After 10 years, Fez, a restaurant and bar in midtown Phoenix, will be moving to a new location downtown which will be open to hungry customers on Jan. 2.
When Fez’s lease was about to expire, owner Mark Howard started looking for a new location and found a new home at 105 W. Portland St., the home of the former Portland’s Restaurant & Wine Bar.
“Fortune had it that this space was available,” Howard said.
The move is less than three miles from Fez’s current spot on Central Avenue south of Indian School Road and conveniently right off the Roosevelt Street and Central Avenue light-rail stop. For Howard the move is exciting, seeing as he knows the area and its nearby restaurants.
“We love the Central corridor,” Howard said. “We are very familiar with the area; we love the diversity of the fellow patrons.”
Howard hopes that with the move, Fez has the opportunity to appeal to a new group of customers along with keeping their old ones.
He will be expanding the restaurant with the move. For example, the dog-friendly patio will be expanding from fitting 40 people to 68.
“We are really just giving an opportunity to expand the brand,” Howard said. “We hope to bring the new Fez to our old customers.”
While the feedback about the move has been positive, Howard said he is nervous about moving.
“You’re always a little nervous when you move something that has been there for 10 years,” Howard said.
Fez is a locally owned and vended restaurant that is a member of Local First Arizona, an organization that helps locally owned businesses in Arizona.
For Howard, being a locally owned business in Arizona comes with a sense of community. Howard said being surrounded by other local businesses helps create a better and even stronger community.
With that sense of community, people like Rene Jealan, general manager at local restaurant Windsor, are seeing more and more people getting interested in dining at certain locations.
“People are getting that feel of the hipster movement,” Jealan said. “It’s a good thing because it is helping small businesses.”
Windsor is also a member of Local First Arizona.
Local businesses in Phoenix are not a new trend, but according to Thomas Barr, the membership coordinator at Local First Arizona, the number of local businesses in Phoenix has grown in the past 10 years.
Even though the amount of local businesses in Phoenix is growing, that is actually helping the businesses instead of harming them.
“It’s healthy for many businesses to compete against each other,” Barr said. “So it’s a good thing that the number is getting higher.”
Fez’s new location is not only right off a light-rail stop but it is also in a more walkable area, which according to Barr will be helpful for the restaurant.
“By being in a more walkable area, they are going to be more accessible to their customers,” Barr said.
The move will also bring Fez closer to ASU’s Downtown Phoenix campus, allowing students to experience the unique advantages of being local customers and small-business supporters.
“It’s a real mix of a wonderful, diverse community and it’s really refreshing to see students support that,” Howard said.
Contact reporter at hjohnst2@asu.edu
