The new Market on 8th community shopping and food hub enjoyed a soft opening this week. Developer Joel Tubao said he developed the new public market specifically so residents of National City can gather for food and socializing in a community atmosphere.
“Although we had a place to come in and sleep, we didn’t have a lot of places to come in and play so this is one of those places that I think is going to be for the community, walking distance from a lot of the housing and the brand new housing project across the street. We even built the tables as community tables, large tables where people can hang out,” Tubao said.
The sunny space has vintage photographs of National City that break up the rustic design elements of the dining area. Walls of windows and hefty tables anchor the space, and a large patio features a firepit that stretches halfway along the entire seating area. A yellow bike that Tubao later said belongs to this daughter hangs on a wall of bike hooks, a deliberate choice to encourage pedestrians and bike riders to get out in the neighborhood and engage with the community.
“We want people to meet their neighbors and we want people to live and work right here in the community, spend their money in the community. I’ve said this before but National City deserves to have a place like this in the community,” Tubao said.
Anchored by Novo Brazil Brewing Company, the 11,000 square foot property has tenants such as Chef Bill Esteban, who Tubao said “has a great presence with all the restaurants he’s been associated with” but grew up in the community and is now back to support the community.
“There’s just a lot of pride associated with him moving back. I mean, he could live anywhere right now and he decided to live here in National City,” Tubao said.
The developer said he’s also excited to have Gujuan “Smitty” Smith coming in with Taste of the Bayou.
“I approached him right at the get-go of coming up with this concept. He just does just a great job with his Louisiana style barbecue— his catfish is incredible,” Tubao said.
Several of the vendors in the public market are small operations, “bite-sized” restaurants as Tubao describes them, part of an evolution in the local economy.
“I think this is part of the answer for keeping restaurants open. I mean, these are bite-sized restaurants. If a family comes in, one person can have Ramen and another one can have Thai food and somebody else can have a beer and hang out at the same table, you know? There’s a lot of variety,” Tubao said.
There is also a gathering of momentum born from the public market concept. Having a variety of food cuisines available where locals can purchase dinner with something different on every person’s plate, all while supporting the same economy is a strong counterpoint to the isolation of individual restaurants who struggled through the pandemic.
“We have people that are coming from another job to now opening restaurants and there is a synergy involved with all the different restaurants coming together under one roof,” Tubao said.
Hopefully, he said, the new hub will be a “spark” for the rest of National City.
“We work here in the community. I keep saying that we’re going to house someone across the street, feed them here and Southwestern College is going to educate them,” Tubao said.
On the verge of a grand opening, the developer can now begin to look back at the project, which was originally approved in 2016 under then-Mayor Ron Morrison but went through several construction setbacks. One thing he says took more work than expected: color choices in the building, although in the end the murals ended up reflecting a local identity.
“The mural that we have in our beer garden— my daughter did that and it’s a representation of my family and our life here. You can see National City with circles representing the tires on the Mile of Cars, the Filipino flag at the bottom,” Tubao said.
Years from now, he said, he foresees National City Boulevard becoming a high-rise epicenter for the South Bay area because it is zoned for buildings up to 200 feet tall, a feature found only in downtown San Diego and La Jolla.
“Growing up in San Diego, many people who come to visit think that downtown San Diego ends and Mexico starts. They don’t understand that there’s so much in between. There’s so much life and entertainment, so much to offer and this is just part of it,” Tubao said.
