Bennett: It took awhile, but Union Market in Tustin is showing signs of life

By Sarah Bennett

May 31, 2016 10:08 AM PT

Patience is a virtue, though not one that I possess, I admit. When it comes to new restaurants and food projects, it’s hard to deal with that interminable distance between announcement and opening, when the nitty-gritty of construction plus time-consuming (and costly) build-outs and approvals take their course.

In the case of Orange County’s newest food hall, Union Market in Tustin, the anchor eateries couldn’t come quickly enough. Several small tenants moved into the 23,000-square-foot former Borders Books & Music, converted to hold 20 retail and food incubators, way back in fall 2014, but when I went down there to check it out, I was wholly underwhelmed.

Where was the promised seafood restaurant? The coffee shop? The poutine kings who said they’d be moving in? And what about that slider and Tiki bar concept from restaurateur Leonard Chan, who’s earned local acclaim for his take on waffles and craft beer at Iron Press? Or the other two discussed Chan concepts for that matter?

Without the draw of drinks or a substantial meal, there was little reason, sadly, to drive into the belly of The District at Tustin Legacy — a shopping center as familiarly soulless as all the others built in muted tones on once-empty land, for a half-realized vision.

Thus is the languid pace at which O.C.’s food halls seem to be coming into their own, or at least the ones created by Andrea and Russell Young (see: OC Mart Mix and Union Market in Mission Viejo). So everyone, including myself, waited.

Soon, O.C.’s favorite homegrown roaster, Portola Coffee Lab, opened a shop just inside an entrance. So did Kettlebar, a sleek Southern-style seafood concept, which has another location at the Anaheim Packinghouse. A custom-bar concept called Central Bar took up, well, the central part of Union Market, serving craft cocktails and wine in the round and drawing people further inside. Starting last summer, a slew of dessert shops began to draw Instagram-wielding foodies with everything from Popsicles to crepes to cookie-and-milk shots (wherein the shot glass is made of cookie that you eat after taking the shot).

In the last few months alone, Churned Creamery (ice cream), Cubed Poke (all things Hawaiian fish), Market 2 Plate (handmade pasta and build-your-own salads) and Chan’s Hatch have all finally come online, filling crucial gaps in Union Market’s offerings and bringing much needed affordability to the Tustin mall’s gourmet food scene.

Now, more than a year and a half after first making tenants pay rent, the old Borders is starting to bustle like a real civic center. It was worth being patient for.

In the mornings, people wander through to nab a cup of coffee from Portola or a juice from Drinkbar. Lunchtime finds local families utilizing the postmodern food court for a quick refuel while shopping. Happy hour is a steal at the Central Bar ($7 mules!), where housewives gossip over bottles of wine and Irvine Co. execs slam whiskey on their way home to de-suit for the evening. And dinner can mean anything from short rib poutine in a to-go box at The Kroft to steaming jambalaya at the table-service Kettlebar to one of Market 2 Plate’s $8 build-your-own pastas (with nine kinds of handmade noodles and seven sauces to choose from) to a two-slider combo (try the soft-shell crab and skirt steak) from Hatch.

The idea is that while you’re in the place for the food, you’ll also browse the multiple recycled vintage stores and clothing boutiques, perhaps buy some specialty salt at Spice & Tulips, or spring for a soy wax candle at Artisan Candle Company — all small businesses with nano-sized storefronts that without Union Market wouldn’t be able to afford to sell at a shopping center like the District.

But as beautiful as it is to see what happens when local businesses pool their resources, their retail spaces and their customers to fight the tyranny of the corporate blase that surrounds them, the best part about Union Market is that, like its own gradual reveal, it doesn’t expose itself to you all at once.

It took me a few visits to discover that the $3 Spam musubis at Cubed are the best snack in the house. And a few more to realize that you can watch the pasta maker rolling out dough through the full-sized kitchen window, as if you were strolling past some Italian cafe.

After spending way too many nights closing down the bar at Hatch (don’t worry, closing time is a tame 10 p.m.), I now know that tiki-cocktail enlightenment doesn’t need to cost $15 like it does at some other bars. Just follow the dreamy island soundtrack through the hallway by the bathrooms into the mid-century modern closet that is Hatch, where despite using rare and one-off-cask rums in its takes on the Mai Tai, the Zombie and the Hemingway Daiquiri, not much will cost you more than $10.

Now I just have to patiently wait to see if it will stay open later.

SARAH BENNETT is a freelance journalist covering food, drink, music, culture and more. She is the former food editor at L.A. Weekly and a founding editor of Beer Paper L.A. Follow her on Twitter @thesarahbennett.