On a recent Friday afternoon, one man stood alone in the middle of Raimondi Park. Otherwise, that stretch of 18th Street leading up to the Prescott Market was deserted. When I found the entrance to the marketplace, I momentarily thought I was in the wrong location. Then I turned the corner into a dining room bustling with customers and busy employees and cooks. It felt like someone had suddenly turned on a switch to bring the place to life.
Before settling on a vendor or two for lunch, I walked through the entire space, past the front doors of Pizzeria Violetta and Almanac Beer toward the back doors. They opened onto a back patio, also packed with a celebratory daytime crowd. None of the outside sounds—rambunctious kids and partying adults—carried back inside to the food hall. The spaces felt connected but completely separate. The pizzeria and the brewery anchor the west side of the building with their own entrances.
Jonathan Ruppert, the chef and owner of Pizzeria Violetta, sought to expand the business for a couple of years after opening a shop on Piedmont Avenue in 2021. In an email Ruppert wrote, “We looked at just opening a food stall, but when we toured the corner unit we knew we had to have it.” The chef added, “We continue to work free of seed oils and prepare all of our food from scratch using organic flours and vegetables, with wholesome and natural ingredients.”
The food court’s stalls, slightly smaller than the ones inside the Emeryville Public Market, are bundled together as a series of adjacent kitchens. Woo Can Cook and Cafe Noir share a middle divider. Prescott Meats & Delicatessen sits tucked away behind them. Fast Times Burgers and Highwire Coffee complete the central circle of vendors in the market.
Marisa Gittens Mihedji and her husband, chef Stephen Mihedji, closed Cafe Noir’s MacArthur Boulevard location before restarting in the Prescott Market. With minimal foot traffic there and only a few tables outside, they mostly prepared the food to-go. Though initially reluctant to make the move across town, Gittens Mihedji visited the space and, upon learning more about the neighborhood, was impressed enough to take a risk on the new market hall.
Gittens Mihedji describes Cafe Noir’s dishes as a “gourmet spin on food pulled from the African diaspora.” She and her husband make everything in-house, including the bread, sauces and drinks. At the MacArthur location, they cooked an extensive menu. For Prescott, they decided to start as a brunch-and-lunch spot featuring six of their most popular items. She also plans to bring back her “Cake of the Week.”
Before she opened Prescott Meats & Delicatessen, Ashlee Best’s varied career included corporate and hospitality jobs. More recently, she worked for the family that ran Prather Ranch’s retail sales. While selling grass-fed beef to local markets, she met Harv Singh, the founder of Forager’s Market. Singh is also the Prescott Market’s director and curator, which he owns with his business partner, Joe Ernst.
Best is committed to selling “clean” proteins, which she defines as minimally processed. When eaten, she said, they “create a low inflammatory response in the body.” Prescott Meats works with such purveyors as Full Circle Ranches from Petaluma and Sullivan Farms in Orland. She sells lamb, beef, pork and chicken. A sign in the store reads, “Not seeing the cut you want? Ask us.”
Mendra Sahota makes “100% grass-fed smash burgers” at his Fast Times stall, and uses duck fat to make french fries. After experimenting with recipes in his backyard, Sahota began making burgers three years ago at the West Oakland Farmers’ Market. He chose the smash burger because the thinner patty has “layers of flavors instead of one big chunk of beef.” He said that, “when you sear it really hard on a 400-degree griddle, it packs in all the juices and all the fat.”
Fast Times makes its soft-serve ice cream and shakes with Straus Family Creamery products. After eating a burger and a side order of onion rings, a chocolate shake punctuated my high-caloric first visit to the market with a smiley face and a heart.
Prescott Market West Oakland, 620 18th St., Oakland. Open Mon-Sat, 8am to 9pm (Fri to Sat Almanac 10pm); Sun 8am to 8pm (Sun Pizzeria 9pm). prescottmarket.com. Instagram: @prescottmarketwestoakland
