Asia
Market.

Papa Zhao
Built This.

In 1997, Papa Zhao opened Asia Market with a simple belief: San Antonio's Asian community deserved a real grocery store. Not a convenience store. Not a specialty aisle. A real market — with fresh seafood, authentic produce, imported pantry staples, and the kind of prices that let families cook the food they grew up with.

Nearly thirty years later, that belief hasn't changed. Papa Zhao still shows up. The shelves still carry the brands that grandmothers trust and home cooks swear by. And the same market that fed this community feeds his family's restaurants.

His daughter Kristina — James Beard Fellow, Food Network chef, and the woman San Antonio calls its sweetheart — came home in 2015 and opened Sichuan House. In 2026, the family expanded further with Secret Little Garden and Love You Long Time. The empire grew. But Asia Market is where it all started. This is the root.

"I am rooted in the honest business of my father's Asia Market and the simple, wholesome grit of Sichuan House."

— Kristina Zhao, James Beard Fellow · Founder, Ciao & Zen Holdings