sat, Sept. 26, 11a–6p | Fall Funfest by the Bay, Day One | 25th anniversary; 110+ booths on Amherst Avenue |
| Sat, Sept. 26, 7:30p–10p | Funfest After Dark | Washington Ave. Pier; $20 advance / $25 day-of; adult-only |
| Sun, Sept. 27, 11a–4p | Fall Funfest, Day Two | Parades with Miss New Jersey and the Dan Gottlieb Memorial Dog Show at 1 p.m. |
For the ducks-in-the-bay crowd, the Floating Quack-A-Palooza returns to Scott's Dock, sponsored by Margate Wine and Gardens. If you have kids or grandkids visiting, this is the one to time.
What Fall Funfest Looks Like in Year 25
Founded in 1998 by Margate Business Association founder Joseph Tozzi, Funfest was designed from the start as a shoulder-season economic engine, not a summer festival. Twenty-five years in, it draws more than 20,000 visitors across the weekend and packs Amherst Avenue with over 110 booths, ten live bands on the main stage, twelve acts on the kids' stage, Scott's Dock Wetlands Wonderland, two days of parades, a beer garden, and a Tito's Handmade Vodka tent. Admission is free, which is worth restating because it is unusual at this scale.
New for 2026: Shore Axes, a mobile axe-throwing trailer parked on Washington Avenue, with regulation axes for adults and a plastic version for kids under fourteen. The food vendor slate has grown accordingly. Expect Tacocat Food Truck, South Jersey Smoke House on burnt ends and brisket, Tommy T's for funnel cakes and lemonade, The Muffin Top (Dew'licious Café) doing a Vietnamese lean with boba, spring rolls, and beef bao, Tin Cup Soda Company with 32-ounce sodas in old-school mountain-brew cups, Philly Pretzel Factory, and Sherri's Crab Cakes of NJ on the Captain's Platter and Crabby Mac & Cheese.
The piece of the weekend most residents miss is Saturday night. Funfest After Dark runs 7:30 to 10 p.m. at the Washington Avenue Pier with Dead Reckoning on stage and a paid tasting inside the Tito's tent: five samplings of wine and spirits plus light bites for twenty dollars in advance, twenty-five the day of. The 2026 theme is pajama party, and the best-dressed judgment ends with a Teddy Bear trophy. Free dancing in the street for anyone who does not want the tasting wristband.
Sunday at 1 p.m., Steve & Cookie's hosts the Dan Gottlieb Memorial Dog Show. If you have ever thought about entering your dog in something, this is the low-pressure entry point.
"The event is designed to give a boost to local businesses in the shoulder season and to showcase so many of Margate's natural attributes." That framing, from the Margate Has More organizers, is the whole reason Funfest belongs on a homeowner's calendar rather than a tourist's.
How to Actually Use This Playbook
A few small decisions make the next two months noticeably better.
Rotate bay-side, then beach. If you have historically done a beach dinner and a walk on the boardwalk, invert it in August. Sunset at Tideline or Lamberti's, then walk back through the residential blocks after the crowd thins. The light is better, the wait is shorter, and you will run into more neighbors.
Anchor one Thursday. Farmers market at Steve & Cookie's, movie on the beach, dinner reservation somewhere in the Barbary Coast cluster. That is the entire day handled with almost no driving.
Book Funfest Saturday now. Not the daytime part, which is walk-up. The After Dark tasting sells out most years and the pajama theme will move faster than usual. Twenty dollars in advance versus twenty-five at the gate is not the point; the point is that the pier fills.
Treat the last weekend of September as a real weekend. For years, the island read as effectively closed by then. Between Funfest, the dog show, the parades, and Lamberti's staying open year-round, that assumption is out of date. Guests you did not want to invite in July are much easier to host in late September, and the restaurants are actually able to give you a good table.
The larger point, for anyone weighing what a home on this island is worth six months of the year rather than three: the operator depth on Amherst Avenue and the civic muscle behind Funfest are not summer amenities. They are the reasons a Margate house is used more Thursdays and more Septembers than it used to be. That shift shows up in how residents live here long before it shows up in a comp sheet.
If you are thinking about how your home fits into that longer season, whether you are considering a sale, an off-market look, or a second property closer to the bay, Sean Elstone works with Downbeach owners on exactly those questions. Request a VIP Consultation when you are ready.
