Photos by Alexis Macklin
After a full year of sitting empty, the building at the Phoenix Public Market was bursting with life Wednesday as the community welcomed the new Cafe, which now calls the distinctive red brick walls home.
The Phoenix Public Market Cafe, which celebrated its official opening Wednesday, is the creation of Valley chef Aaron Chamberlin and is altogether a restaurant, rotisserie, bakery, coffee shop and bar.
The grand opening coincided with the formal lighting of the neon Phoenix Public Market sign, led by Mayor Greg Stanton, who said there was no place he’d rather be at that moment than in the heart of Phoenix.
“This particular sight (the public market and cafe) is special, and the reason is… eight years ago the city made a commitment to create a sense of place right here in the heart of the city,” Stanton said in an interview at the lighting. “If there’s one thing that exemplifies that downtown is a neighborhood as much as anything else, it’s the public market.”
He said that Chamberlin’s commitment to the businesses that come to the market and to buying locally sourced foods adds to the public market’s importance in the community.
Samantha Jackson, Phoenix Public Market manager and Community Service Director at the Downtown Phoenix Partnership, said that the Cafe is going to be “that community spot.”
“You couldn’t have opened it in a better neighborhood because you’re surrounded by people who believe in (buying and eating locally produced food)”, she said. “You’ve got people that want this place, will come and support it, understand the messaging behind farm-to-table food, so I think that it will be great.”
The Phoenix Public Market’s Urban Grocery and Wine Bar, a boutique grocery store that sold a variety of local goods, previously occupied this location and closed—much to the community’s dismay—one year ago due to financial hardships.
Not long after the gloom had finally set in, a wave of excitement replaced it when Chamberlin obtained the building and promised a new restaurant committed to serving locally sourced foods.
“The community was really sad when the urban grocery closed,” he said. “We want to carry on the awesomeness that they had already started here. We just want to continue what they did and elevate it a little bit.”
The menu is described as “fresh market cuisine” and features items such as a public market vegetable salad, BBQ chicken sandwich and steamed salmon.
Chamberlin said that food will be prepared using local produce from the farms he uses for his other restaurant, St. Francis, and that he will be using food purchased directly at the Phoenix Public Market’s open-air markets.
Chamberlin said when he first came to Phoenix that he had looked at this space, but had concerns about the market for restaurants in downtown Phoenix at the time, since so many of them had closed.
“I had originally wanted to come downtown, but I just didn’t see the development happening enough, so it was very risky,” he said. “The momentum—I think it’s finally coming to the place where it’s really going to be an exciting time in downtown Phoenix.”
He felt there was a lot of opportunity for a restaurant with high quality food at good price points, he said. Food prices will vary with breakfast at $10 and under, and $15 and under for dinner.
Unlike St. Francis, the Cafe is a fast-casual dining experience. In other words, you order at a cash register, sit wherever you’d like and the staff will bring the food to the table.
Deviating from many businesses in downtown Phoenix, which close up shop in the late afternoon and aren’t open on the weekends, Chamberlin said he wanted to create “consistency,” so he chose to keep the Cafe open daily from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m.
Currently, he said there aren’t plans for a student discount, but that may be something they consider starting in the fall. He also said they tried to accept M&G, but that it isn’t going to be an option right now.
Public Market manager Jackson said that Chamberlin built the cafe with students in mind, and that it will appeal to students because the look of it is very “in” for young adults and it’s a cute place for students to study at.
“His prices will be accessible and they want to work with the students, they want to offer a student discount, they want to have student specials,” she said. “I think you’ll see him try and engage with ASU.”
Victoria Myracle, a freshman nursing major said she would visit the cafe to study and drink a chai latte, which she said is much better than Starbucks.
Myracle said students will come to the cafe because the prices are reasonable, especially compared to other nearby establishments. She also said students are likely to support it, because, “Downtown students are more attracted to the local movement.”
Chamberlin said he sees the opening of the Cafe as a part of the momentum that is bring life back to downtown Phoenix.
“If we’re successful here, every single person in town is going to want to come down here,” he said. “By no means do I think we’re carving a new path, because there are a lot of people down here who have been working hard, but I think there’s a new wave coming.”
Contact the reporter at brandi.porter@asu.edu
