Osaka Marketplace is building its largest store in the former Orchard Supply Hardware at 155 Crescent Plaza. For downtown Pleasant Hill, the grocery aisles inside are only part of the change. The bigger shift is in the old garden center on the side of the building, where people used to load bags of potting soil. Under the plan the City of Pleasant Hill announced in October 2025, that space becomes a semi-outdoor Japanese market hall with several small restaurants serving sushi, ramen, chicken karaage and bento boxes.
So the corner of Crescent Plaza that held a hardware store is being set up as a lunch stop as much as a grocery run. The chain's two other Bay Area stores show how much of the floor goes to food that's ready to eat.
A hardware store's outdoor yard, rebuilt for lunch
The city's release uses an industry word for the concept: a "grocerant," meaning a grocery store and several small restaurants under one roof. The grocery side is described as Japanese groceries, fresh produce, seafood, ready-to-eat meals and imported foods and goods. The restaurants go in the garden center. That part of the old Orchard building was always half outdoors, and the plan keeps it that way.
General Manager Kazuhiro Takeda said in the release that the store "will bring the flavors of Japan to Pleasant Hill." Downtown Pleasant Hill's October announcement added Japanese goods, fresh produce, specialty snacks and home essentials to the list. Bay Area Telegraph reported that marketing director Brandi Hardy said the store would expand the center's shopping and dining while celebrating Japanese culture and food.
The hiring points the same way. The Telegraph noted that Osaka's jobs page lists meat, fish and kitchen departments for the Pleasant Hill store. Those are the departments that prepare food on site, beyond stocking shelves.
Pleasant Hill gets the biggest of the three
At 42,000 square feet, the Crescent Plaza store is larger than the Foster City store the chain opened less than a year ago.
| Store | Opened | Size | Prepared food |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fremont, 46881 Warm Springs Blvd. | 2021 | Not published | Cafe plus a mini food hall with ramen and grab-and-go sushi and bento |
| Foster City, Edgewater Place | December 12, 2025 | 35,000 sq ft | Hot-food stands and a Japanese hot buffet |
| Pleasant Hill, 155 Crescent Plaza | Expected mid-November 2026 | 42,000 sq ft | Semi-outdoor market hall with mini restaurants for sushi, ramen, karaage and bento |
SFGATE described the chain as a Bay Area-born grocer "on an expansion tear" in late 2025. Back then, Foster City was a month from opening and Pleasant Hill was planned as "an even larger" market. Palo Alto Online reported that the company plans 12 more stores over the next decade. Pleasant Hill is the third store, and the first in Central Contra Costa County.
What the Fremont and Foster City kitchens show
Both existing stores show how this company handles prepared food.
Fremont opened in 2021 with a food court the chain called Umeda. Its opening announcement listed wagyu bentos, donburi, mochi donuts and other Osaka-style street foods. The current Fremont menu on the chain's site includes seafood, pork and chicken miso ramen, rice bowls and takoyaki. The company's site lists the Fremont food court as open from noon to 3:30 p.m. daily, with a separate cafe that opens at 9 a.m.
Foster City pushed further into hot food. According to Palo Alto Online, the store opened with stands for Japanese-style salad, Chinese dishes, a Japanese deli, handmade onigiri and Japanese-style sandwiches, plus a Japanese hot buffet with entrees starting at $10.99 when it opened in December 2025. The same report covered housemade sushi, onigiri and yakisoba.
The seafood counter is the chain's signature. In an email interview, the owner told SFGATE:
"We offer fresh fish delivered weekly by air from Tokyo's Toyosu Fish Market … and seasonal fruits like fresh melons and strawberries."
At Foster City, Palo Alto Online found Hokkaido uni, ready-to-eat crab and Japanese sun-dried fish known as himono. The meat case carried A5 wagyu, Berkshire pork, jidori chicken and prepared sukiyaki platters for hot pot. The rest of that store holds imported pantry staples like rice, soy sauce and miso, a wide range of KitKat and Pocky flavors, a beauty section and kitchenware ranging from knives to pots and pans.
The pattern carries over to Pleasant Hill. Ready-to-eat food takes up much of the floor at both existing stores, and Pleasant Hill's version is planned for a part of the building that was already designed for people to walk through outdoors.
How the opening date moved
The store took about a year to go from announcement to opening window. Here is how the timeline moved:
- October 15, 2025. The City of Pleasant Hill announces Osaka Marketplace for the vacant Orchard Supply space, with an opening expected in mid-2026.
- April 2026. Bay Area Telegraph spots early signage on the building while the interior still had a lot of work left.
- September 2026. The chain starts hiring for "all positions" in Pleasant Hill, the Telegraph reported.
- October 19, 2026. Downtown Pleasant Hill announces a fall opening. A spokesperson then tells the Telegraph to expect mid-November.
The Downtown Pleasant Hill directory page for Osaka Marketplace lists daily hours of 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. It's also the first place to check for the store's current status.
Where it fits on Crescent Plaza
The downtown it joins has changed since Orchard Supply closed. When the city announced Osaka, it listed recent grand openings nearby: Cantina Jack's, Paris Baguette, Crumbs Breakfast & Lunch Bar, The Royale, Morgan Territory Brewing and the Batter N' Icing cupcakery. Most of those are places to sit down and eat or drink. A market hall with ramen and sushi counters fits that mix, and it's large enough to anchor the block.
Mayor Sue Noack framed it in terms of choice. "A mix of local and national retailers provides Pleasant Hill residents a diversity of products and price options to choose from," she said in the city's release. The city also tied the store to a wider downtown revitalization that officials hope to extend to other retail districts in Pleasant Hill.
The chain also runs a busy event calendar at its other stores. In 2026, these included:
- Yummy Japan, a Hokkaido ramen and street food pop-up held in January at Fremont and in early February at Foster City, featuring exhibitors such as Ramen CHIU, Ramen Arata, Sapporo Ramen Kifu and Hokkaido Fried Chicken.
- Weekend brand demos every weekend in May, with Sugimoto Tea, Hikari Miso and other Japanese brands.
- The Osaka Summer Festival, August 20 to 23 at Foster City and August 27 to 30 at Fremont, with regional food fairs, samples and giveaways. The Foster City program also advertised a bluefin tuna-cutting demonstration.
The chain scheduled all three at both existing stores. A semi-outdoor hall in the old garden center gives Pleasant Hill a space suited to that kind of programming, a few steps from the brewery and bakery already on the plaza.
Big reuses like this one change how a downtown block works day to day, and that matters if you own a home near Crescent Plaza or are handling a family property in Pleasant Hill. If you'd like to talk through what's changing near a specific address, Myron Potter is glad to walk through it with you. Book an appointment whenever it suits you.