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Emeryville Public Market Renovation: Mayo & Mustard, We Sushi latest food trucks to sign leases

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Despite some recent “setbacks”, the food hall portion of the Emeryville Public Market renovation is coming along steadily. In addition to some interior art including a living wall and mosaic tile installation, City Center Realty Partners has recently announced the addition of two new food truck vendors that will be bringing their menus to the EPM’s interior food stalls.

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Mayo & Mustard and We Sushi are the latest Food Trucks to go “Brick & Mortar” by signing leases with the EPM joining Koja Kitchen, newcomer Shiba Ramen and Chicharon (based on Michelin-Starred chef Carlos Altamirano’s Sanguchon food trucks). Thankfully, it doesn’t appear that this trend for food trucks to establish roots is going to dampen the thriving mobile food movement as they are both opting to continue their truck service.

New stalls are close to completion with vendors targeting opening for operation in October/November but the new Public Market roster is far from complete. “We anticipate having some exciting leases to announce later this fall” noted EPM media contact Maureen Futtner. Additionally, improved entrances at the north and east entries will be finished by late fall as well as the addition of fire pits and outdoor seating in the breezeway. The Public Market remains open for business during the renovation.


The Public Market has been teasing us with the addition of a Brew Pub in the former Broken Rack space.


Mayo & Mustard

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Mayo & Mustard founder Masa Chen has been involved in the food industry for over 15 years and had a dream of creating a gourmet sandwich food truck after watching the Food Truck Wars documentary series. He opened Mayo & Mustard along with his wife Becky and partner David in 2011. Becky & Masa had been looking at expanding to a brick & mortar location for a couple years when they were contacted by the Public Market after participating in the Saturday Off the Grid events across the street. “We’ve currently lived in Emeryville for over five years so we feel this will be a great opportunity for our business!” noted Becky through email.

The Mayo & Mustard menu will be similar to the truck’s menu but they’ll be adding a few new sandwiches including some additional breakfast & dinner offerings. Mayo & Mustard will continue operating their mobile trucks providing daily lunch and catering services. “We’re currently working with the Emeryville Public Market’s design team in working out the final details for approval. We estimate hopefully we will be able to open by late October of this year but this depends on how long it takes to get permits”.


We Sushi

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The idea of We Sushi was dreamt up in 2011 by Thomas Wu & Alex Lin while working together in a Japanese Restaurant. Thomas & Alex opted to go out on their own but couldn’t settle on a location. “That was when the idea of making ourselves ‘mobile’ came about, and we’ve been on the road since!” noted Wu through email.

We Sushi has been part of the Public Market rotation since 2014 and have established a strong clientele there. The opportunity for a permanent stall at the Public Market was communicated by their colleagues at Mayo & Mustard. “We felt that it would be a great opportunity for us to expand our business and serve our clients in a different setting.” Their menu will be mostly the same as the food truck but the extra space will afford them the opportunity for some specialty items including an opening special that they teased “that has lobster tail in it!”

We sushi is hoping to be up and running in November but it could carry into 2016 depending on how smoothly things go. “Emeryville is a vibrant city and we love it as well as its people!”

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Rob Arias

is a third generation Californian and East Bay native who lived in Emeryville from 2003 to 2021. Rob founded The E'ville Eye in 2011 after being robbed at gunpoint and lamenting the lack of local news coverage. Rob's "day job" is as a creative professional.

30 Comments

  1. Wow! Several more new restaurant options. Thanks for reporting on this. Add these to all the other new restaurants opening you’ve been writing about recently and it’s looking like a veritable smorgasbord of new eating options for emeryvillians. I guess the new minimum wage increase isn’t having much of an effect, at least as far as restaurants going out of business is concerned. We’re getting more. New places are opening up all over the place in Emeryville. I’ll give it a year and nobody will be talking about the minimum wage anymore and the small business scene will be as vibrant as ever. Maybe more so.

    • The local small businesses haven’t stopped talking about it since it happened. It’s a struggle for all of us, and it will get worse every year for the next 3-4 years as the minimum wage continues to rise from ridiculous to insane.

      The residents buying at our restaurants can’t stop talking about the price increases either.

      Pay attention to the fact that the Marketplace is having trouble leasing space despite the renovation and the coming development. Under any normal circumstances, the place would have been fully leased before it opened. Remember it was packed wall to wall with far more restaurants just over a year ago.

      So despite a booming economy, we’re seeing restaurant closures and a lot of empty retail space.

      Trust me, we’ll be talking about this in a year. It’s a mess for everyone except organized labor who are laughing all the way to the bank.

      • You are telling us restaurants are closing and Rob is telling us new restaurants are opening. And not chains or fast food places either. You can’t both be right. I believe Rob. These are real restaurants he’s reporting on. They’re opening regardless of the minimum wage increase. You just seem to be a glass half empty type person.

      • Restaurants are struggling and others are opening and others are choosing not to open and others are closing and others are reducing hours. Almost all have raised prices between 10 and 20 percent. You have to see the whole picture not just the rosy part. Ask a few restaurant owners if it’s been positive so far. They were told they should see an increase in sales when the minimum wage went up and they raised prices. That was the theory.

        Let’s watch over the next couple years and see how many small, local businesses and jobs we lose. It’s like the Hunger Games. “You’re still alive at $12.25? Damn. Let’s try $13. That didn’t kill you yet? How about $14 or maybe $15 or $16+.”

        I’m not sure if the glass is half empty or half full, but if it’s on a table in Emeryville, it’s really expensive 🙂

    • I’m encouraged that despite the most anti-small business council this town has ever seen (maybe the state has ever seen), that some businesses are willing to give it a go. Most small businesses were already paying most of their employees the $12.25/hr. “regional” standard anyways. We won’t know the true impacts of the highest in the nation MWO until it hits $16 in 3 years or the next economic downturn (whichever comes first). Maybe, just maybe small business will adapt thrive despite council and customers will foot the bill for this “socialist experiment”.

      • All you guys on this blog ever talk about is how bad increasing the minimum wage is. You’re looking at it myopically. Raising the minimum wage is not done to punish business. There’s another side in this….remember? Why don’t you ever acknowledge the other side? Justice is the responsibility of government because it’s something we want and it’s not something taken up by business. We believe this here. You’re dropping the word socialism? Hint: You’re not helping your cause. Emeryville is not the Kansas or Alabama of the Bay Area.
        And more businesses opening flies in the face of your argument that this will destroy business. Your task you’ve set for yourselves to convince people this is terrible even though it’s demonstrably not, is difficult. You say restaurants will shutter across Emeryville and then we get more restaurants and now you’ve got some Rube Goldberg reason that you’re still right and people shouldn’t believe their own lying eyes. Maybe you don’t have all the answers. Ever consider that? Maybe more restaurants opening means more restaurants are opening. Some people just always want to see darkness.

      • I can’t personally speak for anyone that was opposed to raising the minimum wage and I never really heard this argument from anyone. I know I personally advocated for a regional approach for small business which every small business I spoke with and a majority of residents supported. If small businesses shudder, it won’t be because of me and my wife as we have tried to step up our frequency of eating at local establishments since the MWO. I hope others do to and aren’t put off by the 20% increase in prices (I know it could get pretty expensive if you’re feeding an entire family). A lot of businesses I’ve spoken with have gotten a negative reaction via Yelp and other social media about the price increases. These people clearly don’t understand the correlation between vocally supporting wage increases … and backing it up with their wallet.

      • So we needn’t concern ourselves with matters of justice and equity. What we want in Emeryville is cheap restaurant prices. So let’s lower the minimum wage and prices will lower. Come to think of it, let’s get rid of OSHA and all those government regulations while we’re at it. Just think how much the prices would come down. 40 hour work week? It’s gone. And if we could only get rid of those child labor laws, prices would really come down. Low prices here we come because that’s what matters for Emeryville citizens.

      • Whoa … that might have been the most extreme response ever. I know another source with those radical beliefs that tries to paint anyone who advocates for compromise as “Right Wingers”. They’re called RULE and the Emeryville Tattler. Would you be familiar with them by chance?

      • To clarify, suggesting “Eliminating OSHA, child labor laws, and the 40 hour work week” is an extreme response to asking for a regional approach for small biz. I’ll tell you what I tell everyone, go actually chat with some small businesses owners about the impacts of the highest in the nation MWO to get their perspective on layoffs & diminished business by dramatically increasing costs overnight … but please don’t harass them like that Tattler Guy 😉

      • I’ll tell you what I told the Tattler, Rob, you’ve really got to stop trashing the other blog in town. It’s making you both look small. And regarding RULE, these constant attacks from you just looks like sour grapes. The EVille Eye just keeps getting smaller.

      • The problem with the social justice argument is that the raised minimum wage doesn’t promote social justice. It does exactly the opposite.

        81% of the increase in wages goes to people who aren’t in poverty (mostly the young) and most of the job loss hits people who are.

        The 20 year old waiter who was making $20 an hour with tips gets a $5 raise. The father of two at the grill who was making $15 loses his annual raise for the next five years. And the extra dishwasher loses his job.

        If you want social justice, fight for something that doesn’t make the problem worse for the unemployed, the poor, and the unskilled.

        Don’t believe this had anything to do with social justice. It has everything to do with giving organized labor a raise…no matter what the cost to the poor.

      • You can’t argue that the approach to the minimum wage in Emeryville wasn’t radical. Whether you agree with it or not, the Mayor herself made a big deal in the national press about it being the highest and fastest increase in the U.S.

        Doing something completely beyond what anyone else thought was reasonable, whether right or wrong, is, by definition, “radical”.

      • Sounds like a Fox News war on science in here. The Tattler gets its share of kook commenters but I’ve got to hand it to you Eville Eye, you always seem to attract the right wing crazies to your blog (and and the occasional token rational commenter). Why is that?

      • So your personal beliefs are more important than non-partisan studies, economists and first hand accounts directly from small businesses? Again, don’t believe me or The Tattler, go talk to small business owners yourself and draw your own conclusions.

  2. On a related note: is there an update on the report about a sandwich shop going into the new housing development at Stanford & Hollis? The “coming soon” sign and construction materials that were once in the space are no longer there.

    • Alicia, I reached out to the leasing agent at Parc on Powell about Ike’s Sandwiches and am awaiting a response. Last I heard they were scheduled to begin their build out this month.

  3. Hi, I agree that the blogs bashing each other isn’t helpful. I think the last explosion, in its absurdity, may have taught both sides something.

    There was a largely civil discussion recently on the other blog about the minimum wage with both sides represented (which was surprising and great!), and we are having another one here.

    Let’s keep it positive! No has all the answers, and we’d all be better off if we tried to stay civil rather than one side or the other screaming it is right and everyone else is a sociopath, lunatic, right wing bastard.

    The MWO discussion is a good one. Let’s keep talking about it! I’m learning a lot, and based on what I’m hearing, it sounds like we may have been a bit hasty in Emeryville.

    • Thank you. If you can facilitate a truce, I’m all for it but the Tattler and his troll minions always seem to bring the fight here and generally in articles not even related to MWO like this (they did the same with a recent article about a Skate Park, remember?).

  4. The best comment on here so far is to encourage people to talk to the small business owners particularly those that hire lots of entry level workers. They had a pretty consistent message to city council before this passed. I think the general consensus was “we may be able to hack it at $12, but if this actually gets to $16, we’re done for.” I wonder if they feel the same way today.

    • “$16 and we’re done for”. Time will tell. Just like those who said if Obama gets elected in 2008 that ‘we’re done for’ and again in 2012 and likely again in 2016 if the other guy (or woman) gets elected, time will tell if we’re really ‘done for’. We’re always being told ‘we’re done for’ by all kinds of people with dark Chicken Little visions.

      • To use the same literary genre, I would say this is more like the Three Little Pigs. The business owners keep telling you there’s a Big Bad Wolf, but you just want to dance and sing. Do you wonder why the small business owners work so hard all day?

  5. For those arguing in favor of the immediate jump to $14.44 from $9, I have a serious and sincere question: what amount would you consider to be too high for a minimum wage?

    If I proposed a $20 minimum wage, $25, $30, $35, $40 etc, at what point would you switch sides and oppose it? Obviously there’s some limit, so where would you personally say “ok, that’s a step too far”?

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