The west side is a chain restaurant paradise. But this city might, well, surprise you

Endia Fontanez

 

Driving down any one of Surprise's main roads, whether Bell or Litchfield or Grand Avenue, the view is much the same: a Target here, a Starbucks there, a car wash or two. With chain restaurant after chain restaurant stationed in the corners of giant asphalt parking lots, there's not much visual variation for those sitting in stop-and-go traffic.

According to urban legend, the city got its name because founder Flora Mae Statler said she would be surprised if the town ever amounted to much. That was in 1938. More than 85 years later, she would indeed be surprised to see just how much the formerly tiny farm town has grown.

The population of Surprise has long fluctuated from season to season, especially during the cooler months as out-of-state visitors, dubbed "snowbirds", flock to their winter homes in nearby Sun City West. Around March, after MLB spring training ends and the weather starts heating up, most of the snowbirds and out-of-town visitors return to their home states where they remain until around Thanksgiving.

But that seasonality is changing. Surprise's population increased by an estimated 10.6% in just three years between 2020 and 2023, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. An influx of new homes and businesses being built in the area are attracting a different demographic to Surprise, including young families with children and people seeking jobs at places like the nearby TSMC plant in north Phoenix. And with new residents come new needs and appetites.

Restaurant owners are among the new residents of Surprise

Emily Bromm moved to Surprise seven years ago, at a time when the city was largely pigeonholed as an oasis of chain restaurants. Previously the owner of a coffee shop in Wickenburg, Bromm found her new city lacking the kind of sit-down, local restaurants and cafes she craved. So she opened her own.

The Toast opened in 2021, offering a menu that Bromm describes as "modern American with a Mediterranean twist." She said she essentially set out to open the kind of restaurant that she personally wished for — independently owned, with upscale eats served out of a craft kitchen with a restaurant bar and patio seating.

She runs the restaurant herself, and it isn't always easy. But she says that providing good food and service for her community is "very rewarding," especially since she knows how much the residents of Surprise want high-quality dining options.

"It's about getting past that concept that there's nothing in the West Valley or that it's all chains," Bromm said.

In Surprise, chain restaurants have a distinct advantage

Bromm does not believe that all her challenges are unique to Surprise but rather are part of a larger trend of issues facing all independent restaurant startups.

"I think in general, independent restaurants are few and far between, which is sad to me," Bromm said. "But it's just a tremendous amount of work, and overheads are really high and so, sadly, chain places with deep pockets are always going to be more of a thing."

Of 247 restaurants with locations in Surprise, 64 of them are totally unique to the city, about a quarter of the total number.

When Village at Prasada opened in late 2022, it brought some well-known Arizona-based restaurant chains to Surprise, including OHSO Brewery, Barrio Queen and Cold Beers and Cheeseburgers. While it is certainly nice for residents to have more sit-down options to go out to eat, the already established "big names" present a challenge for smaller independent restaurant owners trying to keep up.

"We ran into some challenges, being a new startup. Developers just don't want to rent to startups. They want established places. That's why all these corporate places keep growing exponentially," said Angie Cline, the owner of Quench Taps & Tapas, an upscale wine bar and gluten-free restaurant that opened in 2022 at the corner of Litchfield and Waddell roads.

But Cline says she is up for the challenge. The space that is now Quench Taps & Tapas was previously a pizzeria that she said struggled to stay afloat during the pandemic. She and her husband, Jeff, were able to purchase it after the former owner ran into some health issues.

Originally, she wanted to open a simple wine bar with a small menu of tapas. But as the bar's popularity grew, so did the menu. She said she felt it was necessary to "make some decisions as to how to compete" with the restaurants around her that benefit from name recognition, especially with competitors like those at Village at Prasada.

It seems she made the right decision: Quench Taps & Tapas is an absolute hit. The little wine bar that she originally anticipated would be a fun retirement project for her and her husband now employs a full staff to accommodate customers' needs.

Some of her most popular menu items include poutine, Asian chicken salad and a fan-favorite ricotta lemon stack.

"It was the people that are here in Surprise that kind of turned us into what we are today," Cline said.

With no foot traffic, marketing strategies are different in the suburbs

The layout of Surprise differs from places like downtown Phoenix, where the charm and character of the buildings that house some of the most popular restaurants are almost as much a draw as the food, from the unconventionally angular Bacanora to the historic bungalows on Roosevelt Row to The Churchill, where carefully placed shipping containers create a mini wonderland of food, drinks and community gathering space. And within the vibrant and mostly walkable culture of the city, it is not out of the norm for someone to stumble upon these restaurants while passing by on a walk or in the car, drawn to lively-looking patios, eye-catching signs or mouthwatering smells.

Surprise, on the other hand, is a car-dependent suburbia where master-planned communities and shopping centers are the norm as far as the eye can see. This results in most independent restaurants occupying small suites inside larger shopping centers anchored by grocery stores or pharmacies. Someone driving down a major road like Bell or Litchfield might not immediately see these restaurants when they're buried deep inside shopping centers, which makes marketing via social media or word of mouth even more crucial for restaurant owners.

Bromm said she uses social media as a way to try and reach new customers. The Toast's Instagram page has over 2,000 followers and typically posts multiple mouthwatering, eye-catching reels a week. But much of her typical clientele does not have a social media presence, Bromm said.

The city recognizes this issue and is engaged in efforts to help restaurants succeed, according to economic development director Jeanine Jerkovic.

When a new independent restauranteur approaches the economic development team, Jerkovic said, they work together to find a place where they can thrive according to their unique circumstances, whether that means putting down roots in a brick-and-mortar location or gaining experience in a food truck first.

"We found that in a lot of West Valley cities, but Surprise in particular, was a little bit underserved and a little behind the curve when it came to our level of services," Jerkovic said. "If we are growing to a population of a quarter of a million people in the next decade, and we're underserved today, that really tells you in so many years, we're going to need so many million square feet of retail and restaurants. So, let's get more intentional about it."

While the young city of Surprise is in its "sophomore year," keeping a balance between established names and new places helps those unknown businesses get started, Jerkovic said.

Surprise is also working to create a walkable, pedestrian-friendly downtown similar to Phoenix and other cities. The project, called Elm Street, will include space for both national and local restaurants.

Independent restaurants in Surprise are 'neighbors serving neighbors'

AZ Nick's Diner, located on the corner of 137th Avenue and Waddell Road, is a longstanding Surprise staple. But like the city itself, the diner has gone through a number of changes in its tenure. Originally a copy of the once uber-popular Nick's Diner on Reems Road, the sign on the building still says Nick's Diner II.

Current owners Joe and Samantha Nguyen are in the process of rebranding. The couple bought the diner in 2021 after the original owner retired. As is the norm for Surprise restaurants, AZ Nick's Diner is barely visible from the main road, tucked into the far northeast corner of a larger shopping center anchored by AMC Theatres and Uptown Alley.

Samantha said a large portion of their customer base is made up of regulars who live in Sun City West, many of whom even come in multiple times a week and greet her and Joe as friends. But they've gotten a lot of guests who are brand new to the area as well, and Samantha said the diner often acts as a welcome center for newer Surprise residents.

A table by the front door is covered in flyers and business cards for local Surprise happenings, from local businesses to farmers markets and other community events. Joe said the table once had plants and decorations on it, but over time it grew to become a community advertising space much like the bulletin boards sometimes seen in coffee shops. To the Nguyens, it's their way of helping new residents settle into the community.

"Just seeing the growth of the West Valley itself, with so many people coming into the area, they're looking for sort of a new hangout, if you will. And so they find us online, try us out, and they're pleasantly surprised that there's this little sort of oasis out here that's not a chain, that they can come to and spend time, just relax in a comfortable environment," Joe said.

Just a few suites down from the diner is another mom-and-pop restaurant turned Surprise icon: The Boyer Bakery. Opened by the Boyer family in 2020, the bakery offers pastries, coffee and, most enticing of all, warm hospitality.

It doesn't matter what day or time, the tiny bakery is constantly packed with customers. Abby Boyer, the eldest daughter of the Boyer family and an employee at the bakery, attributes their success to the simple fact that it offers Surprise residents exactly what they wanted: a family-owned and operated business with good food and even better community.

"It's that neighbors serving neighbors feel, and that homey feel for those that walk in, for it to just feel like a home away from home," Boyer said.

Surprise has a lot to offer, if you look for it. And it's still growing

One of the newest restaurants to open its doors in Surprise is A Gourmet, an Italian sandwich shop run by husband-and-wife Adrian and Carmen Moisoiu inside a tiny suite next to Aqua-Tots Swim School at the southeast corner of Bell and Litchfield Roads. Just a few weeks after opening, the place is already a hit.

At noon on a hot Friday in June, every seat in the small sandwich spot was full, with even more people standing in line waiting.

The Moisoius have lived in Surprise since 2006 and have long craved the kind of gourmet food they are now serving at A Gourmet.

"That was the thing the city needed, a place with good gourmet sandwiches. People (should not) have to drive to Scottsdale to get good food," Adrian said.

And if the line of hungry customers extending out the door or the tables of cheerful customers enjoying the sandwiches are anything to go by, it seems like Adrian was right.

"Every day is like this. You know, we didn't expect to be this busy. We just opened five weeks ago. But people, I think they like it," he said.

As Surprise continues to grow, so will the dining scene

"Surprise locals are definitely foodies. We're all looking for the neighborhood hot spots and more fine dining and unique food concepts," Boyer said.

And there is data to prove it. For the last two consecutive years, results of the annual Surprise retail survey showed that the number one thing residents desired were "unique foodie eats" followed by "fine dining" and "eat-ertainment."

Written into the goals and policies of the city's General Plan 2040 draft is to "support small business enterprise with access to professional resources that will assist in all stages of a business life cycle."

"We really want to make sure that those businesses are surviving, that they're supported," Jerkovic said.

To serve the local demand, the Boyer family opened The Boyer Cafe in nearby Sun City last year and they're currently in the soft opening phase of their newest venture, The Boyer Drive-Thru at 15420 N. Cotton Lane in Surprise.

"We honestly did not picture ourselves taking off or the growth that we have had. For us, we've always just taken the next step that we felt was the right step for our business," Abby Boyer said.

Boyer said her family has worked closely with the city's economic development team during their tenure in Surprise, and recommended that aspiring restaurateurs not be afraid to ask for help starting out. She also pointed out that while starting a business in Surprise presented some unique challenges, running a restaurant is hard, no matter where it is located.

"It's not just about the product being served, but it's the relationships being cultivated along the way," Boyer said. "And the service that we offer is just as important as the product that we make and how we serve it to our neighbors."

Reach the reporter at endia.fontanez@gannett.com. Follow @EndiaFontanez on X, formerly Twitter.