Market mixes Depression era with contemporary

A downtown Gilbert business holding its grand opening Tuesday has walls that were built with second-hand bricks during the Great Depression and a concrete floor with an inscription dated March 4, 1958 .

Liberty Market owner Joe Johnston said he wanted to give the old grocery store more of a metropolitan feel, adding food service, an espresso bar and lots of places to sit.

Trendy clear exposed bulbs hang from ceiling beams built in the 1930s.

The tables are modernist, with smooth black surfaces and straight lines, but they sit on a floor poured in 1958.

Even the kitchen, which diners can see through two large windows, features a brand-new stainless steel Vulcan cooking center that bakes Sicilian pizzas whose dough was kneaded on a 1934 Hobart mixer .

"If a person has a keen eye, they can see the history of the place," Johnston said.

The market, Johnston's third Gilbert restaurant, originally served as a grocery store in a much smaller Gilbert, whose people were suffering in the Great Depression.

Dale Hallock, a Gilbert historian and former mayor , said the market provided food to a community that couldn't afford it. The owners gave credit to everyone in town, knowing that sometimes they wouldn't be repaid, Hallock said.

The market was built like a barn, with a door that lifted open. It was the second building in Gilbert to burn down in a fire , which was fought by the town's first fire engine in October 1938 .

When its owners rebuilt it, they used second-hand bricks and adobe from the town. During the Great Depression, that's all they could afford.

But during World War II, as the town grew more prosperous, Ben Ong, a butcher in the store for four years, decided to lease and eventually buy the store.

For wife Mae Ong, the next 38 years would be spent making the store into a town staple.

"When we first got there, it was a hard grind, having to pay rent every month," she said.

Ong had moved to Gilbert from San Francisco and the adjustment to small-town desert life was difficult.

After 20 years, the Ongs paid off their mortgage on the store and took out a $65,000 loan to renovate the place.

"I just couldn't hack it anymore," she said. "I was embarrassed. I didn't want to be looking at four walls in an old barn. I said to myself, I've got a little education and I want to better myself, and so I designed the store myself."

The Ongs expanded the store out into the parking lot, bringing the front to its current location on the sidewalk at the corner of Gilbert and Page.

Mae chose new retail cases and decorated the store with fake palm trees.

"I called it my little Safeway ," she said.

In keeping with contemporary fashion, she bought a new façade for the store and designed a neon sign, with green paint and pink letters. It was the only store in Gilbert that could hold a façade, she said, because the other buildings were made of adobe.

"It was so cute," she said. "I'd been doodling every night. I'm always dreaming."

Johnston, the modern-day dreamer, insisted the sign stay exactly as he found it.

"I told the builders we wanted the flaky paint and everything," he said.

The store has had four owners since it was first built, all of them families.

Johnston's reincarnation is no different. He and his wife are owners, and each designed one of the five unique bathroom stalls in the back.

David Traina, the chef partner and his wife also designed stalls and work for the company, as do Traina's parents.

And the Hobart mixer in the kitchen? It was designed by Johnston's great-grandfather.

"It's always been a family thing," Johnston said. "We wanted to preserve the old, but not be too nostalgic about it."

The market now resembles those found in Los Angeles and New York, with retail cases ready to display ready-made foods, a service line and stand-up coffee bars facing the street.

"It's kind of different for Gilbert, but I think the time has come," Johnston said.