Eat THIS!

Nothing poetic this time, but I have great news for anyone living or working around downtown Phoenix. If you like to cook with farm-fresh, locally grown produce, you no longer have to wait for a weekly market. In case you haven't heard, the Urban Grocery and Wine Bar is open for business at Central Avenue and Pierce St. It bridges the gap between the convenience of Safeway and the direct-from-the-Earth purity of Phoenix Public Market.

The grocery occupies a building adjacent to the parking lot where the normal Wednesday and Saturday markets continue to be held. Sharing the space is Royal at the Market coffee bar, which roasts their own coffee and offers a variety of homemade baked items.

Local farmers, four of whom I profiled in my piece for JAVA Magazine, keep the grocery supplied with fresh fruits and vegetables on a daily basis. The current inventory also includes locally made pasta, bread, chocolates, sauces and artisan cheese. Don't feel like cooking? Order a sandwich or soup from the lunch counter and choose a glass of Arizona wine to get that glow going. A handful of tables just inside the sunny front window make this a great place to pass the time with a friend (Or the remainder of the bottle of wine. Or both.)

The Urban Grocery and Wine Bar is all part of a master plan developed by Community Food Connections to bring a thriving and much larger permanent market to the heart of the city. According to Cindy Gentry, Director of CFC, this stage of the plan has so far gone well. "I think it's exceeded our expectations. We did a lot of careful planning because there's not a lot of room for mistakes...but we're right on target."

By next week, the Urban Grocery shelves should be completely full, after the arrival of staple items that Gentry feels are absolutely vital to the success of the shop.

"People need to be able to do a lot of their shopping here and not just their produce. Rice, flour, baby food...we're not very big, but we need to have some of the everyday items." That gives people less reason to make a trip to one of the huge, traditional stores, where convenience will likely tempt them into buying their produce as well.

"The next step is to grow the capacity of these vendors and increase the size of the store...A typical public market is about 25 to 40 thousand square feet. We have about 17 hundred here now." Whether that means purchasing adjacent lots or moving elsewhere in downtown, only time will tell. First Community Food Connections needs to prove that the community at large will support Urban Grocery by giving it some of their regular shopping time and money.

Urban Grocery and Wine Bar is located at 14 E. Pierce St., and is an easy walk from the lightrail and bus hub at Central/1^st Ave and Van Buren St. Hours are 11am to 8pm, Tuesday through Saturday. Royal at the Market coffee bar is open 7am to 8pm, and can be entered through a door around the side when the grocery is closed.