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Phoenix Public Market Urban Grocery and Wine Bar opens
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The Phoenix Public Market storefront on Pierce
The Phoenix Public Market Urban Grocery opened this past week. This true labor of love brings together the specialties of many of our local food producers into one terrific location. It will showcase products of Arizona. It will serve coffee and wine, making it a destination, as much as a place to shop. Business will grow as the downtown neighborhood grows. The current plan is to have the Market Store open from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. The Market Café sells grab-and-go items such as sandwiches, salads, and soups; Royal at the Market is a small coffee shop that quietly opened a few weeks ago that will be open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. and is accessible from the alley on the west side of the building. A portion of Urban Grocery includes a commercial kitchen and meeting area.
The brains and determination behind this operation is Cindy Gentry, who has worked to develop local food production, distribution, and access capacities, and to support local farmers’ markets. She got the ball rolling by organizing the Downtown Phoenix Public Market, which opened for Saturday mornings and Wednesday evenings in February of 2005. What began as a handful of vendors in the pouring rain on opening weekend quickly blossomed to more than 100 vendors, serving 1,500 people every week.
Gentry quickly realized that vendors working from tents have limitations, and thought of a solution. The vendors needed an indoor store where they could sell their products five days a week, rather than just Wednesday nights and Saturday mornings. The dream was initially on schedule for the summer of 2008, but the economic collapse caused funding delays. Gentry didn’t give up. She contacted banks and city officials and anyone she could think of in order to get the project moving. She pulled together a large collection of interested parties to collaborate to get the project done. The Phoenix Urban Grocery is a collaboration of the Industrial Development Authority of the City of Phoenix, the Arizona Community Foundation, the Local Initiatives Support Corporation, Bank of America, the Gila River Indian Community, and Wells Fargo Bank. The red brick warehouse building, adjacent to the current public market and facing Pierce, has been re-designed to become the new Downtown Phoenix Public Market Urban Grocery and Wine Bar.
Mayor Phil Gordon and Chef Christopher Gross were on hand to celebrate the grand opening of the store on October 29th, 2009. In addition, several vendors set up tables to provide samples. Alan Jones provided music by playing soft jazz with flute and saxophone.
Some of the local vendors providing products inside the store are: Beef from Double Check Ranch; Elfish Salmon; Josh’s Foraging Fowl; The Meat Shop; Arizona Cheese Company; Hickman’s Eggs; Shamrock Farms; K&B Farm; Maya’s Farm; Crooked Sky Farms; Terra Verde Farms; Arizona Cowboy sauces and condiments; Amelio’s Soup; Kokopelli’s Kitchen; Garden of Eatin’ Chips; Wei of Chocolate; Fairytale Brownies; Laura’s Gourmet Granola; Pillsbury Wine Company’Queen Creek Olive Mill; McClendon’s Select Honey; DeCio Pasta; Rhiba Farms; Doctor Hummus; Poppa Maize; Bread Basket; Simply Bread; and Urban Cookies.
Written above the door on the inside of the store: “Never Answer a Question from a Farmer,” Hubert H. Humphrey
For more information: The Phoenix Public Market Urban Grocery, 14 E. Pierce St., adjacent to the open-air market, (602) 493-5231
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