Stoop Kid
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Phoenix’s Warehouse District will soon be home to a carb-centric corner. Happy Good, a sourdough bagel and sandwich shop from the Stoop Kid team, will open next door to a forthcoming two-story pizzeria and bar this summer.
Steven McMillen opened Stoop Kid, the popular bagel breakfast sandwich and smash burger spot inside The Churchill, in late 2020. His new project is also an all-day affair centered around handhelds.
“I guess at the heart, we’re still doing a sandwich concept,” McMillen says. “We can’t get away from sandwiches.”
The eatery and market will open next door to Otra Pizzeria and Better Days, a dual concept restaurant and bar opening inside the historic Gerardo’s Building on Buchanan and Third streets. The Churchill owner, Kell Duncan, and operations director, Stephen Allen, are leading that project. It’s a “serendipitous” opportunity to work alongside each other again, McMillen says.
Happy Good shares a courtyard with the forthcoming pizzeria and bar. McMillen is hopeful that this growing concentration of dining options will entice visitors.
“Why not tie the businesses together?” he says. “We can kind of feed off of each other.”
Natasha Yee
Happy Good: Sourdough bagels and grab-and-go lunch
McMillen and his team originally planned to open Happy Good several years ago in a different corner of Phoenix, but the project got derailed by high construction costs. The owner has kept the idea in his back pocket. Then he saw the historic brick building that had formerly been home to Arvizu’s El Fresnal Grocery Store on Buchanan Street.
“I think it’s a super-underserved, up-and-coming area,” McMillen says. “(I) immediately felt drawn to that street.”
Happy Good will have the same tongue-in-cheek, “little snotty graffiti brother energy” of Stoop Kid, the owner says, “but it’s a little bit more refined.”
Though plans are still in development, McMillen envisions all-day dining at Happy Good, starting with pastries and open-faced sourdough bagel sandwiches in the morning. McMillen calls sourdough bagels “superior.”
“I love the crispy outside, I love the sourness, I love the texture,” he says.
In addition to bagels, Stoop Kid’s bakery team will make fresh focaccia and breads for Happy Good. The small space includes a coffee bar where beans will be roasted on-site by First Place Coffee’s Terrence Murtagh.
The Happy Good space is small, about 1,500 square feet, including the kitchen. Diners will largely find seats in the shared outdoor courtyard, McMillen says, or can take their items to go.
Lunch options will include sandwiches on those housemade breads, wraps, salads and soups. McMillen anticipates opening with breakfast and lunch service, then expanding hours in the future.
In the evening, he plans to serve small bites and low-ABV cocktails and curate a laid-back listening-lounge feel. Ideally, the market will also have bottles for customers to take home, another convenience McMillen hopes will cement Happy Good in the neighborhood.
“I want to be a great service to the people that live immediately around us,” he says.
Happy Good
Opens this summer
310 E. Buchanan St.
