CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa — Customers stopping by the Hornbill Asian Market during its soft opening said they were excited to finally see the store open, just one block from a long-vacant Hy-Vee on First Avenue.
“We’re excited, too,” owner Mang Pau said, as the store at 1445 First Ave. SE welcomed its first customers on Friday, Dec. 19, 2025.
The store, featuring a variety of Asian foods in addition to other staples, will have its official grand opening from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 20, and Sunday, Dec. 21.
Mang said customers will receive 15 percent off of their orders during the grand opening, and 10 percent off through the end of December.
Hornbill joins two other stores within blocks in southeast Cedar Rapids that feature Asian foods: the S. International Market, 803 Third Ave. SE, which opened in June 2025, and Saigon Market, 803 Second Ave. SE, which has been in business since 1993, following another store at the same site.
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Hornbill Asian Market features “typical” chicken eggs, along with more exotic options, such as fresh quail eggs. (photo/Cindy Hadish)
The Hy-Vee site remains vacant.
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Hy-Vee closed its store at 1556 First Ave. NE in June 2024, but Mang said that wasn’t what drew him to his location.
Instead, he pointed to ample parking behind the store and the high volume of traffic on First Avenue among the reasons he chose the site, in a new 11,000-square-foot building.
A variety of teas, frozen dumplings, fresh and frozen vegetables, ice cream, canned goods, snacks and more are among the options available.
Mang and his two brothers arrived in the United States as refugees from Myanmar, formerly Burma. He was just 17 when he left his home, first moving to Malaysia before they finally made their way to Iowa, where Mang and his older brother worked at a meatpacking plant in Marshalltown while their younger brother attended school.
Owner Mang Pau chats with a customer during the soft opening of Hornbill Asian Market on Friday, Dec. 19, 2025. (photo/Cindy Hadish)
Now 34, Mang and his two brothers are all involved in the grocery industry. Their first Hornbill Asian Market opened in Waterloo in 2014, followed by stores in Dubuque; Enid, Oklahoma and St. Joseph, Missouri, along with Grand Rapids, Michigan, a store they have since sold.
“We are working hard,” Mang said, with the Cedar Rapids store providing its own set of challenges, particularly in finding the right components for the refrigeration equipment, which led to long delays.
They first began working on the store in September 2024.
“It’s a long process,” he said.
Still, Mang is happy to do business in Iowa.
“There are a lot of nice people here,” he said. “I like it.”
Read more: Asian market survives competition in Cedar Rapids and see more photos from the opening day of Hornbill Asian Market, below:
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