What started five years ago as an idea in Cristian Berumen's head has turned into a night market that regularly sells out vendor booths across Arlington. The Small Business Mercado, founded by Berumen, began with fewer than 20 vendors and has since grown into a monthly event that has drawn as many as 4,000 attendees at its peak, according to Berumen.
Berumen got the idea for the market about five years ago, per his own account relayed in reporting by the Fort Worth Report, and he began holding it in the parking lot of his own storefront. Berumen owns Cristian's Customs, a custom embroidery and sticker shop that also supplied 10-by-10 canopy equipment for early vendors, according to Mister Picoso. Those early markets were also held at 2004 East Abram Street, the site of that storefront, before the event outgrew the space.
The market's early home also included the parking lot of Marquez Bakery, a business the Fort Worth Report's reporting ties directly to the Small Business Mercado's origin story. Marquez Bakery & Tortilla Factory was established in Arlington in 1990 and has operated for 36 years, expanding from a small panaderia into a full-service Mexican restaurant and tortilla factory that supplies pastries and tortillas across Tarrant County, according to the City of Arlington. Marquez Bakery, co-owned by market co-host Karina Nuñez's family, was named the Arlington Police Department's Community Outreach Partner of the Year in early 2026 for its community service and event collaborations, per the Lone Star Sentinel.
From Parking Lots to City Hall Plaza
Vendor permit changes caused the market to move among different business parking lots over time, the Fort Worth Report's coverage notes, before it eventually landed a more permanent civic home. The market also operated at Vandergriff Park at one point, and Berumen personally approached a downtown Arlington organization about hosting the event in the city's core. That organization ultimately hosted the Small Business Mercado in downtown Arlington, and by mid-2026 the monthly night market had settled into City Hall Plaza at 101 W. Abram Street, hosting more than 50 local vendors from 6:30 p.m. to 10:30 p.m., according to Cristian Berumen.
Growing vendor interest and foot traffic required a larger market space, and the numbers back that up. The market now draws an estimated 2,000 people per market on a typical night, per Berumen, with its all-time high reaching roughly 4,000 attendees. On August 22, hundreds of Arlington residents attended the market when it was still set up in a parking lot on West Abram Street, and the event featured tacos, pupusas, bunny-shaped cotton candy, horchata and agua de jamaica, per the Fort Worth Report's account of that night.
Vendors Who Sell Out Every Time
Marisela Garcia is one of the market's regular success stories. She was laid off from a previous job before Berumen suggested she sell beverages she had been making for family events, and she now sells out at every pop-up she does with him, according to the same reporting. By the end of the August 22 market, only three aguas flavors remained near closing time. Margarita Alvarez, Berumen's mother, said Garcia loves seeing people enjoy her aguas.
Berumen's family runs several booths of its own at the market: his sister operates a coffee stand and his brother sells Crocs charms. Other vendors have built loyal followings there too. Hope Lara, who co-owns Mr. Stache's Kitchen, participated in her first vendor event at the Small Business Mercado two years ago, and Z Cortez, who owns So Freshy, sells specialty virgin piña coladas at the market. Cortez told the outlet that Berumen and his team provided sunblock at the last mercado, a small gesture reflecting the organizational support the Small Business Mercado team offers vendors, including checking food booths for proper sanitization materials and ensuring vendors have needed supplies and permits.
Regulatory Hurdles Facing Small Vendors
That support matters because temporary food vendors face real financial and administrative hurdles in Arlington. The city's Health Services Division requires vendors dispensing open or perishable food to obtain a temporary food establishment permit costing $52 per booth per event, with applications due at least 10 days in advance, according to the City of Arlington. Those costs and lead times can be a real barrier for entrepreneurs just starting out.
Some relief may be on the way at the state level. Effective July 1, 2026, Texas House Bill 2844 prohibits Texas cities from requiring certain small-scale food businesses or employees to obtain municipal permits or pay local fees if they already hold a state permit issued by the Texas Department of State Health Services, according to the Texas Municipal League. The law is intended to streamline operations for mobile and temporary food businesses across the state, though it remains to be seen how it will reshape markets like Berumen's in practice.
Separately, the City of Arlington has also imposed temporary pauses on outdoor special event and mobile food vendor permits in the Entertainment District surrounding AT&T Stadium during major event periods this year, including FIFA World Cup match days, per city guidance. Those restrictions apply to areas bounded by Center Street, Lamar Boulevard, Ballpark Way, and Division Street, though they are separate from the zoning shifts that have moved the Small Business Mercado itself.
A Bigger Economic Story in Arlington
The Small Business Mercado's growth tracks with broader demographic and economic trends in the city. Hispanic or Latino residents account for 30.7% of Arlington's population of nearly 400,000, according to U.S. Census Bureau data cited by the City of Arlington. Regionally, the Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington metroplex ranked among the top metropolitan areas in the country for Hispanic entrepreneurship in a 2024 Brookings Institution study, which found 11,569 Latino-owned employer firms in the region following steady growth after 2018, per the Brookings Institution.
Berumen still helps his grandmother grow her own aguas frescas business, a detail that underscores how personal the market's roots remain even as it has scaled up. Karina Nuñez, who joined event planning after leaving her corporate job, attributed much of the market's success to the Arlington community itself, an embrace the Fort Worth Report's reporting says has been essential to the mercado's staying power. Berumen's team says the market aims to uplift small-business owners and build a community where vendors connect and help one another rather than compete, and with growing numbers of both customers and vendors each month, that goal appears to be catching on.
