Line mania hits Phoenix: Huge crowds heap demand on new Valley eateries

Hundreds of people stand in the shaded alley across the street from downtown Gilbert’s iconic water tower. Typically quiet in the morning, with a few families playing at the plaza park or truck drivers making deliveries, the area is buzzing. Daily crowds now stretch down Page Avenue and horseshoe onto the town’s main drag, Gilbert Road. The most dedicated arrive before dawn, the savviest bring chairs, drinks or their laptops.

They’re not waiting to meet Devin Booker or buy tickets to the latest arena tour. Instead, these people are eagerly waiting for the chance to buy one of Will Porter’s viral French-inspired pastries. 

Sablé Boulangerie opened last week across the street from the Heritage District’s iconic water tower. Porter and his small team make about 300 croissants, pain suisse, chocolate cookies and other baked goods five days a week, in addition to coffee drinks and hot chocolate. Those pastries get snapped up in a matter of hours.

“I’ve never ever seen anything like this in Gilbert, so I don’t know what to make of it,” says the chef, a native of the area who trained and worked in France and Dubai. “This is much more extreme than what I saw in Paris.”

It’s not just Sablé Boulangerie that’s seen hyped diners show up in droves. They’re flocking to new and buzzy spots around the Valley, defying the typical end of season dropoff that comes when tourists and snowbirds depart and the temperatures climb. Despite the heat, line mania has struck Phoenix.

‘We’ve learned a lot’

In uptown Phoenix, Korean-inspired sandwich shop Let’s Toast opened its doors on Saturday. The line of people waiting stretched down the center of Uptown Plaza. While the brick-and-mortar eatery just opened, the concept built a strong fan base serving at Valley farmers markets and food festivals. 

“We are very lucky to have our supporters, our regulars who have supported us over the last three years,” co-owner Sean Atkinson told Phoenix New Times.

He and his wife, Sumin Kim, sold out of food the first few days of business. On Saturday, the restaurant offered a 50% discount. Diners waited one to two hours for a Bulgogi Cheesesteak or Cinnamon Butter Toast made with thick, pillowy slabs of housemade Japanese milk bread. A person dressed as Mister Toastie – Let’s Toast’s bready mascot with cartoonish eyes, a raised brow and sly grin – worked the crowd. 

“It’s been really hard, but we’ve learned a lot,” Atkinson said of the transition from mobile pop-up to a brick-and-mortar location.

Sablé chef, Porter, echoed that sentiment. He quickly hired more staff, adding another person to help with pastries and a dishwasher. 

To serve more customers, Porter instituted a limit of two pastries per order. He also paused the launch of online pre-orders while folks are still lining up in person.

Last week, Porter hollered updates from the bakery window, shouting from the small building to customers waiting in the long line. Continuously giving updates while also serving people became almost impossible, he says. The chef also uses social media to announce dwindling products and sell-outs, in hopes of avoiding people making a drive or waiting, only to be disappointed.

When he has announced sell-outs to those still in line, there have been “several poorly behaved customers,” he says.

“We’ve had a lot of people demanding that they are issued a discount coupon and able to cut to the front of the line the following day,” he says.

That’s something the chef has declined to do, but things have become “chaotic” as the final pastries are sold. Porter has hired a security guard to help manage the crowd. The bakery’s long lines and quick sellouts have led to some backlash through online reviews and social media comments. 

That disappointment pains the chef. He’s also flabbergasted by customers who say they’ve waited in line three times before finally getting served.

Every day, he asks the last person he serves what time they arrived. On Sunday, the last customers to get bakes arrived at 7:30 a.m., 30 minutes before the bakery opened.

For a brand-new business settling into a new space, the demand is difficult to manage. But the eagerness and excitement of fans make the long hours worth it, Porter says.

“It makes the work we’re doing a lot easier,” he says, “and the work has really been a lot.”