A new weekly Asian Night Market in Wichita will focus on Vietnamese street food
Wichita is familiar by now with the Asian Night Market, an event that has been drawing big crowds since it first debuted in 2022. The most recent one happened in May on the concourse at Equity Bank Park.
And Kevin Nguyen, the owner of Wichita’s two Feng Cha boba tea shops, has participated in those events by renting a booth and selling his drinks.
But Nguyen is now about to launch his own night market, one designed at the request of Wichita’s large Vietnamese population, he said. And it will happen more frequently than once a year.
On Saturday, Nguyen will put on the first installment of what will be a weekly series of Vietnamese Night Markets in Wichita. It’s scheduled for 5 to 11 p.m. Saturday in the parking lot of the vacant NuWay building at 3441 E. Harry, right across the street from All Saints Catholic Church.
If all goes well with the first outing, Nguyen said, he plans to repeat the market every Saturday night through Sept. 6.
“We have a lot of Vietnamese people in town, and they want us to create our own market, like the Vietnamese markets in big cities in Texas and Florida,” he said. “They wanted us to open one up in Wichita.”
The first market will have 21 vendors, and 14 of them will be food vendors. Feng Cha will be serving its boba tea, and local restaurants such as Dolphin Restaurant and Sharky’s Island Bites will have booths. Several other local food vendors will also be there selling Vietnamese street food items like bao buns, banh mi sandwiches, dumplings, egg rolls and fresh sugarcane juice.
Some less-common-to-Wichita Vietnamese dishes also will be featured in various booths, including Vietnamese rice paper salad, hollow fried bread, duck salad, fried quail, fermented fish noodle soup, and braised beef offal stew. A few vendors will be selling other Asian cuisines, including Thai, Lao, Chinese, Korean and Filipino.
The remainder of the booths will be occupied by face painters and vendors offering jewelry, clothing, gifts and kitchenware. The event also will include live music, an open mic and bingo games with prizes.
Nguyen said he tried to get the market open last year but couldn’t find a location. This year, he’s leasing the parking lot at the old NuWay.
He’s hoping that the market will grow over time, and if it does, he plans to move it to a bigger location. Nguyen, who is covering the costs for the event himself, is not charging vendors to participate in the first market but is asking them for voluntary donations. He’s also hoping to find sponsors to help him pay for future markets.
“Our goal is to create a welcoming environment where food vendors can thrive, gain experience and potentially grow toward opening their own restaurants,” Nguyen said. “We see this as an opportunity for them to learn, connect with the community and build confidence in a low-pressure setting.”
Vendors who are interested in setting up at future markets should email chodem316@gmail.com
Nguyen also helps organize the Vietnamese Fall Festival, an annual two-day cultural event at All Saints Church, 3205 E. Grand. The dates for this year’s festival are Oct. 3 and 4.
Nguyen’s Feng Cha boba shops are at 8007 E. Kellogg and 2564 N. Greenwich.
This story was originally published July 8, 2025 at 11:51 AM.
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