Bay Area shopping malls are experiencing a renaissance, with a couple of notable exceptions—I’m looking at you, San Francisco Centre. As we’ve returned en masse to gathering in public, the malls that are thriving have been invigorated and anchored by food courts rather than by department stores. Food-on-a-stick novelty restaurants have been replaced by more inventive and fully formed concepts.
Stonestown, where I once worked as a temp in a deserted Emporium, regularly has lines out the door at Marugame Udon. Jagalchi, a super-sized Korean food court and market, recently opened to further complicate parking in Daly City. While IKEA’s Saluhall still seems like it’s a work-in-progress without a star attraction, both of Emeryville’s malls continue to attract talented chefs and restaurateurs.
Just in time for Bay Area Burger Week, a couple of new tenants at Emeryville Public Market are making their own versions of, if not entirely redefining, the hamburger. A black banner under Demiya’s register explains the meaning of the term yoshoku as “Western-influenced Japanese cuisine.” Popular examples include omurice, an omelet filled with fried rice, and the hambagu, or hamburger steak.
At the fifth location of this small Bay Area restaurant chain, the menu notes that it takes 20 minutes for the cooks to make their “tegone cheese in hamburg steak” ($20). When it’s ready, this burger-without-a-bun contains a molten cheese center. When cut open, the cheese oozes out onto the plate and melts down into a traditional Japanese brown sauce. The dish cleverly reinvents the cheeseburger sans a bun.
It really does taste halfway between a hamburger patty and a steak. The outside is crisped up the way a burger gets when it’s grilled. But something about the hollowed-out center filled with cheese keeps the texture tenderized. Demiya offers it two ways: with steamed rice and curry or miso soup. I opted for the latter and really liked the pairing of a heavier protein with a clean cup of broth, flecked with spring onions, and rice.
In another part of the Public Market’s food court, Le Marine, a new seafood restaurant, serves crab and salmon burgers along with fish sandwiches, rice bowls, and fish and chips. The salmon burger comes on a brioche bun and is stacked with fresh arugula, tomatoes and pickles. It comes with a side of fries and tartar sauce. Apart from the not-beef patty, Le Marine deftly simulates the experience of burger eating, if from an ocean-adjacent point of view.
The Korean fried-chicken shop Chimmelier is also a newcomer to the East Bay. Originally from Los Angeles, the company is quickly establishing roots as a fast-food alternative in the Bay Area. I decided to try the Solano Avenue location, which shares the small but comfortable space with Oh G Burger. Banner-sized menus for both restaurants hang above the front counter, immediately facing customers inside the entrance.
Since I wrote about the Oh G Burger experience in Montclair earlier this year, I tried Chimmelier’s K-Chicken Burger. According to the cashier, apart from the difference in toppings, the other burger option, the Buldak, is far spicier. Both cost $15 and are made with thigh meat. The K-Chicken came straight out of the deep fryer piping hot and crunchy. The pickled slaw adds a cooling counterpoint to the heat and the salty, spicy condiments.
Chimmelier makes several “K-Street Food” side dishes, including corn cheese ($10), kimchi fried rice ($13), shrimp toast ($11) and french fries ($6). The kitchen also makes cylindrical rice cakes called tteokbokki ($10). They’re drenched in a tangy red sauce and dotted with sesame seeds. At first glance they look like a cup full of baby carrots, but the texture is soft and chewy like mochi. Also like mochi, tteokbokki is an acquired taste. Its overall sweetness is closer to candy than it is a savory starter.
Although the resurgence of malls must be a positive sign for our local economy, eating at the Chimmelier counter felt like a friendlier and less anonymous place to eat. I felt, even temporarily, like a member of the neighborhood.
Demiya and Le Marine Fish & Grill, Public Market 5959 Shellmound St., Emeryville. Open Sun-Thu 11am to 8pm, Sat-Sun until 9pm. IG: @instagram.com/demiya_inc; @lemarinefishgrill. Chimmelier, 1823 Solano Ave., Berkeley. Open every day 11am to 9pm. 510.559.9313. chimmelierusa.com
