Drive Ventura Boulevard through Encino on a Saturday and you will believe you've found the whole neighborhood. The dealerships, the new patio seating outside Popular, the steady traffic of people running errands between Balboa and Hayvenhurst. It reads like a main street because it is one. But it is not where Encino actually spends its Sunday mornings.
That happens a few blocks north and south of the boulevard, clustered around the Balboa Boulevard off ramp of the 101, in a pocket of park land, farm stalls, and adobe walls that most residents drive past at freeway speed without registering. A farmers market with a Van Nuys mailing address that everyone calls Encino's own. A lake loop that quietly doubles as a race course twice a summer. A 19th-century rancho that runs a free open house on a rotating Sunday schedule most people don't know exists. None of it is glamorous. All of it is where the neighborhood actually gathers.
The Farmers Market Address Nobody Notices
Ask a longtime Encino resident where they buy their Sunday produce and most will say "the Encino Farmers Market" without hesitation. Check the address and you'll find it sits at 17400 Victory Boulevard, technically a Van Nuys 91406 zip code. The market is run by ONEgeneration, a local nonprofit, and it has operated at that Victory Boulevard location, between White Oak and Balboa, every Sunday from 8am to 1pm, rain or shine, for years.
The Van Nuys address is a technicality that doesn't survive contact with how people actually use the place. It draws over 30 farmers selling certified organic produce, grass-fed meat, and fresh fish, plus prepared food and live entertainment from local cultural groups on a rotating basis. It functions as Encino's market because Encino residents built it into that role over years of showing up, not because a city boundary agrees with them.
A Lap Around the Lake Before the Boulevard Wakes Up
A few minutes from the market, Lake Balboa inside Anthony C. Beilenson Park anchors the other half of the weekend routine. The paved loop around the lake runs 1.3 miles, is rated 4.5 stars across more than 1,000 reviews on AllTrails, and stays flat enough that strollers, wheelchairs, and dogs on leash all share it without much friction.
What separates it from a typical neighborhood pond loop is how often it gets used for something more organized than a morning walk. Earlier this summer the park hosted the Father's Day 5K, 10K, 15K, and half marathon on June 20, followed two weeks later by the Red, White, and Blue 5K, 10K, 15K, and half marathon on July 5. Both events used the same paved perimeter that dog walkers and joggers treat as their default route on an ordinary Tuesday. The lake isn't just scenic backdrop. It's infrastructure that the neighborhood leans on for both daily exercise and organized community events, which is a different kind of park than the one most people picture when they think of a place to walk a dog.
Heritage Days at the Adobe
South of the lake, close enough to Ventura Boulevard that you could walk it, sits Los Encinos State Historic Park. The entrance is easy to miss: take the Balboa off ramp, go south to Moorpark one block before Ventura, and park on the street, since there's no lot. Inside is the original eight-room de la Ossa Adobe, the two-story stone Garnier Building, a working blacksmith shop, and the natural spring that gave the site its water source going back to the village of Siutcanga, long before it became the hub of Rancho Los Encinos.
The park runs a free program called Heritage Days on a recurring schedule, 1pm to 3pm on select Sundays throughout the year. The 2026 dates land on May 17, June 21, July 19, August 16, September 20, October 18, November 22, and December 20. For anyone reading this before the middle of the month, the next one falls on August 16, which means it's close enough to plan around without much lead time. Most residents who have lived here for years have never walked through the gate, in part because the park doesn't advertise itself the way a restaurant or a boulevard business does. It just runs its calendar quietly and waits for people to notice.
Here's how the pieces line up if you wanted to string a Sunday together around them:
- Farmers market at 17400 Victory Boulevard, 8am to 1pm, for produce and breakfast from the food vendors
- A lap or two around Lake Balboa while the morning is still cool
- Los Encinos State Historic Park on a Heritage Days Sunday, 1pm to 3pm, for the adobe and the spring
- Dinner back on Ventura Boulevard once the evening cools off
| Recurring Anchor | Location | Schedule |
|---|---|---|
| Encino Farmers Market | 17400 Victory Blvd | Every Sunday, 8am–1pm, year-round |
| Lake Balboa loop trail | Anthony C. Beilenson Park, off Balboa Blvd | Open daily, dog-friendly on leash |
| Heritage Days | Los Encinos State Historic Park, Moorpark near Balboa | Select Sundays, 1pm–3pm (next: Aug 16, 2026) |
The Boulevard Still Has Its Say
None of this means Ventura Boulevard has gone quiet. It just plays a different role than the park cluster does. Popular, the seventh concept from Tel Aviv Restaurant Group, opened this spring at 18047 Ventura Boulevard in a 4,000 square foot space with a full bar and patio, led by executive chef Dor Priezler on a Mediterranean fusion menu heavy on seafood. It's the kind of opening that gives the boulevard a reason to be a dinner destination rather than a drive-through corridor.
A few blocks down, Mercedes-Benz of Encino hosted a C+C Sunday Drive meetup this spring, where local owners gathered before heading out together on a group drive. It's a small, low-key ritual, but it's one more example of the boulevard functioning as a gathering point for a specific slice of the community rather than just a shopping strip. And earlier this year, the Encino Community Center at 16953 Ventura Boulevard hosted EncinoFest, a free event organized with the Encino Neighborhood Council and the Encino Chamber of Commerce, built around local talent, basketball, and free food from local vendors.
The boulevard's rhythm is retail and food. The park cluster's rhythm is produce, exercise, and history. Both run on their own schedules, and neither one replaces the other. What's easy to miss, if you only ever drive Ventura Boulevard between errands, is that the quieter half of the neighborhood's weekend has just as much structure to it: a Sunday market that's been showing up in the same spot for years, a lake that turns into a race course twice a summer, and a 19th-century rancho that opens its gates on a schedule most people have never bothered to check.
Worth Building Into Your Own Weekend
If you've lived in Encino for a while and have never walked the Los Encinos grounds or laced up for a lap around Lake Balboa before the farmers market wraps up, the pieces are already there and waiting on their own calendar. None of it requires planning a trip. It requires knowing the schedule exists in the first place.
For anyone thinking about where a move within Encino, Sherman Oaks, Studio City, or the surrounding Valley might make sense, or just curious what a particular block or corridor is like to actually live near, Brandon Kaufman spends enough time in these neighborhoods to talk through the parts that don't show up on a listing sheet. Reach out anytime to schedule a conversation or request a free home valuation.
