Things to Do in Everett This August: Waterfront to Downtown

For years, if you lived in Everett and someone asked what to do down at the marina on a Saturday, the honest answer was that you needed a slip to justify the trip. The bulkheads and infrastructure were being poured. The parks were half activated. The dining was thin. You could walk it, but you were walking through a construction narrative, not a place.

August 2026 is the first full summer where that answer changes. Restaurant Row at Waterfront Place is functionally complete, a second Vietnamese anchor has opened downtown, and the calendar between now and Labor Day has enough scheduled activity that the harder problem is fitting it in, not finding it. This post is a working plan for residents, organized around the specific places and dates worth blocking on your calendar.

What Actually Changed at Waterfront Place

The shift is easier to see when you line up the opening dates. Rustic Cork Wine Bar and The Net Shed Fish Market & Kitchen both debuted in December 2025. Tapped Public House opened at Waterfront Place on March 2, 2026, with panoramic views of the Olympic Mountains and Port of Everett Marina, along with the largest open-air rooftop deck on the waterfront in Snohomish County. Menchie's at the Marina followed shortly after at Fisherman's Harbor "Restaurant Row." Then in June, Marina Azul Cocina & Cantina officially opened at the Port of Everett's Waterfront Place and celebrated with a ribbon cutting on June 25, 2026.

That is five openings in roughly six months, on top of a marina that already had a handful of established operators. The Port has been direct about the intent behind it.

"We have the largest public marina on the West Coast. If you didn't own a boat, there wasn't anything for you to do down here. So we're trying to bring stuff for people to do."

That is Port of Everett CEO Lisa Lefeber, framing the whole exercise. The point of Restaurant Row was to give the 90 percent of Everett residents who do not keep a boat here a reason to walk the promenade. What was theoretical a year ago now has a menu, a rooftop, and a wait for a table on Friday nights.

Two practical things follow from that. First, parking is finite and the shortcut exists. The Port offers two-hour free parking zones and the free Trawley shuttle to help visitors navigate the waterfront without moving their car. If you drive down for dinner and then want to walk to Boxcar Park for a concert, the Trawley is the reason you do not need to relocate the car. Second, one last shoe is still to drop. The Port of Everett has publicly confirmed it is searching for a flagship dining tenant to occupy the final available parcel along Restaurant Row, specifically a high-end steakhouse or experiential dining concept to anchor the waterfront dining scene, and that search is ongoing as of April 2026. August is a good month to form your own opinion about who should get that lease.

The Ferry Is the Weeknight Move

The best-kept secret about Jetty Island is that it is a Wednesday-through-Sunday amenity, which means it is a weeknight option for anyone with a flexible evening. Jetty Island Days returns for summer 2026, offering ferry service to Everett's beloved Jetty Island from July 8 through September 6, with the ferry running Wednesday through Sunday from the dock at 522 10th Street, tickets priced at $4–7 per person, and reservations required.

A few things worth planning around:

• Reservations fill up. This is not a walk-on operation on a warm evening.
• Jetty Island features two miles of sandy beach, warm shallow waters, wildlife viewing, and stunning views of the Olympic Mountains. Bring water shoes. The shallow bottom is what warms the water, and it is also what will find every barnacle if you go barefoot.
• The season ends September 6. If you have out-of-town family visiting after Labor Day, you have missed it.

If you want a longer version of the same idea, the Harbor Hopper is running through the end of the month. The Harbor Hopper passenger ferry connects Everett to the charming village of Langley on Whidbey Island every Thursday and Saturday from June 4 through August 29, with the scenic 30-minute crossing costing $12 one-way or $20 round-trip and accommodating up to 45 passengers per trip. A round-trip to Langley for lunch is a legitimate Thursday if you can get out of work at a reasonable hour. After August 29 it goes away for the season.

The Weekend to Actually Block Out

If you only clear one weekend in August, make it the 15th and 16th. Three separate events overlap into what is effectively downtown Everett's biggest weekend of the year, and the geography lines up.

Summer in the City runs across two days in Downtown Everett, with Wetmore Plaza and the surrounding streets packed with music, art, activities, and local favorites. On the same weekend, Fresh Paint transforms downtown Everett into an open-air studio with 100 artist booths, live entertainment, food, and glassblowing near Schack Art Center, 2921 Hoyt Ave. The two events are coordinated on purpose. Summer in the City lines up with Fresh Paint at Schack Art Center, so you get an extra dose of creativity and community energy all in one weekend.

Then, a few blocks away in the Riverside neighborhood, SOAFEST runs Saturday, Aug. 15, 1 to 7 p.m. at Garfield Park, a free public cultural celebration that brings the heart of Africa to Washington and amplifies the voices, stories, and contributions of African immigrant and refugee communities through live music, dance, fashion, food, storytelling, arts, and entrepreneurship.

The reason to plan this weekend rather than wander into it: parking. Downtown Everett handles Summer in the City comfortably on its own. Downtown Everett handling Summer in the City plus Fresh Paint plus a Sunday farmers market on Wetmore means you want to be on foot by 10 a.m. and staying that way.

The Rest of the Month, in the Background

The weekly rhythms are where residents get their money's worth out of August, and there are three worth knowing.

The Everett Farmers Market runs every Sunday. The 33rd Season of the Everett Farmers Market is in the heart of Downtown Everett at Wetmore Ave between Pacific and Hewitt, open Sundays beginning May 10 from 10:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. The market and Restaurant Row are a natural pairing. Groceries first, then walk down to the waterfront for a late lunch.

Fridays through the end of the month, the waterfront is running its own scavenger hunt. Float Find Shoreside returns every Friday from July 10 through August 28 at Waterfront Place, Port of Everett, a free weekly summer event that invites locals and visitors to hunt for floats hidden throughout the waterfront area and win prizes. Low-effort, works with kids, gives you a reason to be at the marina before dinner rather than just for it.

And downtown finally has a Vietnamese counterweight to its longstanding Mexican and diner options. Two years in the making, the former Hunan Palace building in Downtown Everett is now an authentic Vietnamese restaurant, Quan Ong Sau, which held a soft opening in December. Inside Quan Ong Sau, you will find a cafe and a restaurant, with the cafe serving a wide variety of coffees, from Vietnamese coffee to egg coffee, and just as wide a variety of teas. Worth knowing before your next lunch meeting downtown.

A Working August, in Order

If it helps to see the month as a sequence rather than a menu, here is one version that uses each of the pieces above without doubling up:

1. First Sunday. Farmers market on Wetmore between Pacific and Hewitt, then walk to Waterfront Place for a late lunch at The Net Shed or Rustic Cork.
2. A Wednesday or Thursday evening. Reserve the Jetty Island ferry from 522 10th Street. Bring water shoes and a sweatshirt for the ride back.
3. A Thursday day trip. Harbor Hopper to Langley for lunch, back on the afternoon return. Do this before August 29 or wait until next June.
4. A Friday evening. Float Find at Waterfront Place, then dinner at Marina Azul or the rooftop at Tapped. If you have not seen the octopus mural inside Tapped yet, that is the trip.
5. August 15–16. Downtown all weekend for Summer in the City and Fresh Paint. Saturday afternoon walk over to Garfield Park for SOAFEST.
6. A weeknight downtown. Dinner at Quan Ong Sau in the old Hunan Palace space.
7. Labor Day weekend. Last Jetty Island runs before September 6.

That is seven distinct outings that use twelve named venues and require, at most, one tank of gas. It is a version of August that would have been genuinely difficult to assemble in Everett two years ago, and it is the case for why the waterfront investment has started to matter to people who do not own boats.

If you are thinking about how the changes at Waterfront Place and downtown fit into a longer view of Everett as a place to own property, or you would like a quieter conversation about a home here, Bruce Overstreet at Windermere Real Estate/Shoreline is glad to talk. Let's Connect.