One of downtown Phoenix’s beloved unique culinary projects permanently shut down without explanation in August, but this devastation was not enough to erase the imprints DeSoto Central Market’s restaurateurs ingrained across the Valley with their flavors.
Though DeSoto Market’s doors have been locked since its shut down, some former vendors and employees are fueling their fires and finding ways to dish out the food the market once served around the city.
The Root and Soul, a gourmet-style soul food restaurant that joined DeSoto just a few months before it closed down, is now relocating to Scottsdale with intentions to move back to downtown Phoenix eventually.
“I’m in Scottsdale…and we have a large, beautiful location,” owner Christian Buze said. “Bar, outstanding menu, a little bit of everything.”
Though Buze would have liked to expand to Scottsdale eventually, he was not expecting to get there the way he did.
“I thought we’d be in the Roosevelt District forever,” Buze said. “I wanted to expand in Roosevelt. Of course, as any business, we wanted to expand to Scottsdale eventually, sure. But we didn’t anticipate this direction…or this sequence of events.”
Though Buze was able to pick his restaurant back up, the sudden closing of DeSoto Market left a lasting impression on him. He confessed he still thinks about the historical building on the corner of Central Avenue and Roosevelt Street every day.
“To this day, a lot of the moves we’ve made and the success we’ve had was due to being in DeSoto,” he said.
DeSoto opened in April 2015 with the intention of bringing restaurateurs together to grow their businesses and bring the community together for frequent events and dinners out.
There was a lot of potential for its food-hall concept in downtown Phoenix, said Bryan Marscovetra, owner of former DeSoto restaurant RADish. The concept initially drew him in to set up a restaurant location for his juice and salad company at the very start of DeSoto’s timeline.
“I saw on Facebook somebody I know had liked a rendering of a market and I just thought, I’m a team-player. I’m a team-guy,” he said. “This was my first venture into anything entrepreneurial, and so I wanted to open with a team, in concert with other people who were doing this, too.”
Staking its place in downtown Phoenix inside a renovated auto-commerce building from 1928, DeSoto Market fed into the country-wide interest in food halls and gave its customers a variety of dining options under one roof, ranging from Latin-American and Asian infusions to cold-pressed juices and salads. It lost and gained proprietors throughout its three-year lifespan until it closed down–without warning–on Aug. 20, 2018.
Business owners and employees expected to show up at DeSoto for another ordinary day of work, startled and confused to discover the doors permanently locked and the windows boarded up with plywood.
Buze described feeling sick to his stomach when he saw what happened to the building.
“It was devastating,” Buze said. “It took me two weeks to even get off the couch, it was so devastating.”
Buze said his business was at a high at the time of the market’s downfall.
“You have to understand, like a week before, we were given an award for Arizona’s best fried chicken,” Buze said. “So our star was shining, you know? So when we showed up at work and the doors were locked, it was devastating.”
A statement was released on DeSoto Market’s Facebook page the morning the building shut down, thanking its customers and reiterating its original mission-statement to help businesses grow and “incubate restaurants beyond the walls of DeSoto.”
However, the reason for DeSoto’s sudden closing remained a mystery and Buze believes the truth will most likely never come out.
“You’ll never get the truth. I don’t know,” he said. “I mean, I was dumbfounded. I still am. I just don’t know.”
Marscovetra said the vague explanation of DeSoto Market’s closing was a miss for the business.
“I know it’s difficult to have layoffs, but that is part of business,” he said. “Businesses grow and businesses contract.”
“Thanking the people who worked to keep the business going and ending with an explanation is important,” Marscovetra said, “so whoever takes over that building has some sort of baseline to go from.”
DeSoto managing partner Shawn Connelly could not be reached for comment or for insight on future plans for the DeSoto building.
Although the truth behind the closing has yet to be released, some former employees have speculations as to why the DeSoto Market project was not able to last as long as hoped.
Celly Mais, a former DeSoto employee who had left about a month before its closing, said management was one of the reasons why he stopped working there.
“It was a great place as far as the atmosphere and the people that would come there,” he said. “I never really had any problems with dealing with the customers. It was mostly just the way it was ran.”
Mais said often times he would point out certain issues in DeSoto Market and they would be left unresolved by its managers, including cleanliness and up-keeping of the historical building.
“It was just kind of sad to see,” Mais said. “Because it was a great place to be at. It was a great location. … I mean it’s in one of the oldest areas in Phoenix and it’s historical. I was wondering why it was being treated that way.”
Buze also said management was a problem during his time as a DeSoto Market vendor.
“It’s just with the guy who was in charge,” he said. “He was just way in over his head from the get-go. …The place was just ran-down. It was mismanaged and they just had the wrong guy in charge. That’s all there is to it.”
Marscovetra said DeSoto Market needed was a team of people to help run the whole facility. Although RADish had left DeSoto before it shut down, Marscovetra revealed for most of its lifespan, managing partner Shawn Connelly was the only person handling all of the needs of the building and the vendors.
“(Connelly was) overseeing the entire construction of it and he’s got to listen to every tenant asking, ‘When are we going to open? When are we going to open?’ like every day,” he said. “And he doesn’t have a team around him … it’s just him. I cannot imagine the stress that he had.”
Marscovetra also said cleanliness was in the hands of the vendors because most of the restaurants were privately owned. At the same time, DeSoto Market’s location next to the County Health Department made cleanliness an important factor to keep track of for the proprietors.
“Like, the entire County Health Department supervisors come into DeSoto for lunch every single day,” he said. “So you can’t let things go because literally, they’ll shut you down on their lunch break.”
There was a period during Marscovetra’s time working in DeSoto Market where he thought everything was running at its best. Connelly had hired a consultant who ended up working at Desoto full time before eventually leaving for another job at a resort.
“That’s when there was an emphasis on more seating, more entertainment, more shows and cool events, and more communication with the tenants and stuff,” Marscovetra said. “And that’s why I say in hindsight, it just needed a team.”
Marscovetra eventually discovered that running a full-on restaurant in addition to running a separate juice business was a challenge, especially as a new dad at the time, and decided not to renew their lease after two years in DeSoto Market.
The Root and Soul stepped in to take over RADish’s space for the last leg of the DeSoto era. Buze said, looking back on his experiences, there were a few warning signs that DeSoto’s management was “throwing in the towel,” a major one being: he was never asked to sign a lease when he brought The Root and Soul into the building.
“But like I said, I didn’t expect this,” Buze said. “I knew he was in over his head.”
After DeSoto Market closed down, Buze was able to secure a spot for a brand new location in Scottsdale. He will be bringing Mais and a few former employees from DeSoto Market to join him.
Buze said that although the re-opening process has been tedious, he is excited to serve his food in Scottsdale and expects to do successful business in the area.
“You got whole families over here that come down and eat with you,” he said. “So I think in that aspect, I will do more business. But again, not to knock on the Roosevelt District, because we have plans of moving back there soon.”
“I think (Scottsdale) is in for a surprise,” Mais said. “Definitely.”
RADish’s moved out before The Root and Soul came in, but according to Marscovetra the juice company continues to do well. RADish products are sold in a number of restaurants across the Valley as well as five other states in the country.
“We’re in the farmers’ markets every Saturday … we’re keeping busy,” Marscovetra said.
The Root and Soul is gearing up for their grand re-opening. Buze, said they are shooting for Saturday, Nov. 24, to officially open up to the public. They are just waiting for the green light on inspections.
“We’re elated,” he said. “It’s very receptive. It’s a great area that’s dramatically underserved for food, and especially the kind of food that I serve, so we’re extremely excited.”
The Root and Soul is now located at 14144 N.100th St., Scottsdale, AZ.
Contact the reporter at eswhitfi@asu.edu.
