An 1800s Warehouse in Emeryville Has Transformed Into One of the East Bay’s Best Food Halls

EMERYVILLE, CALIFORNIA – What do you do if someone in your family loves sushi, but another one is having a hankering for Peruvian food?

Or what if you’d like to have some ramen for lunch, with a side of Southern-style mac & cheese, and perhaps a cashew ice cream for dessert?

You could drive around town to a bunch of different restaurants–not exactly a green or inexpensive choice. Or you can stop into Public Market Emeryville, an indoor market hall that features some of the East Bay’s favorite restaurants, all gathered together under one (historical) roof, and just a short BART ride from the 925.

Public Market Emeryville has been around since 1987. The market hall has been continuously updated and lately has really transformed into a foodie spot–featuring some of our favorite local restaurants, like Ramen Hiroshi, Mr. Dewie’s Cashew Creamery, and much else.

I had never visited, and I stopped by to try it out this month. I ended up eating 4 lunches–and still having food to take home for my family!

The Ambiance

Public Market Emeryville is located at 5959 Shellmound St, Emeryville, CA 94608. It’s a neat part of town–right on the edge of the Emery Station Research campus, where scientists plug away in fancy labs, and across from the Amtrak station.

The market itself is in a historic warehouse building dating to the 1870s. It was expanded and totally refurbished in the late 1980s, but it still has lots of historical charm, with wrought iron beams and high, airy ceilings.

Think of the Ferry Building if it wasn’t on the water–and was located a whole lot closer to home for those of us in the far East Bay!

Inside, you’ll find individual stalls featuring all manner of different restaurants.

Some are located only at Public Market, while others are outposts of popular restaurants from the City or elsewhere around the Bay Area.

There are tons of fancy wooden tables where you can sit and enjoy your food, and there’s fast Wifi, which makes this a great spot to eat and work.

In the evening, a bar serves drinks (a spokesperson told us it was open during the day before Covid hit, but now people aren’t as keen on day drinking), and there are pool tables and other nice amenities.

There’s even a periodic Drag Queen bingo event!

Getting these is easy. There’s ample parking at the Amtrak station next door, and you can easily take BART to Rockridge and then ride the free Emery Go Round shuttle right to the market.

It’s a neat place, without feeling pretentious, crowded, or so trendy that you’d feel out of place if you just want a burger for lunch.

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The Food

Of course, this being a food hall, the main focus is on the food! To that end, Public Market Emervyville has an ever growing array of restaurants covering every type of food you can imagine.

I started my visit with a vegan jackfruit taco from Alma Y Sazon, a fully vegan Mexican restaurant. (Public Market hosted me so I could try the food at multiple spots).

It came out fast and had a delicious, surprisingly deep and meaty flavor, with a sweet al pastor sauce that made it satisfying even without the more traditional pork.

Normally, if I went to a vegan restaurant, meat would of course be off the table. Not here! My next stop was Pig in a Pickle, a delightfully named BBQ shop.

Pig in a Pickle smokes its own brisket, pulled pork, ribs and much else right at Public Market.

I was impressed with the fact that the store has its own full wood-burning BBQ pit right inside the market. This isn’t a place where restaurants are preparing food offsite and then bringing it to their stalls to reheat hours later–there’s genuine complex cooking happening here!

I got pulled pork in a perfect little mound, which was delicious slathered with spicy BBQ sauce.

Two lunches in, I wasn’t ready to stop. I visited Tease, a brand new Southern home cooking restaurant. This turned out to be the culinary highlight of my visit.

I met owner Trevel Adanandus and his team, who explained that their menu is based around big portions and fair prices. I tried their mac and cheese, which was decadent and creamy–covered in essentially a bechamel sauce and powerfully cheesy, with a subtle background spiciness that complemented the other flavors.

Indeed, the portions were large enough for me to take a bunch home to my kids! Adanandus treated me to a homemade lemonade with lavender and peach, one of Tease’s specialties. Frozen into a slushy consistency, it was sweet and deeply refreshing.

When I asked Adanandus what made his food so tasty, he smiled and replied: “Love.”

After three lunches, why stop? For my final on-site spot, I stopped by Paradita, a Peruvian restaurant on the edge of the Public Market space. Several restaurants, including Paradita, have bigger sit-down spots at the market, so I wanted to see what this was like.

I got an empanada, which was flaky and went perfectly with a ceviche-like Peruvian salsa.

Turns out, though, that lunch was just the start of my journey for the day. Unable to eat more, I took out several items to try at home.

I brought back ramen from Ramen Hiroshi, a staple of Walnut Creek and San Ramon that I was delighted to find in Emeryville.

They’re great at packaging their ramen to go, in separate containers so nothing gets soggy. My kids devoured it in the evening.

I also tried an udon dish from Demiya Yoshoku, a Japanese restaurant that blends in European influences. I liked the slightly sweet udon noodles and seasoned tofu.

The Verdict

I had a great time at Public Market. I wasn’t sure what to expect, as some food halls can be either overly trendy and pretentious–trying and failing to mimic a European market experience–or glorified food courts, driven by too many chain restaurants.

Through its historic digs and clearly careful curation of the restaurants it features, Public Market Emeryville feels like neither of these things.

Again, the best experience I can relate it to locally is visiting the Ferry Building–but again, without the touristy crowds, and with overall lower prices. There’s also more of a focus on East Bay restaurants, with places like Ramen Hiroshi, Tease and Mr Dewie’s Cashew Creamery.

It feels like a more low-key and accessible version of its culinary neighbor across the water.

With its urban location, I was also concerned about getting to the market. Turns out there’s tons of parking, and the ability to ride BART and take a free and very nice looking shuttle makes that accessibly part far simpler.

The one downside of the Market is that it really only focuses on food. Other spots like the Ferry Building have artisan shops you can browse in–I always love stopping at Book Passage when I’m downtown.

Public Market Emeryville could benefit from these kinds of tenants. There’s a gym and a guitar store right next door, but these don’t have the same easy appeal of a book shop or the stores selling chocolates or olive oil at market spots Downtown.

That aside, the culinary diversity of Public Market Emeryville makes it absolutely worth a visit. I wouldn’t always get four lunches, but the ability to pair a meatless taco with some pork and an amazing mac and cheese with delightful and something I would definitely want to repeat.