Umami Mart

Umami Mart is a place where ideas and people come together, take charge and create magic. This is true for the blog, the online shop, and our brick-and-mortar space in Oakland, CA. When writers, friends, friends of friends, customers, food + drink enthusiasts, and industry folks come to us to collaborate, we put all of our […]

We learned, we drank and we ate all things ume during our Umeshu Class last Sunday. During the two-hour session, we learned about the history of ume and umeshu, how to make it and ate an array of dishes that highlighted ume. Along side sips of umeshu, of course. Ume, or Japanese plum, originated from China and […]

Photos by Josh Urich, The Joy of Drinking We did it! We signed a lease! After six months of free rent with Popuphood to see if we could “make it” in Old Oakland, we have proven to the world, and to ourselves, that the world is in need of a shop dedicated to Japanese bar […]

Come out for the 2nd edition of the Ippo Ramen pop-up here at Umami Mart. Last month, the ramen sold out in record time — 56 bowls in 56 minutes. You know what that means… get here EARLY if you want a bowl. Seriously. Steve will be serving his signature ramen with shoyu, miso and […]

We are SUPER EXCITED to host a pop-up by Ippo Ramen this First Friday 4/5. Proprietor Steve Yee will be here starting at 6pm, ready to cook up some noodles to serve you his ramen. His simple menu consists of three choices: shoyu, miso and shio (salt) broths. He makes everything except the noodles by hand, […]

Based in Brooklyn, NY, Kelly Geary is the founder and chef for Sweet Deliverance, a thriving subscription program where she prepares healthy, delicious home-cooked meals out of her CSA shares. All with fresh and organic produce, she charts out each meal for the week, for her too-busy-to-cook customers — anything from salads and soups to […]

It all started with a vision. Three guys, slaving away at Chez Panisse for years, decided to open a ramen shop in Oakland. Hot damn! The East Bay needs nothing more than a GREAT ramen shop, and the Food Gods know it. They have left the responsibility up to Jerry (JJ) Jackish, Rayneil De Guzmun […]

As you may have heard, there’s a highly anticipated ramen shop coming to Oakland. Our good friends Sam, Rayneil and JJ are the masterminds behind Ramen Shop (that’s right!), opening in Rockridge. The opening is still a few months away, and they are hard at work on their space (formerly the Japanese restaurant Tachibana), and […]

That’s right, we be grillin’ balls this Friday! Our good friends Koichi, Ryoji and Steven of YATAIYA will be making yaki-onigiri (grilled rice balls), and serving them alongside some house-made tsukemono (pickles). They are irresistible, smoky flavor-bombs! If we’re lucky, they’ll have other fun munchies on the grill as well. Come welcome Autumn with us! The grillin’ starts […]

Photos by Erin Gleeson We did it! With the loving support from our friends, family, and community, Yoko and I have opened Umami Mart, a retail shop in Oakland, CA, specializing in kitchen + barware from Japan. The idea for starting a brick-and-mortar shop really derived from necessity. We had been running our online shop for […]