The burger bracket is live. Sixteen of them, every one nominated by you, seeded and paired. Round one is open from today until Wednesday the 23rd, so tap the burger you want in each matchup, one vote per person, and skip any pairing you have no opinion about. It takes a minute.

Then the bakery tour. We spent two weeks on it and then discovered that the two most famous bakeries on the peninsula are both shut this week. Not a coincidence and not a closure anybody needs to worry about: they are on holiday, at the same time, the way bakers who have worked every single morning since January tend to be. Sluys in Poulsbo is dark through Sunday the 13th. Saboteur in Manette is dark until Thursday the 17th. So this is the tour with those two circled and dated, and the four that are open right now put first, because you are probably reading this on a Thursday with a Saturday to fill.

The Rundown

The Ferry Year Turns Over On September 20

The fall sailing schedule starts Sunday, September 20. Which means the boat you are catching this week and next is still the summer one, and every departure you have half-memorised since June holds for ten more days. Then it does not. If you have a standing Monday sailing, that is the Monday it changes underneath you. Full timetables go up at wsdot.com/ferries, and there is more in Ferry Watch below.

The Bremerton Market Moves Its Clock Next Thursday

The Bremerton Community Farmers Market at Evergreen Rotary Park runs 4 to 7pm on Thursdays right up to September 16, and then shifts to 3:30 to 6:30 from September 17 onward. Half an hour is exactly enough to strand somebody who has been showing up at ten to seven all summer. The season closes October 8. The light is the reason, and once you notice it you notice it everywhere else too.

Port Townsend's Film Festival Is Two Weeks Out

The 27th Port Townsend Film Festival lands the last week of the month, September 24 to 28. Seventy-odd films, thirty-odd filmmakers who actually turn up and talk, and a chunk of it free, including the filmmaker parade and the outdoor movies. Flagging it now because Port Townsend beds go first and the schedule drops before the tickets do. ptfilm.org

Best Burger of the Peninsula

Two weeks ago we said the field would be yours to pick, and it is. Sixteen burgers, chosen entirely from what you told us, across ten towns from Kingston to Sequim. Round one is open now and closes Wednesday September 23. Tap the one you want in each matchup. One vote per person, and you can skip any matchup you have no opinion about.

Round of 16

Winners are announced in the next issue and the quarterfinals open the same day. The one still standing on November 4 gets the 2026 seal for the front window. If your favorite is not up there, it is because nobody named it, and there will be another bracket.

The Bakery Tour

Four are open this weekend. Two are not, and the two that are not are the two you were going to drive to, so we have put the closed ones last with the day they come back. Nobody has paid for a word of this and we have not asked any of them for anything. The order is simply the order we would drive them this week.

Open this weekend

Blackbird Bakery  ·  210 Winslow Way E, Bainbridge Island  ·  seven days, 8am to 4pm

The one that is open every single day, which this week is the whole argument. It sits on Winslow Way, a short walk up from the Bainbridge dock, so it is the only bakery on this list you can reach on foot off a boat. Get the brioche cinnamon roll, six dollars and worth it, or Helen's French Roll, which is built to be torn in half and dipped in a doppio and is disappointing if you do anything else with it. The island farms show up on the menu in a way that is not a marketing line: local lavender blossoms in the sugar cookies. Their site still calls the seven-day 8 to 4 "summer hours", so the post-Labor-Day schedule is worth a call: (206) 780-1322.

Bee Hill Bakery  ·  3381 NW Bucklin Hill Rd, Suite C, Silverdale  ·  daily, 7am to 3pm

The newest one here and the one people in Central Kitsap will fight you about. Angie Hosking spent roughly two and a half years doing nearly the entire build-out herself and opened on Valentine's Day, and the room shows it: you can watch the bread being shaped through the kitchen wall, and half the shelves are other local makers' work. Central Kitsap voted it best bakery, best espresso, best dessert, best gluten-free, best new restaurant and best hidden gem in the same year, which is either a landslide or a small town, and we suspect both. We have not eaten our way through this one ourselves yet, so take the specifics from the people who have: the review pile keeps landing on the pecan cinnamon roll and the quiche. They close early when they sell out, so 7am is not a suggestion.

Pane d'Amore  ·  617 Tyler St, Port Townsend  ·  Tue to Sat 7am to 6pm, Sun 7am to 3pm, closed Mondays

The bread bakery of the three, and the one to hit if you are going to the boats anyway: Tyler Street is a short walk up from the water and they are open until six, which is late enough to catch you on the way out rather than the way in. There are two more counters, Lynwood Center on Bainbridge (Tue to Sat, 7 to 3) and 104 E Washington in Sequim (Tue to Sat, 8 to 2), all three closed Mondays. Go for a loaf rather than a pastry. That is what they are for.

Buena Luz Bakery  ·  1105 S Eunice St, Port Angeles  ·  Mon to Fri 6am to 2pm, Sat 7am to 2pm, closed Sundays

About two hours out from Poulsbo, so this is a Hurricane Ridge day or a Sol Duc day with a stop built into it, not a Tuesday morning. A six o'clock opening on weekdays tells you who it is really for, which is people leaving town in the dark. Pastries, bread, grab-and-go sandwiches and a proper coffee and tea counter. They only recently started opening Mondays, so if you have written them off for the start of the week, unwrite that.

Dark this week, and the day each comes back

Sluys Poulsbo Bakery  ·  18924 Front St NE, Suite 104, Poulsbo  ·  closed September 8 to 13, back Monday the 14th, then every day 5am to 6pm

This is the one that makes people drive here from Seattle, and it is shut for the whole of this weekend. Do not go. Marion and Loretta Sluys bought Bauer's Bake Shop in 1966 and renamed it; Daniel, their son, runs it now with Stephanie and has worked there since he was eight, when he had to stand on a five-gallon can to reach the counter. Marion invented Poulsbo Bread in 1974, and Sluys is still the only bakery allowed to make it from scratch. The rest of the case is Brod, Sweet Black, Norwegian Black, Farmers, jalapeno cheese, and then the Old World shelf: Julekake, Kransekake, cardamom bread, Fattigman. Back Monday the 14th at five in the morning, which is the correct hour to reopen a bakery. [The reopening day is our reading of "closed through the 13th"; their site prints the closure, not the return.]

Saboteur Bakery  ·  2110 E 11th St, Manette, Bremerton  ·  closed for its summer break, back Thursday September 17, then Thu to Sun 8am to 2pm

Four days a week, six hours a day, and it still sells out early most of them, which tells you everything. Their own words on the hours are "8 a.m. to 2 p.m. unless we sell out early", and the second half of that sentence is the operative one. They posted the break themselves on August 27 and named the return date, so Thursday the 17th is a real date and not a guess. Put it in the calendar and go at eight.

Two closures in the same week is not a pattern, it is September. The summer trade ends with Labor Day and the holiday trade has not started, and that ten-day gap is the only window in the year a small bakery can shut without letting anybody down. Both of them have been open every morning since New Year's.

This Weekend

Port Townsend Wooden Boat Festival  ·  Point Hudson, Port Townsend  ·  Fri Sep 11 to Sun Sep 13  ·  from 9am  ·  ticketed, see woodenboat.org

Three hundred boats, a hundred-odd talks, and a woodworking tent where somebody will let your kid hold a plane. The 49th. Kids 12 and under free with a paying adult.

Manette Fest  ·  Manette neighborhood, Bremerton  ·  Sat Sep 12  ·  10am to 3pm  ·  admission not posted

The neighborhood's own street party, five hours of it, walkable from the bridge. Note that Saboteur, two blocks away, is still shut, so eat at the fest. The association has posted the date and the hours and nothing else, so the programme and the admission are both still unconfirmed.

Port Orchard Night Market  ·  Sidney Parkway, Port Orchard  ·  Sat Sep 12  ·  6 to 10pm  ·  Free

The last one of the year. Fifty-odd makers, food trucks, a beer garden, and the Bay Street shops staying open late, all of it right on the water after dark. There were four all season and this is number four.

Kitsap Destruction Derby, Championship Night  ·  Thunderbird Stadium, Kitsap Fairgrounds, Bremerton  ·  Sat Sep 12  ·  opening ceremonies 5pm  ·  $22 at the gate, $20 students, seniors and military, under 6 free

Playday, championship and season finale on one card, under the covered grandstands. Buy through the fairgrounds rather than a resale site: the resellers are listing this at three times the gate and one of them has the start time down as half past three in the morning.

Friends of the Library Book Sale  ·  Poulsbo library  ·  Sat Sep 12  ·  10am to 2pm  ·  Free

If you were going to Poulsbo for the bakery and now you are not, here is a reason to go anyway that costs about a dollar. Donation drop-off is the same morning, so bring the box that has been in the boot since June.

Deep Draft Second Sunday Market  ·  Deep Draft Brewing, Gorst  ·  Sun Sep 13  ·  3 to 7pm  ·  Free

Also the last of its series, four Sundays across the summer and this is the fourth. Vendors, live music, barbecue, beer. Gorst gets mentioned in this newsletter roughly never, so here it is.

Poulsbrew  ·  Austin-Kvelstad Pavilion, Poulsbo waterfront  ·  Sat Sep 19  ·  12 to 6pm  ·  $35 for five tastes, 21+, unconfirmed

Next Saturday, not this one. The pavilion sits in the middle of the waterfront park, so the music carries the length of it. Adults only, and that includes babies and dogs, which catches people out every year. Confirm the price with the Chamber before you plan around it.

West Sound Roller Derby, home bout  ·  Kitsap Fairgrounds, Bremerton  ·  Sat Sep 19  ·  doors 3:30pm, first whistle 4pm

The time went up on the league's own store rather than on any calendar, which is very much the genre. Ticket prices are there too, at westsoundrollerderby.org.

Live Music

First fortnight of the indoor season, and it is a thin list on purpose: the taprooms and wineries have not posted past Labor Day yet. What has posted is the rooms that book a month out, which this time of year means the loud one in Bremerton and the tribute circuit in Suquamish.

The Charleston, Bremerton

THU Sep 10  ·  Yes Ma'am, with Lightnin' Luke and Dirty Dirt Eaters  ·  New Orleans folk punk, tonight  ·  8pm  ·  $17 advance, $20 door

FRI Sep 11  ·  Evelyn's Casket, Mismiths, Jet Hag, One Drink and Other Lies  ·  8pm  ·  $15

SAT Sep 12  ·  Nolte, Late Night Shiner, Chili Mutiny  ·  8pm  ·  $10

THU Sep 17  ·  Grassquatch Collective, Uncle Mitch, The Vanishing Floors  ·  8pm  ·  $10

FRI Sep 18  ·  Great Sword NW, Run Them Through, Prophayniax  ·  7pm  ·  $12

SAT Sep 19  ·  Defiance, Hat Trickers, Carrie Nation & the Speakeasy, Clyde and the Milltailers  ·  Portland, Tokyo and Wichita in one room  ·  8pm  ·  $20 advance, $25 door

Beach Rock, Clearwater Casino, Suquamish

FRI Sep 11  ·  Chicago Tribute Authority  ·  8:30pm

SAT Sep 12  ·  ABBAgraphs  ·  8:30pm

FRI Sep 18  ·  Randy Linder, Creedence Revelation  ·  8:30pm

SAT Sep 19  ·  Moondance, a Van Morrison tribute  ·  8:30pm

The cover is fifteen dollars, doors at seven, and Beach Rock is 21 and over.

And one seated one

SAT Sep 12  ·  Matthew Morrison, Show Up  ·  Admiral Theatre, Bremerton  ·  doors 6:30, show 7:30pm  ·  price at admiraltheatre.org

Every week, no cover

THU  ·  Open mic  ·  Bushel & Barrel Ciderhouse, Poulsbo  ·  6pm, all ages

THU  ·  The Tammy Frost Trio  ·  Brother Don's, Bremerton  ·  7pm, all ages

SUN  ·  The Brother Don's jam  ·  Bremerton  ·  5pm, all ages

SUN  ·  Live Music Sundays  ·  The Brass Kraken, Poulsbo  ·  6:30pm, 21+

MON  ·  Open mic  ·  Hood Canal Brewery, Kingston  ·  7pm, all ages

If your Friday is normally a winery patio, give it a fortnight. Those calendars fill in late once the outdoor season closes, and we will have them back in the next issue.

Spotted

Sluys has already posted next year's holiday, right underneath this year's: closed September 7 to 12, 2027. Twelve months of notice, which is the most Poulsbo thing we have ever seen.

Beach Rock has booked four straight weekend nights of tribute acts: Chicago, then ABBA, then Creedence, then Van Morrison. Somebody over there has a plan and we respect it.

The Tides

Short section, because the season just ended. This morning is the last daylight minus tide of the year's good run, and after it the water does not go below zero again until the very end of the month, at one in the morning, in the dark, at Seabeck. So: today, or wait for a headlamp.

Thu Sep 10 · 11:07am · -0.41 ft  ·  Bremerton and Port Orchard

Fri Sep 11 · 11:29am · +0.49 ft  ·  Port Gamble

Tue Sep 15 · 2:01am · +0.20 ft  ·  Port Gamble, in the dark

Wed Sep 16 · 2:41am · +0.14 ft  ·  Port Gamble, also in the dark

Predictions from NOAA. The next proper minus tides are September 29 through October 4 at Seabeck, bottoming out at -1.77 ft on the 1st, and every one of them falls between one and half past five in the morning. Seabeck also sits on closed water, so read the box above before you take a bucket anywhere.

Hidden Gem: The Sequim Counter

Everybody knows the Port Townsend Pane d'Amore and a fair number of people know the one at Lynwood Center. Almost nobody outside Clallam County knows there is a third, at 104 E Washington Street in Sequim, open Tuesday to Saturday, 8 to 2, and that is the one to build a day around. It is a small counter on a wide, quiet street, six hours a day, and it sits at exactly the point on US-101 where you stop thinking of the drive as a commute and start thinking of it as a trip. Buy the loaf on the way out, not on the way back, and eat half of it in the car like an animal somewhere past Blyn.

Ferry Watch

Ten more days of the summer book. The fall schedule starts Sunday, September 20, on every route. Until then nothing structural changes, so the sailing you have been catching all summer is still there. Worth actually looking at the new timetable before the 20th rather than discovering it on the dock.

Kingston's boarding pass system is still on, daily 8am to 8pm through October 12. Same procedure as the last two issues, nothing about it has changed.

Three elevators are out, and they matter if you need one. The Puyallup, on Edmonds to Kingston, has its passenger elevator out of service, with the freight elevator available instead for mobility-impaired passengers. The Chimacum, on Seattle to Bremerton, has its number 2 elevator out; number 1 is working and there are accessible restrooms on the car deck. At Colman Dock, elevator 5 is still out on the Alaskan Way side and elevator 4 is working. If any of that is load-bearing for your trip, check the alerts page the morning of.

Full schedules and real-time alerts: wsdot.com/ferries

Web only: every market, and the day each one stops

The email had room for two markets. There are nine, and between now and the end of October most of them close, several of them quietly. This is the whole board, with the last day of each season where the market has published one. If you only read one line, read the Bremerton one.

Bremerton Community Farmers Market  ·  Evergreen Rotary Park, 1400 Park Ave  ·  Thursdays

4 to 7pm through September 16, then 3:30 to 6:30 from September 17. Last market October 8. This is the one that will catch people out, and it is the market's own published change, not a guess.

Poulsbo Farmers Market  ·  18901 8th Ave NE  ·  Saturdays, 10am to 2pm

Runs all the way to December 12, the longest season of any market here, and the one Poulsbo food stop that is definitely open the weekend Sluys is not. Note the street number: the market's own site says 18901, and some calendars print 19801.

Port Townsend Farmers Market  ·  600 block of Tyler St, Uptown  ·  Saturdays, 9am to 2pm

Through October 31. Two blocks up from the Pane d'Amore counter on Tyler, so that is a bread run and a market in one walk.

Chimacum Farmers Market  ·  behind the Chimacum Corner Farmstand  ·  Saturdays, 10am to 2pm

Through October 25. It is at the four-way stop, which is the only four-way stop, so you will not miss it.

Port Orchard Farmers Market  ·  Waterfront Park  ·  Saturdays, 9am to 2pm

Through October. The midweek offshoot at the South Kitsap Helpline, Wednesdays 3 to 7pm, ends September 30, and that one only started this July.

Seabeck Community Market  ·  Seabeck Community & Event Center, 15565 Seabeck Hwy NW  ·  first and third Sundays, 12 to 4pm

Runs through September, which means Sunday the 20th is the last one of the year. Two a month, four hours each, so it is easy to plan to go and then find you have missed it until May.

Bainbridge Island Farmers Market  ·  Town Square at City Hall  ·  Saturdays, 10am to 2pm

Through November. A short walk from Blackbird if you are already on the island for the bakery. These hours come from third-party listings rather than the market itself this cycle, so check before you make the trip.

Silverdale Old Town Market  ·  Old Town Silverdale waterfront  ·  Saturdays, 10am to 2pm

No published season end. Down the hill from Bee Hill, so that is a bakery and a market on the same Saturday morning.

Kingston Public Market  ·  next to the ferry terminal

We are leaving this one blank on purpose. Two sources give two different days of the week for it, the market's own website will not load over a valid certificate, and printing the wrong day sends somebody to an empty car park. If you know, hit reply and tell us and we will fix it in the next issue.

Web only: the other two Pane d'Amore counters

The email gave these a line each. They are on the map above with their own pins, because the difference between them is a three-hour difference in closing time and that is the kind of thing that ruins a drive.

Lynwood Center, Bainbridge Island  ·  4569 Lynwood Ctr Rd NE  ·  Tue to Sat, 7am to 3pm

Closed Sundays and Mondays, and it shuts at three, not six. It is at the south end of the island by the old theatre, nowhere near Winslow, so do not plan to do this one and Blackbird in the same fifteen minutes. (206) 780-1902.

Sequim  ·  104 E Washington St  ·  Tue to Sat, 8am to 2pm

The shortest hours of the three, six a day, five days a week. This is the Hidden Gem in the email and it is worth the paragraph it got. (360) 681-3280.

All three counters are closed Mondays. There is a fourth Pane d'Amore address still floating around the internet, on Washington Street in Port Townsend; it is not on the bakery's own list of locations and it shows as closed. Do not drive to it.

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