Sprouts & Shutters: Meat Market & Food Bazaar Coming To Castro Valley

Castro Valley will soon have a new meat market and food bazaar thanks to a local family’s plans to rehabilitate an empty building at 18921 Lake Chabot Road where it intersects Quail Avenue.

The effort is being led by Hans and Herbet Cho, second generation owners of C&H Meat Company in San Leandro.

The family owners are currently working through the county permit process and hope to begin construction by the end of the year, Hans Cho told Patch.

The Cho family got started in business in 1982 when patriarch James Cho and wife JoAnne opened a retail meat market in San Francisco.

They moved the business to San Leandro in 1986 where it C&H is based at 225 MacArthur Boulevard.

The San Leandro business is a wholesale operation that delivers Asian meats and Korean barbecue cuts to customers throughout the greater Bay Area. 

Hans Cho said the family saw the Lake Chabot site as an opportunity to get back into the retail meat business and also do something for Castro Valley, where the family has put down roots.

“In a sense we’re bringing the business full circle back to its retail roots,” said Han Cho, who attended Vannoy Elementary, Canyon Middle School and Castro Valley High.

Cho said the family will not use all of the Lake Chabot site to sell meat.

They plan to sublease parts of the nearly 10,000 square foot building to other food sellers, such as produce, grocery or prepared foods vendors. 

The model they have in mind is the San Pedro Square Marketplace in San Jose.

“We’ve had some inquiries already,” Cho said.

He said the family will continue to run the wholesale operation in San Leandro.

He said they don’t really intend to compete with other local meat stores to sell standard cuts.

Instead they will bring their specialty meats to a retail clientele, drawing on people in the local community with a taste for their fare and attracting clients from surrounding areas.

“We’ll continue to do what we’re good at,” Cho said, and finding a mix of sub lessors to add variety.

Know of a business opening or closing? Tell Patch about it using this simple form for our Sprouts & Shutters series.