{"id":160931,"date":"2026-02-02T22:47:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-02T22:47:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/160931\/"},"modified":"2026-02-02T22:47:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-02T22:47:08","slug":"bay-area-asian-grocery-store-tokyo-central-opens-in-emeryville","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/160931\/","title":{"rendered":"Bay Area Asian grocery store Tokyo Central opens in Emeryville"},"content":{"rendered":"

If there were a Super Bowl for grocery-store events, Emeryville had its this weekend with the grand opening of Tokyo Central<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The long-awaited Asian supermarket celebrated its debut on Saturday, Jan. 31, and Sunday, Feb. 1, with lines snaking up and down the block, a store worker at the door letting people in one or two at a time.<\/p>\n

A security guard monitoring the crowd estimated the wait to get in on Sunday afternoon at two hours. \u201cGood thing I didn\u2019t work yesterday,\u201d he said. \u201cYesterday was worse. It was looped around down to the parking lot.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tokyo Central is the first supermarket to land in Emeryville in more than 30 years. The ground-level store is located at 5603 Bay St. in a new 40,000-square-foot-plus building, with a rooftop given over to roughly 110 parking spots.<\/p>\n

\u201cTokyo Central\u2019s opening is a meaningful addition to Emeryville. It reflects the city\u2019s ongoing commitment to being a welcoming, diverse and economically vibrant community,\u201d said Emeryville Mayor Sukhdeep Kaur. \u201cThis store brings high-quality specialty groceries, creates local jobs and serves not only Emeryville residents, but the broader East Bay.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are thrilled to welcome Tokyo Central to Emeryville,\u201d said David Mourra, Emeryville city council member. \u201cTheir focus on Japanese specialty foods is unique in the East Bay and perfectly complements Emeryville\u2019s increasingly vibrant retail landscape.\u201d<\/p>\n

The market is owned by Japanese company Pan Pacific Retail Management, which also runs the grocery chains Gelson\u2019s and Don Quijote. There\u2019s only one other Tokyo Central in the Bay Area, in Cupertino, though Southern California has several more.<\/p>\n

The store stocks fresh and imported Japanese produce and staples, beer and sake, as well as made-to-order and take-away meals, health items and beauty products. Inside is also a restaurant<\/a>, the Hand Roll Factory<\/a>, that prepares eat-in or to-go rolls featuring (according to the grocery) fresh fish, Hitomebore rice, \u201ccrisp Ariake nori\u201d and \u201cdelicately balanced vinegar made from Rishiri kelp stock.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thousands of people attended the first day on Saturday \u2013 some having slept outdoors the night before \u2013 making for a \u201cturnout that easily rivaled the opening of IKEA 25 years ago,\u201d reports the E\u2019ville Eye<\/a>. The Eye adds more details:<\/p>\n

\u201cPrior to the ribbon Cutting, opening remarks were made by 2026 Emeryville Mayor Sukhdeep Kaur, Marukai Corp. President Koichi Toyo and consul general of Japan in San Francisco Kotaro Otsuka.<\/p>\n

\u201cPerformances included Japanese dance troupe Uzumaru (\u201cWhirlpool\u201d), who blend traditional movements with modern music, and a taiko drumming performance by Emeryville Taiko.\u201d<\/p>\n

Aside from stocking Japanese goods, Tokyo Central is known for holding special sales and events. In 2025, its various locations staged pop-ups featuring food from different Japanese prefectures and also threw a \u201cBluefin Tuna Cutting Show\u201d with sashimi tastings.<\/p>\n

Details: Open 9 a.m.-9 p.m. daily at 5603 Bay St., Emeryville; tokyocentral.com<\/a> and baystreetemeryville.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If there were a Super Bowl for grocery-store events, Emeryville had its this weekend with the grand opening…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":160932,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[78191,143,145,144],"class_list":{"0":"post-160931","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-oakland","8":"tag-new-bay-area-asian-grocery-stores-groceries-tokyo-central-emeryville-hours-address-h-mart-dublin","9":"tag-oakland","10":"tag-oakland-headlines","11":"tag-oakland-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160931","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=160931"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160931\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/160932"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=160931"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=160931"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=160931"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}