Bend’s first Asian market aims to fulfill a long unmet community need
May 10, 2023
Bend’s first Asian market, Tomi Mart (pronounced TOE-me), is slated to open this fall. To secure the necessary funds to launch the brick-and-mortar store, business partners Jessica (Jesi) Scott and Natasha Dempsey are launching Tomi Mart Takeover, a May 19 crowdfunding event.
The event will offer a glimpse of what is to come with the new market. There’ll be a corner store stocked with Asian ingredients, snacks and beverages. And while two previous pop-ups events have been limited to snack-centric products that could fit on an 8-foot table, Tomi Mart will showcase produce for the very first time at the event, hosted by Open Space Event Studios.
Other festivities at Tomi Mart Takeover include a photo booth, silent auction, raffle and a Kendo demonstration by Redmond Kendo Club — a sport Dempsey described as similar to Japanese fencing.
Sixteen volunteers have volunteered to participate in the main event, a ramen-eating contest.
More than a grocery store
The future location of Tomi Mart is uncertain. However, what is clear is that the market will serve as a hub for sought-after Asian ingredients and products, which locals have long had to commute to Portland to purchase.
It will be so much more than a grocery store, Scott said. “It’s a huge representation piece for a lot of folks.”
Scott, born and raised in Bend, married her high school sweetheart Adam Shick, a fellow Bend native who is half-Japanese. Dempsey is a first-generation Korean-American who has lived in Bend since 1999. Growing up in Bend, both Shick and Dempsey missed the presence of an Asian market.
Dempsey compares the sensation of walking into an Asian grocery store to receiving a warm hug.
“I get a feeling that runs through my whole body. It’s like connecting back to your roots. It’s this love. It’s this passion. It’s familiarity. It’s a sense of belonging,” she said.
The two entrepreneurs hope the space invokes “all those warm fuzzy feelings,” while filling a long unmet need in the community.
A sense of belonging
Scott and Dempsey envision Tomi Mart as a space from which their children will glean a deeper understanding of their roots.
Scott and Shick are raising a 1½-year-old daughter named Tomiko “Tomi” Eddy Scott Shick. She’s named after her father’s great-grandmother Tomi Hashizume.