August 15, 2012
Photos by Erin Gleeson After weeks of painting, building, going to Home Depot five times a day (ugh), sleepless nights, banh mis for breakfast/lunch/dinner, pestering our friends and families (are you done with that project yet? Can you cut wood for us? Can you polyurethane the floors?) — UMAMI MART HAS LANDED! To celebrate, we […]
August 2, 2012
ARE YOU READY FOR THIS??? Umami Mart’s big grand opening is tomorrow night! The doors will officially open at 6pm sharp, and we’ll be having a special kagamiwari ceremony at 6:30pm, which is a tradition of breaking open a cask of sake. It symbolizes the start of a new beginning. Woohoo! This will not be a dry event. […]
July 25, 2012
Hello! Sorry I haven’t been blogging much, but I wanted to update you on how the shop is coming along. Our big opening day will be next Friday 8/3! Waaaaa! We’re slaving away here every day and have put everyone we know to work. Ha! No seriously, all of our friends and families are involved […]
June 25, 2012
I am ecstatic to announce that Yoko and I will be opening a real-deal brick and mortar store in Oakland, California!!! This all happened very quickly for us and these last few weeks have been filled with meetings, many trips to the hardware store, more meetings, and lots of painting. The construction will come soon […]
May 14, 2012
The Umami Mart Shop popped up in Old Oakland for five days last week inside Piper + John General Goods, located on the charming brick road of 9th Street. It was a great success! We launched on the bustling “First Friday”, which is a huge sprawling art party throughout Oakland every month, thrown by the […]
April 27, 2012
The Umamimart Shop has been busy popping up all over the Bay Area, and here’s one coming to Oakland! For this one, we’re teaming up with the fine folks of Piper and John General Goods, a magical shop in historic Old Oakland. What: Umamimart Pop-Up #3 When: Friday 5/4 – Wednesday 5/9 Where: Piper and […]
February 17, 2012
IÂ love the pucker-your mouth tartness of naengmyeon–cold buckwheat noodles with cucumbers, hard-boiled egg and pickled Asian pears, doused in a chilled vinegar broth. Like craving ice cream when it’s snowing out, I do love this during the cold winter months. Thanks to Chungtech for introducing me to Sura. They have noodle specials every day! But […]
June 21, 2011
People often ask me, “Why did you leave NYC?” It’s true, I just sorta packed my bags and ditched my glamorous job, my wonderful friends, my comfortable routine, and the GREATEST! CITY! IN! THE! WORLD! (at least the greatest metro system in the world). All for what? I’ll tell you what. The Three Major Food […]
March 2, 2011
Dear Anders, Umamimart misses you. IÂ mean, it just ain’t the same out here without The Skank Master. Come back soon. Love, Kayoko PS: I’m totally taking you to this bakery when you visit. You are going to DIE.