Prescott Market aims to bring more good food and good times to West Oakland

On a corner of 18th Street and Peralta Street, sunlight bounces off the freshly painted murals and sleek corrugated steel of a low-slung warehouse. Behind it, an expanse of outdoor tables and chairs beckons passersby. People walk past with dogs and strollers, crossing roads that are, by Bay Area standards, immaculate.

This wasn’t always the view of Joe Ernst, managing principal of development firm srmERNST. He remembers the encampments that lined the street and a vexing mattress that kept reappearing on the sidewalk. Yet he, like many others, saw the area’s potential.

“It just seems like it wants and needs to happen here,” says Ernst. “We have heard time and time again people want a place to go.” 

That place has almost arrived: Prescott Market, a new food hall in West Oakland serving coffee, pizza, beer, meats, and more from local chefs and entrepreneurs, will officially open on April 5. Yet locals can start getting a taste for what’s ahead starting this weekend, as vendors will begin soft opening on March 21 with variable days of the week and hours. 

The food hall is a collaboration between Ernst and his business partner Harvindar “Harv” Singh, Prescott Market’s director and curator. For several years, they have each been building in the neighborhood, literally and metaphorically.

Starting in 2020, Ernst’s company has acquired many of the surrounding buildings along with the Prescott Market space. They hope to create a campus that houses tech and light manufacturing, what they envision as an enclave of innovation and community that the food hall can serve.

In August 2022, Singh started the West Oakland Farmers Market to increase access to fresh and healthy food in a neighborhood that had lost its only full-service grocery store. Last year, he also launched the Prescott Night Market, which took over the street in front of the food hall every month, often in tandem with Oakland Ballers games at nearby Raimondi Park. The success and growth of these two enterprises fueled the development of Prescott Market — an extension of their “magic,” according to Singh — with a more permanent presence.

Prescott Market director Harvindar “Harv” Singh, left, and founder Joe Ernst, pose for a portrait at Prescott Market in West Oakland on Tuesday, March 11, 2025. Credit: Estefany Gonzalez

For lifelong residents like Marcus Johnson, chair of the Prescott Neighborhood Council, these changes harken back to the 60s and 70s, when the neighborhood offered easy access to shops and entertainment. “These things, for us in the community, we’ve been wanting to see for a long time,” Johnson says. “I think this is going to be something great for the neighborhood.”

Come one, come hall

Even devoid of people, with stray ladders strewn about and loose construction ends to be tied up, one can easily envision a packed Prescott Market, conversations echoing off the walls of the 100-year-old manufacturing building. Its main open space houses long picnic-style tables and benches to accommodate 200 people, with a few areas set aside for lounging. (Eventually, one of these will be built out into an exclusive space for the Ballers to conduct pre-game interviews.) Patrons can stay inside or venture outside to the extensive seating arranged around an old railroad track.

The goal was to create a destination where people can go “for experience and fun, not just food,” says Ernst. For vendors, this is a big part of the draw.

“We want to be your neighborhood butcher shop. We want to be your therapist/person,” says chef Kimberly Pak who, with “chief of happiness” Ashlee Best, will launch Prescott Meats and Delicatessen in Prescott Market. “This is what food does — it just brings people together. It’s one of the reasons I love being around food and providing food.”

Prescott Market will feature eight food and beverage vendors when fully occupied, and the current businesses include Almanac Beer Co.’s taproom, Highwire Coffee Roasters, Pizzeria Violetta, Woo Can Cook, Prescott Meats and Delicatessen, and Fast Times Burgers. Credit: Estefany Gonzalez

They’re one of four vendors operating out of ready-made kitchen “kiosks” in the hall’s main space. Others include the buzzy Fast Times Burgers, known for its grass-fed smash burgers; Bay Area staple Highwire Coffee Roasters; and Woo Can Cook, who’s made a name on YouTube and on the ground for his Taiwanese cooking and fried rice favorites.

“What I enjoy the most is being around other food communities,” says Woo Can Cook’s Wesley Woo. “I’m especially really excited it’s happening in West Oakland, which has always been a historically creative space for artistic people.”

Two other East Bay establishments anchor Prescott Market with more extensive, customized spaces. Almanac Beer Co.’s space beckons with a wall of greenery and rebellious art by GRIFFIN. Next door, Pizzeria Violetta leans into its name with punchy purple tables and wallpaper full of local Bay Area icons.

All vendors signed five- to seven-year leases and there’s room for two more vendors. While one is close to being secured, Singh is gunning for a bakery as the other. “I want to put that out there,” he says.

In it for the long haul

The balance of more established restaurants and brick-and-mortar newbies is intentional. “You have this collaborative experience of being able to help each other, rather than being out there by yourself,” says Ernst. “Within this space we are a family, and we work as a family.”

Jonathan Ruppert of Pizzeria Violetta shares that he’s been meeting with the other vendors in the main hall nearly every day as they all prepare for a soft opening March 21. Pak, Best and Woo all cite how helpful the more experienced businesses have been in everything from running operations to ordering supplies.

(Left) Jonathan Ruppert, owner of Pizzeria Violetta poses for a portrait with a special wallpaper full of iconic figures at Prescott Market. (Right) The pizzeria is adorned with a colorful mural and purple furniture. Credit: Estefany Gonzalez

Ernst and Singh’s backing has also nurtured this support. They’ve handled many of the pains of opening up a business like construction and permitting. Singh has been working with tenants to create their business plans. They will also provide six months of free rent. 

“I really care about the success of our chefs and entrepreneurs and the commitment they have made to themselves and their families,” says Singh. 

The promise of Prescott Market builds on the foundation they’ve nurtured around it. Singh has seen the West Oakland Farmers Market grow and draw in more people — “more strollers and gray hair,” he said. Pak and Best call the farmers market “church.” It’s where they met and decided to form their butchery.

The Prescott Night Market has also regularly topped 2,000 attendees and nearly doubled its number of vendors. They frequently collaborate with the Ballers; the Fans Fest they hosted this month was, in essence, a practice run for Prescott Market’s soft opening on March 21.

“For us, this is a long-term project. This is not a five-year lease it up and flip it and sell it [situation],” says Ernst. He and Signh have future ambitions — to create jobs and bring back a grocery store. 

Their vendors are in on the mission. Once they get settled, Pak says, maybe she and Best can start a Little League team. “We want to be a part of and help build the community to what we know it can be.”