A sushi roll ready for take-out, from Liberty Public Market vendor The Sushi Stand

There always seems to be something new at Liberty Public Market. Of the 35 vendors currently doing business in the Liberty Station food hall, only eight remain from its original, 2016 lineup. Like so many cells in the human body, dozens of food stalls have turned over during the past seven years to yield something familiar yet new. Some vendors were felled by the pandemic, others by the naturally high attrition rate of the restaurant business.

A new food stand in the southwest corner of Liberty Public Market

Though not great for those individual businesses, I’d argue it’s been good for the food hall in general. I’ve visited several times per year since it opened, and to my eyes the place has never looked better than it does now. For one, there are more appealing things to eat — enough to make me want to return more often. But the aesthetic has evolved as well, with more user-friendly signs and structure making the place easier and generally more pleasant to inhabit. The place has evolved.

Maybe it’s coincidence, but a clean aesthetic tops the list of what drew me to one of its newer vendors, too. You’d already expect it of a place called The Sushi Stand, given its obvious specialty, and the inarguable fact that seeing sushi on your plate never gets old. (It’s no accident that two of San Diego’s four Michelin-starred restaurants are sushi joints.)

But serving sushi in a food hall works a little differently than doing so at an upscale restaurant. Here, people may be taking their meals to go, or transporting their sushi to separate seating areas both in and outside the complex. In such an environment, you can’t exactly send sushi rolls out on designer plates.

Sleek, blue boxes made for sushi rolls

Where fancy dishes won’t work, we’re used to finding plastic tray packaging, like you see with grocery store sushi. But it’s not a presentation that suggests 15 dollars will be well spent, and Sushi Stand has wisely avoided it. Instead, it’s opted for a different style of packaging that’s almost over the top.

Sushi Stand serves its sushi rolls in sleek cardboard boxes, the sort usually filled with bougie cookies or confections. They’re long, blue boxes that slide open when you push at either end. On one side, you access nine pieces of maki roll; on the other you’ll find its requisite accoutrements: soy sauce packets, pickled ginger, and a dab of wasabi. There’s even a small paper ramekin for dipping.

Located in the southwest corner of Liberty Public Market, Sushi Stand ironically occupies one of the few areas with dedicated seating. But these little branded boxes are too cute to open within sight of the stand’s similarly branded blue counter. You almost want to walk around carrying these things, to show them off, perhaps present them to a loved one for a Valentine’s Day picnic.

One end has the sushi, one end has the stuff that goes with sushi

Priced around $13-18 apiece, these sushi rolls aren’t anything extraordinary, sticking to a handful of familiar fish — tuna, salmon, yellowtail, shrimp, and kanikama (a.k.a. krab). But they are satisfying in multiple ways, usually combining sushi standards with healthful ingredients, most often topped with microgreens and citrus. Take, for example, the Fresh Prince roll, which features spicy tuna and avocado inside, with salmon on top, plus lemon slices, micro cilantro, and sesame seeds. Or my personal favorite, the Black and Yellow, which tops spicy tuna roll with yellowtail and lemon — both seared — and features tempura fried shishito pepper.

These aren’t made with premium cuts of fish any more than they’re presented on premium service-wear. And they’re not entirely conventional either. But in a way, they do reflect the early days of sushi, before it went upscale, when it was a conveniently packaged street food. And they easily match up to the latest rendition of San Diego’s longest running food hall.