September 2024
Elevate PHX – Sarah Imberman
Based in Chicago, Sarah Imberman has some deep roots in the Phoenix Sky Harbor restaurant scene.
As a certified Airport Concession Disadvantaged Business Enterprise, her business, Sarah’s Foods, oversees restaurants in both terminals, including the two Terminal 4 Tarbell concepts (The Goods and The Express) and Los Taquitos. She also recently opened Humble Tortas & Tacos in Terminal 3.
Her restaurant career precedes her time at PHX. When she was 18, she began working in the bakery world out of her mother’s home, then moved to the French baking and hotspot, Spago.
“Tons of wedding cakes, tons of gift baskets,” she said in describing those early years before meeting with airport contractor SSP America about a restaurant property at LAX.
Her airport restaurant holdings have since grown to include restaurants at New York’s JFK, San Diego, Sacramento, Chicago Midway, San Francisco, San Jose, and obviously Phoenix Sky Harbor.
Meeting customers from around the world and making them feel comfortable is one of the benefits of running a restaurant in an airport, she said.
“We like to be able to offer them that hospitality and take care of them, let them feel a little pampered and expose them to great Phoenix restaurants,” Imberman said. “Some of them you can only get at Phoenix and not have to leave the airport.”
Like many contracted vendors, Sarah’s Foods is always checking out the listings for new RFPs calling for shops and restaurants.
“We would love to expand our footprint,” she said. That would work in tandem with her goal of being consistent in her product delivery and customer service, a challenging effort under ideal circumstances. But she believes being friendly to travelers who might not be in the best of moods improves the product.
“Good customer service makes food taste better.”
Entrepreneurs interested learning more about contracting with one of the Phoenix airport system properties can start by checking out Doing Business with PHX, DVT, and GYR.