Lucky Asian Mart brings new flavors and unique foods to Spokane during their weekly night market

Minutes after the clock strikes 7 p.m. on Thursday, the often sparse checkout line inside Lucky Asian Mart becomes a long, weaving string of families stretching around the entire diameter of the store.

With little wiggle room to navigate, people stand shoulder-to-shoulder and peruse the 1970s gas station-turned-Asian grocery store for their next meal, snack or ingredient. Above the customers are cardboard boxes on top of coolers that have yet to be broken down, evidence of a recent shipment.

The customers arrived at Lucky Asian Mart for the cane sugar drinks, the baked goods from 85 Degrees Celsius, and above all else, the specialty street food. But the assortment of food available for purchase every Thursday doesn’t come easy for owner Stephanie Nguyen .

Every Thursday, she gets up at 2 a.m. and drives five hours to Seattle, where she bustles about the city and nearby Tukwila, picking up bakery goods, sandwiches and anything she thinks people might want. When she is done, she has enough food to fill up the back of her sprinter van. She drives back to Spokane, even during blizzards, so she can be back at the mart, unload the goods and open the night market by 7 p.m. This week, because of New Year’s, she decided to host the night market on Sunday instead of Thursday.

Her commitment to the night market often results in a 20 hour work day for Nguyen. But she does it because she knows people will appreciate the variety she provides.

“I wish I could take home one of everything,” said Lucy Black , a customer who decided to take some rice and shrimp dumplings with egg and shredded carrots home for herself and her daughter. “Initial thought is that we finally have Vietnamese deli food. I’m from Seattle, so I moved out here five years ago, and it was very hard to find a quick grab-and-go type of Asian deli, because they’re all over in Seattle, they’re all over in California, they’re all over New York City. But in Spokane, you would have to go to a restaurant, sit there and then order it.”

Black is Hmong, an ethnic group of people from China and Southeast Asia, and was one of several folks clustered around the foldable tables looking at different Chinese, Japanese, Thai and Vietnamese delicacies.

Nguyen is often exhausted once she gets back from her long journey across the state and back. But once she sees the teeming aisles of her store filled with excited customers, her energy is renewed. Many times customers will approach Nguyen and ask her if she wouldn’t mind bringing back a certain, specific dish or snack from the other side of the state.

“I feel very happy because I see that people enjoy that I bring back what they like,” Nguyen said. “And to me food is a language of love.”

While thinking about the community support she has received for bringing people new and unique food, Nguyen got emotional. She explained how the customers’ joy, in turn, touches her heart through teary eyes.

For Madelynn Woodland , the Vietnamese food at Lucky Asian Mart is stuff she has not tried in over a decade. While with her partner, Tyler Hathaway, the pair scanned every aisle and took a couple of the deli sandwiches, known as Bánh Mì, to go.

Hathaway is a business consultant and noted that Lucky Asian Mart is at an ideal location along Division Street, just south of Rancho Chico. He said there are numerous underserved ethnic groups who have been yearning for the dishes Nguyen sells.

For Nguyen, many of the items she buys fly off the shelves so fast that her weekly trips to Seattle cannot come soon enough. While baked goods from 85 Degrees and ramen go fast, she said the thing that sells the fastest is potato chips.

The potato chips she sells aren’t exactly the Frito Lay kind. They are all different and possess unique flavors.

Lining the aisles of Lucky Asian Mart is all sorts of produce including what’s called an iron yam, a root vegetable that looks like a long, fuzzy, brown carrot. An aisle down is dedicated completely to different types of ramen. The coolers are full of an array of products including energy drinks and ice cream, with seemingly endless options to choose from.

While these foods are highly sought after, it is the fresh deli items from Seattle that’s brought the crowd in every week since they opened on Black Friday.

Most weeks, the night market wraps up around 9 p.m. Thursdays, by which point the parking lot is full of cars. So much so that people often park at Bigfoot Pub and Eatery next door.

Lucky Asian Mart was once a gas station and, later, a mechanic shop. The store has the original garage doors and fuel canopy island. She plans to use the canopy and the garage doors when summer rolls around to provide a place for people to come, buy food, eat at the store – and build community.

When Nguyen bought the property three a half years ago, she initially wanted to convert the building into a nail salon. It did not take long for her to realize the space would serve better as an Asian mart. So she and her family members remodeled much of the inside, including applying fresh paint, cleaning the floor and, purchasing all the freezers and shelves. Today, all of her employees are either family members or close friends.

On top of owning Lucky Asian Mart, Nyugen has owned Foxy Nails next to Target since 1998. While she is no stranger to managing a business, an Asian grocery mart is a new experience with many things to learn and in her case, many miles to drive.

Still, Nyugen said when she returns from her trips to Seattle, she is revitalized because of the people who visit her store. Some people just want to try something new, something they are not used to. But for others, the food she sells tastes just like what their grandmothers used to feed them.

“People make me just want to cry,” Nguyen said. “They go, ‘Oh, it brings back my memory.’ You know, it feels like they’re home again.”