PHX Night Market closes as its founders pursue other projects
PHX Night Market is no more. The weekend pop-up event was inspired by the open-air markets of Asia. It was meant to be a yearly tradition, transforming part of downtown Phoenix into an Asian street food extravaganza where visitors could gather for boba, bao and bubble waffles.
But after two years, the founders are splitting up and moving onto new projects they hope will also showcase the diversity of small businesses in Phoenix.
PHX Night Market was founded by Tony Ce, owner of Snoh Ice Shavery; Cindy Louie, owner of Go, Studio, Go!, a design studio; and Vicente Reid, CEO of the Arizona Asian Chamber of Commerce.
On Thursday, Louie posted a farewell message on PHX Night Market’s Instagram account, announcing that she and her partners were going their separate
ways and launching separate ventures. On the post she plugged her two new projects in the works, Hawker Street Market and Womxn Made Festival.
The next day, the Asian Chamber of Commerce distributed a press release announcing the dissolution of the PHX Night Market partnership.
Louie described PHX Night Market as a grassroots, self-funded event that came about because she and her partners noticed there wasn’t an event of its kind happening in Phoenix.
“Like all relationships and things, we found out we were growing in different directions and had different visions for the event and partnership in general,” Louie said.
What was PHX Night Market?
The founders of PHX Night Market wanted to transport visitors to the buzzy outdoor night markets found in cities all over Asia, known for rows upon rows of street food vendors and throngs of people gathering for the social ambiance.
Ce, who also is a member of the Arizona Asian Chamber of Commerce, drew inspiration from his home before moving to Phoenix, the San Gabriel Valley in Southern California. He described the area, which hosts the 626 Night Market, as having a vibrant Asian community. In California, night markets are a “dime a dozen” and Ce was excited to cultivate that experience in Phoenix.
“Cities are built on diversity and Asian Americans can be a part of it,” Ce said.
He also has stories from his mother, who used to work in a night market in Laos, hawking chicken eggs and cigarettes in the 1970s.
The first PHX Night Market, held in April 2018 at Phoenix Public Market, counted at least 10,000 visitors — double what they had expected. For the second and final event, in April 2019, it expanded to four blocks in downtown Phoenix’s Warehouse District.
Vendors included locals like Shanny’s Frozen Bananas for dessert, Mango Rabbit for popcorn chicken, Yan Grill from Mesa selling fried squid on a stick and Khon’s Lao-style crawfish, which Ce found at a Lao Buddhist temple in north Phoenix.
Louie also invited musicians and artists to the event.
“If people come out for food, they’re not just going to eat all night. We wanted them to linger all night and really have an experience,” Louie said.
Why is the event ending?
The announcement that PHX Night Market was closing caused a stir on Instagram.
“Even though it was really shocking on social media, we’ve actually been working on this for the past several months, talking about this, going through the dissolution process, legally distributing assets before even making the public announcement,” Louie said.
While people have expressed their disappointment, she and Ce hope PHX Night Market fans can support new events that serve culturally diverse communities.
Ce described the dissolution of their partnership as a mutual decision based on “creative differences,” but that he wanted the Asian community to keep it positive. To him, PHX Night Market has opened the door for more events like it.
“My goal was to put Phoenix on the map,” Ce said. “People say Phoenix has no culture. Why not cultivate the culture?”
“Breakups are never easy,” Louie said. “I appreciate those that have been respectful of our decision. For those that do have criticism and are pushing that direction, I do hope that we can not dwell on that and be able to just be supportive of everyone moving forward.”
“Being able to help small business and vendors have a voice and feel like they belong, it was really amazing,” she added.
What’s next?
The Arizona Asian Chamber of Commerce would like to plan a new market event — possibly on Tempe Town Lake, based on poll results — but Ce said he’s unsure what role he will play. He feels like he’s still resting after planning and throwing PHX Night Market for two years, but he said he’s happy to assist the chamber in launching the new event.
Louie is launching Hawker Street Market, a twoday evening event set for spring 2020.
“One thing I really wanted to bring forth, something that lacked at PHX Night Market, was we didn’t have all the international communities represented in Arizona,” Louie said.
“Food is the universal language between all of us, how we tell our stories, how we understand each other, especially in this political climate. There’s a lot of angst and anxiety in it.”
Louie hopes Hawker Street Market will unite people from groups beyond the Asian American community, and teased a pop-up launch event before the end of the year.
Arizona Republic reporter Lorraine Longhi contributed to this report.
What would you like to see at the next Phoenix night market? Share your thoughts with the reporter at Priscilla.Totiya@azcentral.com or 602-444-8092. Follow her on Twitter: @PriscillaTotiya.
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