Logo printed kraft takeout bags for Point Loma restaurants.

A neighborhood built on the catch

Long before it had wine bars and poke bowls, Point Loma was where the tuna boats came home. Portuguese, Italian and Japanese families fished out of this bay for generations. The Roseville side of the peninsula got the nickname Tunaville, and at one point more than 400 fishing boats worked out of San Diego Bay.

Walk out to the end of Shelter Island and you will find a bronze statue of three fishermen pulling in a giant bluefin. Almost every boat entering or leaving the bay passes it. That pride in local fish still shows up on menus all over the peninsula: fish markets, taco counters, sushi bars and sandwich shops on Rosecrans and Canon Street.

When your food comes with a story that good, a blank brown sack wastes it. A bag with your logo on it carries the story home.

Two dozen counters under one roof

Liberty Station used to be the Navy's boot camp. Now it holds Liberty Public Market, a food hall of about 22,000 square feet with roughly two dozen vendors side by side. Around it are restaurants, a brewery, coffee shops and big lawns where families picnic on the weekend.

Here is the problem for a stall in a food hall. A customer orders from you, walks across the room, sits down with friends who ordered from three other stalls, and then everyone heads out. By the parking lot, nobody remembers which counter made the best thing. The only clue is the bag.

Print your name big on the front and that clue points to you. Your lunch order rides home in the car, sits on a counter, and gets seen by people who were never at the market. That is free advertising you already paid for when you bought bags.

Packing for the dock, the lawn and the drive

Point Loma food travels. It goes to boats at the marinas, to blankets on the grass at Liberty Station, to the cliffs at sunset, and up the hill to homes with a view. Each of those trips is a little longer than a walk across the street, so the bag has to hold its shape.

Ours is 110 GSM kraft with a square bottom and flat paper handles. It measures 12″ × 7″ × 14″ and carries up to 22 lb. Here is the simple way to load it:

• Heavy and wet first: chowder, rice and beans sit flat on the bottom.
• Fried food in the middle: fish tacos and fries go in vented boxes so steam can escape.
• Sauces in the side pockets: the 3.5″ gussets hold small cups upright.
• Close it up: fold the top and seal it with a food tamper-evident sticker so the driver and the customer both know nobody opened it.

Seafood shops should also read our fish taco bag guide and the poke and seafood takeout bag guide for keeping batter crisp and raw fish cold.

Make the logo work as hard as the crew

Keep it simple. Your name, one small picture, and one or two colors. A fish, an anchor or a wave reads well on kraft. Tiny script fonts do not. The print area is 12 × 14 in on the front, so make the name fill it.

Brown kraft with navy or black ink looks right at home near the harbor. White kraft makes bright colors pop if your brand is coral, teal or yellow. Either way, setup is $0 and you approve a proof before we print.

We print this same bag for kitchens across the county that need custom printed takeout bags for San Diego restaurants, and the bag size page shows what fits inside before you order.