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.

Pull Quote

“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.”

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.

Scott selected the name Tomi Mart for the market in honor of her daughter and her daughter’s great-great-grandmother.

“It’s a big deal for our children to be growing up in our store and for them to be learning about our culture through food,” Dempsey said.

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It is Scott’s goal to bridge the gap between Bend’s Asian Pacific Islander community and the community at large. To gauge customer preferences and inform future purchasing decisions, the team posted a survey with a list of potential products for the store.

Over 600 people responded to the survey and Scott said she received a number of positive messages in response, some of which read, “the products you included on that list made me feel so seen.”

Dream team

The partnership between Scott and Dempsey formed a few months after Scott launched the brand on Instagram on Oct. 3. Dempsey saw the logo and noticed she had a lot of the same mutual friends as the business, but had no idea who was behind it. Dempsey had the same vision of bringing a culturally diverse market to Bend, so she reached out to inquire more.

It turned out the two already knew each other from growing up in Bend with mutual friends and being only one grade apart in school.

Scott and Dempsey jumped into a several-month-long exploration to determine if the partnership would be viable.

Dempsey said, “It was like OK, we have the same idea, are we going to work well forever for the rest of our lives?”

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An adviser at Central Oregon Community College’s Small Business Development Center guided them through the tough conversations and what it would take to navigate a successful business partnership.

“It’s all very much in alignment. And it’s a lot of work and there’s just a million things to do, but it just feels like what we’re supposed to be doing,” Scott said.

What: Tomi Mart Takeover

When: 4-9 p.m. May 19

Where: Open Space Studios

Cost: Free to attend, cash or Venmo for purchases

Contact: tomimartbend.com

“It’s all very much in alignment. And it’s a lot of work and there’s just a million things to do, but it just feels like what we’re supposed to be doing.”