Rob AriasOur September Food & Drink updates include some comings and goings at the Public Market, a grand opening celebration at Bay Street, the 90th anniversary of an Emeryville institution and the teasing of a possible new Japanese food spot with a lot of promise.
CLOSED: Calypso Rose Public Market Kiosk
Caribbean Public Market stall Calypso Rose abruptly shuttered last month. Calypso opened in 2022 with much fanfare largely because of the pedigree of Founder/Executive Chef Verna McGowan.
McGowan is a graduate of SF’s Le Cordon Bleu Culinary Academy and long-time personal chef to renowned author Alice Walker.
Reasons for their closure are unknown and their instagram has not been updated since March 18.
Coming Soon: Sweetgreen
It’s been a common request by followers of The E’ville Eye for a salad spot. These E’villians may finally be getting their wish.
Recent city documents revealed a signage permit for a Sweetgreen at the current spot of the Public Market Peet’s Coffee. Peet’s will be moving to a kiosk space near the PME entrance to optimize pickup and mobile orders.
Sweetgreen, founded in 2007 in Georgetown, D.C. by three business school grads, has grown to over 200 locations across 18 states with the closest being on Shattuck in Berkeley.
Sweetgreen offers fresh, made to order salads, bowls and protein plates with rotating seasonal ingredients as well as bread and vegetable sides.
A Peet’s employee we spoke with noted that they expect to close on October 11 and reopen at their new location on October 31.
A timetable for Sweetgreen’s opening is unknown.
Jungdon Katsu Sit Down Coming to Emeryville?
Popular Adeline Food Hall (formerly Longfellow Food Hall) ghost kitchen Jungdon Katsu is apparently on the hunt for a sit down Emeryville location.
The establishment, located in Oakland but who advertise themselves as in Emeryville on their website, recently opened a sit down restaurant in Danville. “We‘re [opening a] dine in location in Emeryville, too.” they commented through their Instagram account.
Katsu is a popular Japanese dish consisting of a chicken cutlet fried with panko bread crumbs.
Jungdon has been a standout option at the self described “digital food court” that has dozens of options with SF Chronicle Food Critic Cesar Hernandez calling their signature offering “exceptional.”
No timetable or specific location has been provided.
Trader Vic’s Celebrates 90 years
The legendary Trader Vic’s celebrated their 90th anniversary on the weekend of August 23-25. The event featured live performances and an array of vendors celebrating all thinks tiki.
Trader Vic’s of course opened as Hinky Dinks in North Oakland in 1934, became Trader Vic’s in 1937 and moved to their Emeryville location in 1972. The Mai Tai was invented in 1944 at their Oakland location although not without some controversy. The City of Oakland has embraced the Mai Tai as their “official city cocktail.” Emeryville has yet to pronounce a similar gesture.
The establishment has seen its challenges over the years including a fight with their Watergate neighbors over a noise ordinance and most recently an abandoned development effort that would have likely meant the end of fabled establishment.
We can only guess the challenges they’ll endure over the next decade if they’re to reach their centennial.
Photo Gallery: Matt Rodriguez
Jars Bay Street Grand Opening
As reported last month, The Bay Street Emeryville Jars location held their soft opening on August 29th. They held their grand opening on Friday, September 27 with a ribbon cutting, freebies, and entertainment in the plaza area.
In attendance was brand founder and Italian restauranteur Fabio Viviani known for his appearance on the reality show Top Chef and his many restaurants and endeavors.
Jars is offering a free jar throughout the weekend to those that download their app and join their rewards program.
Any news on oaks corner? I saw that it just re-opened
Great tip! We had heard some whispers about this but glad it finally happened. We’ll reach out to the Tibbetts.
“Katsu” simply means “cutlet” (breaded and fried) in Japanese. Colloquially speaking, if you order “katsu” or “katsu sando” (cutlet sandwich) in Japan it is *always* a pork cutlet. Specifically “tonkatsu” means “pork cutlet”. A chicken cutlet would be “torikatsu” (“tori” means “bird”). You can also find gyukatsu, which a beef (gyu) cutlet. Menshikatsu is a minced meat cutlet (almost always a beef and pork mix). Most anything could be made into a “katsu”, however, it’s usually just the above. I’ve also seen “ebikatsu sando” (“ebi” means “shrimp”), for example. I go to Japan a couple times per year. Katsu is super common there and is soooo good.