Photo Archive – Monsoon is For Lovers Grand Opening

We officially celebrated our grand opening on February 26th, 2022 (a full three months after we opened our doors for the first time). We were letting the market grow organically and we didn’t want to rush this phase. Okay, we were also waiting on our liquor license to clear so that we could introduce natty wine into the shop LOL.

When it came to throwing our christening party we rounded up some of the homies who’ve been there since day one, plus a few new friends of ours. It was time to have some fun! We felt like we really wanted to give everyone a bitchin’ party. The Phoenix community had already shown us so much love in our first few months! With the timing around Valentine’s Day, we decided to coin the party Monsoon is for Lovers.

We wanted a dope flier made for the party so we hit up Pisswar, Phoenix graphic designer and Hollywood Slasher drummer. Koral told him she wanted the flier to look like “Monsoon Market goes heavy metal”, and to definitely include an angel on it. Romantic, but metal… ya know? Well he did know. He nailed the design on the first round, thx Jordan!

The OG homie, The Hungry Homie was our first phone call for party snacks. Our friendship spans way back, to over a decade ago when we were slinging retail jobs at the mall. Now, he’s slinging pies at his very own restaurant Snapback Pizzeria and we have Monsoon Market. It’s so rad to be able to support each other now by collaborating. For our party he threw down a special menu featuring items from the market. A Far Out Fried Rice pizza with Bachan’s Japanese BBQ Sauce, PEPMANIA with Bobbie’s Boat Sauce, When Life Gives You Lemons (say fuck the lemons and bail) with Brightland Garlic Olive Oil and the Sonoran Sweet with Desert Provisions Sonoran Sea Salt. At some point we took a seat on the concrete outside (next to Gab Art Design), smoked a joint and smashed a fried rice pizza. It was pure joy for us in that moment.

For an all day party, coffee was a requirement. We called in our friends Novela Coffee Roasters to come hang out for the party. We always love working with them, the nicest team with really delicious coffee! For post-caffeination libations we sampled some natural wine with Tucker, our rep from Selection Sauvage. And Juneshine also popped up with samples of their hard kombucha!

Inside the market the vibes were loud and groovy thanks to our resident Sip & Spin DJ’s Grassy Nöel and Introverted. These two have brought a dope collection of records, mostly funk, soul, reggae and ska (45s for Nöel). Shoutout to Nöel and Richie, great Dj’s and even better friends!

For added fun, we asked Creative Kind to join us for the party! They had recently opened up their Phoenix location and we wanted to put people on to another local women-owned business. They set up a bracelet making station inside, free to customers. It was so cute!

On the market couch we had Pokpok Tattoo, working from a small flash of good luck totems she doodled up. That day we each got a stick and poke with Sara. Both on the right wrist, can you guess who got the smiley face tattoo?

One of our first customers at the market was Mandy, a local (at the time) musician by the name of Lane Lines. She’s a beautiful signer and person, and we thought it would be really cool to have her perform at the party. She showed up with her mic and an amp and sang us some original tunes outside. It was perfect!

Photography by Kyle Niemier

At 4:20-ish, we rounded everyone up inside the market and gave a toast. This was the moment we had been waiting for. We looked around the room and saw countless friends, old and new, other business owners…our families and neighbors. Humbled by the crowd, we thanked everyone for coming out to support us!

We had to have a cake, it was a birthday party after all! Our girl Alex from Voyager Bakeshop made us the most adorable Monsoon Market cake for the occasion. She also had a table inside the market with her best selling treats, like homemade pop-tarts and macarons. Seriously, she sells out every time we host her at the market!

The day was almost over and we realized we hadn’t yet smashed our custom-made Monsoon Market piñata from Mañana Republic! With only close homies left in the shop, we went outside and lit a joint while Koral’s husband Josh roped the piñata around the big tree outside the shop. Riding high on a lil’ weed and hella serotonin from the day, we bashed that mother-f*cker!