A-mazing: New Asian grocery store A-Mart to open in downtown Helena

After one too many road trips to Salt Lake City for their Asian staples haul, a Helena couple decided to open new market, A-Mart, in downtown Helena.

From palm sugar to gochujang, bao buns and bulk noodles, the 111 E. 6th Ave. grocery store will carry both snacks and kitchen essentials that are hard to find in everyday Walmarts, said 28-year-old Emma Fine and 29-year-old Carlton Colby, the store's two owners.

As much as they know they’ll see customers interested in novel snacks, they hope to introduce Helenans to new everyday foods and bring accessibility to those who have long been in-the-know on East and Southeast Asian cuisine.

Growing up, Fine bounced across multiple countries for her mother’s work, but she found a special kinship with Bangkok, Thailand.

It’s where she laid most of her culinary foundations, and authentic Thai food (and daily life) remained one of her biggest cravings when she returned to the United States, she said.

After Colby landed a job as associate principal cellist with the Helena Symphony, the couple moved out to Helena four years ago and fell in love with the mountain West.

But the supply for homemade Asian food? Thin, in their opinions. The idea for a store sparked when they met people like them who make grocery hauls out to Seattle, California and Salt Lake City, where Colby grew up, just to get their fix.

“It’s everyday food for a lot of people,” Colby said. “It’s not really about trendiness, or about us. It’s just a grocery store that gives you more options.”

The store will be open from 10 a.m. to midnight on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays, with an official opening date of May 15.

Products will hover around "convenience store” prices, going for a ballpark $2 to $20 per item, they said.

Though this will be the co-owners’ first solo store, they’ve manned a stall at Marge’s Vintage across the street and had an in with the landlord from Colby’s time working at Dear Potato.

They called themselves “Facebook Marketplace masters” after pillaging secondhand items online to reduce opening costs. Their favorite find was a 12-foot-tall inflatable Panda Express balloon they aim to repaint as a white tiger with a flower across the belly. Marta is the front-runner for a mascot name.

In the future, they want to have a hot water station where customers can cook their ramen and noodle packets. QR codes will be posted with various ingredients to offer ideas of what an item could be used for, and starter-pack boxes will offer pantry basics for various cuisines. They've played with the idea of mahjong Mondays.

Hankering for something not on their shelves? A list is hung by the door where customers can make requests. By the way, said door chimes with the Japanese convenience store FamilyMart jingle when it opens.

"We're hoping it gets people curious," Fine said.