Custom printed takeout bags for Emeryville restaurants.

Tiny city, packed lunch hour

Emeryville is barely more than a square mile, squeezed between Oakland, Berkeley and the bay. Yet at noon it feels like a much bigger place. Office towers, labs, animation studios and new apartments all empty out at once, and everyone needs to eat.

A lot of them head to the Public Market on Shellmound Street, where stalls sell ramen, poke, tacos, coffee and more under one roof. Others walk to Bay Street or grab something on San Pablo Avenue. Most of it goes back to a desk in a bag.

Our guide to printed takeout bags in the Bay Area covers the basics for every town. Here is what matters in Emeryville.

In a food hall, the bag is your sign

Inside a food hall your stall is one counter in a long row. People walk in hungry, pick fast and leave. Once they are back at work, nothing on the table says where lunch came from, unless the bag does.

A printed bag fixes that for pennies. Coworkers see it on a desk and ask. A delivery driver carries it across the lobby. Somebody posts their lunch and your logo is in the shot. That is free marketing you would never get from a blank bag.

Stalls in the Public Market change hands now and then. The ones that last are the ones people can name. Make yours easy to name.

Soup, sauce and a long walk back

Lunch here travels. It goes up elevators, across parking lots and onto the back of a bike. Our bag is 12″ × 7″ × 14″ with 3.5″ gussets and a flat base, and it holds 22 lb, so ramen and rice bowls sit level.

Soups and heavy bowls go on the bottom. Boxes stack on top. Small sauce cups slide into the side folds, and anything crispy rides last. Seal the top with one of the food tamper-evident stickers, 100 in each full box, so delivery orders arrive untouched.

Run a noodle stall? The ramen shop bags page goes deeper on broth. Burrito counters should see the burrito shop page.

Thursday nights bring a second rush

When the farmers market sets up across from the Public Market on Thursday evenings, people stay after work and pick up dinner to take home. That is a second rush in the same day, and a second set of people seeing your bag.

Testing a new stall or a pop up? The Discovery Box gives you 50 printed bags to start. Move to a full box of 150 once the line gets steady. Pick from brown kraft and bright white, with 12 × 14 in of print room on the front.