Umami Mart

I’m happy to report that we had a successful fundraising event for Tohoku last month. This was our first collaboration with UC Berkeley’s Center for Japanese Studies, and we’d all agree that it was awesome. Despite the massive rain that poured down on downtown Berkeley on the night of March 12, we had about 100 […]

It’s hard to believe that it has been nearly five years since the devastating tsunami disaster in Tohoku. The earthquake struck on March 11, 2011 and news traveled quickly to California. I recall watching footage of towns in northern Japan immersed in water — people being dragged downstream (many who had passed on), while people stood on rooftops of their homes, trying not […]

As you know by now, Tori-chan is a dear friend of ours who opened Jicca, a restaurant and wine bar in the Hatagaya neighborhood in Tokyo nearly two years ago. She is a native of Minami-soma in Fukushima prefecture; a town that was severely affected after the earthquake in 2011. She was in Tokyo at […]

As 2014 nearly comes to a close, I wanted to recap one of our favorite events of the year, our Jicca Pop-Up! Tori-chan is a good friend of Yoko’s from Tokyo, who opened up her own restaurant called Jicca last year. We visited her at Jicca in February, and at that time we decided that […]

This event is SOLD OUT! Umami Mart + Ordinaire + Selection Massale welcomes JICCA from Tokyo! We are so happy to present a night of spectacular food, wine and FUN (!) with our friend Tori-chan of JICCA (pronounced gi-kkah), visiting Oakland from Japan. Opened in 2013 in Tokyo, JICCA is Tori-chan’s cooking playground serving exciting […]

Whenever I visit Tokyo, I look forward to meeting newborns… especially when I’ve followed the progression of their parents. No, I’m not talking about newborn babies. I’m talking about new places to eat. On our first full night in Tokyo, Kayoko and I visited Jicca, our friend Tori-chan’s place. She opened Jicca last August in […]