Bay Area locals flock to this 117-year-old market for a $6 lunch

“We always had a lot of Hawaiian clientele and Hawaiian food, so it was a natural progression for us to start making musubis,” Gene said. “We have a lot of people come in right before we open [at 11 a.m.] … and a big spike in business from about 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. when people come in for their lunch hour.”

Staff at Takahashi Market make 14 different types of musubis sold five days a week. Bobby Takahashi is pictured top left, and Phylis Takahashi is pictured on bottom right. (Lance Yamamoto/SFGATE)
(Lance Yamamoto/SFGATE)

In-house musubis made their way to Takahashi Market in its centennial year in 2006, when Gene launched the market kitchen. Back then, the grocery store offered only standard Spam musubis, but the menu quickly swelled with newer options thanks to Bobby, whom Gene lovingly calls the “head honcho.”

“Within a year or two, he kept adding more and more types of musubis to the menu,” Gene said. “My son came up with making loco moco into a musubi, which … was his absolute favorite food growing up. He came up with the idea of serving the gravy on the side. You kind of eat it like a French dip sandwich. You take a bite and dunk it into the gravy, and it’s really, really good.”

Takahashi Market’s humble menu is a collection of printed sheets of paper that are taped on a wall by the main entrance. The vibrant photos on each sheet showcase a selection of lunch items that feature Portuguese sausage, salmon belly and freshwater eel musubis, among others. But its top seller remains the classic Spam musubi, which also happens to be the most affordable option at $5.95. And since they’re bigger than your hand, they’re a steal for Bay Area prices. 

“It’s a pretty reasonable lunch,” Gene said. “Because we were selling so many, my son really made the decision to just make them into a large log that is twice the size of a standard Spam musubi. He was able to keep the price as reasonable as possible because $5.95 for a double-sized Spam musubi is like paying $3 for a Spam musubi that you would get at a regular market in Hawaii.”

Inside Takahashi Market’s kitchen

Bobby, his aunt Norma Takahashi and a crew of three staffers settle into the market kitchen at around 7:30 a.m. to prepare musubis needed for the day ahead. They start with plain steamed rice that’s scooped into a musubi press resting on top of a nori sheet. The rectangular vessels that give musubis their distinctive shape get a layer of protein enhanced by teriyaki sauce, a dash of furikake seasoning or other flavorings, depending on which musubi is being made. The hearty snack in the making gets one last scoop of rice that’s leveled by the press before the entire piece is gently pushed onto the nori sheet, which embraces the entire meal.  

Once finished, the musubis are wrapped in aluminum foil, labeled and placed inside a food warmer positioned by the main entrance. Gene said that he recommends customers place their musubi orders by phone or email at least 24 hours in advance to ensure that their favorite one is available — otherwise it’s first come, first served.

Takahashi Market also sells a selection of Hawaiian-style lunches like classic loco moco, pork lau lau and chicken teriyaki served in takeout containers with a side of steamed rice and mixed salad.

During the early years of the pandemic, Takahashi Market reconfigured how it served customers by making strategic changes to its kitchen. Before the pandemic, musubis were made to order, but it began to strain kitchen staff when customers placed up to 10 items at a time. Gene said that it got to a point where customers had to wait about 30 minutes before their orders came out. Wait times got worse in 2020 because the Takahashis had fewer staff members working together in the kitchen to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

“And that’s when we started making them ahead of time and putting them into a food warmer so people could just come in and help themselves,” Gene said. “The pandemic in some ways helped us because it forced us to become more efficient.” 

Carrying on the family business

Gene’s grandfather Tokutaro Takahashi first opened Takahashi Market more than 100 years ago as a general store. When Tokutaro emigrated from Wakayama, Japan, to the Bay Area, he quickly found that there was a tremendous need for Japanese stores that catered to Japanese immigrants. The shop, then called Takahashi Co., carried a selection of clothing and grocery items that Tokutaro would deliver by horse and buggy to customers in the Pacifica and Half Moon Bay area. 

Business continued on for decades until it temporarily halted when hundreds of thousands of Japanese Americans were forced into internment camps during World War II. Gene’s grandparents and his father Kenge Takahashi were among the thousands sent to prison camps and robbed of their freedom for about two and a half years. During the war, Kenge joined the 442nd Regimental Combat Team along with other first- and second-generation Japanese Americans.

“My father’s generation volunteered for the United States Army just to prove they were loyal American citizens,” Gene said.

The Takahashi’s returned to San Mateo by 1945 and resumed operations at Takahashi Co., thanks to their landlord, who allowed the family to pick up where they left off. Upon their return home, Kenge took over the business and started to offer more Asian goods to a wider audience. He added Chinese, Indonesian and Korean items before eventually adding Hawaiian staples amid an influx of islanders who settled into the Bay Area. Later, when more Asian supermarkets began to pop up in the area in the next decades, Gene said that the family market couldn’t compete, so it adjusted once more. 

Takahashi Market in San Mateo carries a selection of hard-to-find Japanese and Hawaiian goods like fresh poi and manju. (Lance Yamamoto/SFGATE)
(Lance Yamamoto/SFGATE)

“We brought the focus back to Japanese and Hawaiian, which is our main area of expertise,” Gene said.

Gene’s first gig at the family market was stocking bottles of wines and beers at the age of 8. By the 1980s, he had become the third-generation family owner. His son Bobby, the fourth-generation family owner, took the reins in the early 2000s to ensure the longevity of the family business.

When Gene looks back at the generations of customers who have supported his business, it brings a sense of pride that they’ve remained loyal patrons over the years. Customers range from multigenerational families to some that discover Takahashi Market for the first time through social media. But having the opportunity to carry the legacy his grandfather started more than a century ago, alongside his family, warms Gene’s heart most of all.

“My parents never forced me into the business … but I really enjoyed being at the market,” Gene said. “The same thing happened with my son. It’s very gratifying for me to work with my family and feel like we’re making a difference in the community.”

Takahashi Market, 221 S. Claremont St., San Mateo. Open Wednesday to Sunday, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.