3 food, drink stands you can find at the Uptown Phoenix farmers market

PHOENIX (AZFamily) — With the Valley’s high temperatures expected to dip below triple digits this week, you might be looking for some fall activities. Here are three places for eats and drinks that you will only find at the Uptown Phoenix farmers market.

Let’s Toast

Let’s Toast serves a dish you can’t find anywhere else: a Bulgogi Cheesesteak breakfast sandwich.

Sumin Kim, co-owner of Let’s Toast, says she moved to Arizona from South Korea and wanted to bring a good, affordable Korean meal to the state. Many Korean restaurants in the Valley are Korean barbecues, which can get expensive, so Kim wanted to provide another delicious option.

The sandwiches are hefty. They’re made with marinated rib eye steak, a fried egg and cheese. They are topped with Korean barbecue sauce and Let’s Toast’s special sauce. The sandwiches are served on Japanese milk bread made from scratch.

Kim and her husband, Sean Atkinson, met in South Korea. They say there are similar toasted sandwiches over there, but this is completely different.

“This is kind of like a fusion of American and Korean style and something unique that we hadn’t seen in Arizona, so we wanted to try this out and bring it here,” Atkinson says.

Kim and Atkinson just recently began running the business full-time. They hope to open a storefront in the future.

For now, you can find Let’s Toast at the Uptown Farmers Market every Saturday.

Poffcakes

Those with a sweet tooth will want to try Poffcakes. The stand serves a popular Dutch street food: poffertjes.

“They resemble a small mini pancake, very fluffy on the inside and a nice texture on the outside. Traditionally (they are) served with powdered sugar and butter,” Colton Higgins, former owner of Poffcakes, shared with Arizona’s Family.

Higgins says his wife wanted to start the business after seeing its success in her family. Her uncle sold poffertjes at the farmers’ markets back home in Australia, and her father sold the griddles needed to make them to ice cream shops.

When Higgins and his wife moved from Saint Louis to Arizona, they knew it would be a hit at local farmers markets here.

“It’s a dish that originates from the Netherlands, so we knew that it’s something new people have not had out here. We knew it would be something special,” Higgins said.

In addition to the traditional powdered sugar and butter toppings, Poffcakes also offers Nutella and strawberries, homemade blueberry compote and whipped cream, or a salted caramel option.

You can find Poffcakes at the Uptown Phoenix and Gilbert farmers markets every Saturday.

The Local Lemon

If you need a way to cool off while walking around the markets, consider a freshly made lemonade.

The Local Lemon offers eight flavors of lemonade and limeade made from scratch.

Owner Sam Schumaker started the business back in 2015 to put his kids through college. He says it’s worked out so well they’ve continued the business even after they moved from Texas to Arizona in 2020.

Now, they employ college kids to make the drinks at the Uptown Phoenix and Gilbert Farmers markets every weekend.

This isn’t your average lemonade stand. Schumaker says they use real fruit with no additives and some high-tech equipment.

“We take your order, and then we slice it. The fruit stays in the cup, we add sugar to it, we smash it with 80 PSI on a pneumatic press, and all that juice comes out of it,” he said.

Then, they use an electric bubble tea shaker to make sure all the ingredients are mixed well.

Schumaker says their top-selling drink is strawberry lemonade, but they also offer cherry limeade, orange limeade, blueberry lemonade and Arnold Palmers. Each drink is customizable.

You can find The Local Lemon at the Uptown Phoenix and Gilbert farmers markets every Saturday.

Uptown Farmers’ Market

Location: 5757 N Central Ave, Phoenix, AZ 85012

• Summer Hours: Every Saturday, 7 to 11 a.m.
• Fall Hours: Check here for updates

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