SPONSORED
As part of Chase Center’s only-in-the-Bay-Area food experience, food service partners Bon Appétit Management Company, Levy and the Warriors launched a Taste Makers at Chase Center program to give small, local food and beverage businesses a (three-point) shot at the big time.
The duo behind San Francisco’s Filipino food truck The Sarap Shop champion the transformative power of meals that are both delicious and inclusive. Co-founder Kristen Brillantes, who runs The Sarap Shop with her partner, chef JP Reyes, was recently named a Filipina Women’s Network Thought Leader and 100 Most Influential Filipina Women in the World. You can find The Sarap Shop at San Francisco’s SOMA Street Food Park or at Chase Center in the United Club.
What do you mean when you say “Every-vore is welcome here?”
In the three years since JP and I started The Sarap Shop, we’re still locked into our mission of creating feel-good menus and equally feel-good experiences, embracing the dual meaning of sarap, a Tagalog word that means delicious or feel good. The heart of Filipino cooking is sharing meals with people you love, and our goal is to bring that heart to our menus to ensure that the dining experiences we create are inclusive of everyone, regardless of age, ethnicity, or dietary preferences. We want everyone to experience the transformative moment of being truly welcomed at someone’s table.
When we watch someone taste our food for the first time, we look to see their face light up with a smile. We hope to see them offer a bite to a friend and share a moment of surprise with comments like, “And can you believe that’s gluten free?” That moment of connection is our gold standard — it’s when we like to think they’ve become an ambassador for friendship and inclusion.
How are you pushing the envelope as a food entrepreneur?
As the children of immigrants, we want entrepreneurship to feel authentic, but we don’t want to sacrifice quality of life like our parents did. How can we work smarter to build businesses that taste and feel good, that are also sustainable and scalable? How can we lift others up as we reach our own milestones?
We intentionally build our business with the soul of a values-driven lifestyle. We are committed to resource sharing with our peers to promote community-driven leadership; we want to lead with compassion and create employment and growth opportunities for people from communities that are often marginalized or forgotten. We’re embracing food technology like plant-based meat from Impossible Foods and sharing it with communities that don’t typically have access. We won’t compromise on representation — we are intentional about what Filipino flavors and language we use to create opportunities for learning.
What does it mean to have The Sarap Shop be a part of Chase Center?
The entire Chase Center culinary team has really embraced the idea that food is such an important part of culture. At the beginning, our moms were working alongside of us training staff on how to make our lumpia. During the Chase Center opening, my mom turned to me with tears in her eyes and said, “Never in my lifetime did I think I’d see Americans eating Filipino food at a sports arena!” To be at Chase Center has reinforced how much representation matters. In a space that wasn’t historically built for us, it’s been a proud moment for us to help make our community feel seen.
Waverley Aufmuth is the public restaurant PR & marketing manager for Bon Appétit Management Company. This advertorial was paid for by Bon Appétit at Chase Center.
Edible San Francisco relies on the support from advertising partners like Bon Appétit Management Company and Chase Center, home of the Golden State Warriors who share our vision and want to see the Bay Area’s local food community grow and flourish.
