Latest news with #Filipino-inspired
Eater
4 days ago
- Business
- Eater
Legendary Los Angeles Brand Randy's Donuts Rolls Into the Bay Area
Like moths to a flame, the 32-foot, oversized doughnut that has loomed over the 405 and graced the top of Randy's Donuts in Inglewood has drawn customers to its doors for over 73 years. Now the brand is heading to the Bay Area, SFGATE reports, with plans to open a new location in Santa Clara at 2595 Homestead Road. It's all part of a franchise agreement involving Bay Area restaurant owner Adeel Siddiqui, of the Port of Peri Peri brand. That location will open in 'the third quarter of 2025,' but that's not all: Siddiqui and his partners also plan to open Randy's Donuts locations in San Jose, Redwood City, and Fremont, as well. Kermit Lynch Wine Merchant, Part II A popular Bay Area wine importer is adding a new shop to its ranks: After 53 years in business, Kermit Lynch Wine Merchant will open a second location in the fall or early winter. The San Francisco Chronicle reports the new shop will be located at Marin Country Mart in Larkspur. Check out this Caribbean- and Filipino-inspired pop-up dinner Chef Leonard Roberts III brings his Silent Table pop-up to Oakland's Burdell on Monday, June 2. Roberts is an alum of the Brundo chef residency program at Cafe Colucci, and now he's readying a five-course dinner 'inspired by the food and flavors of the Caribbean and Filipino islands.' Tickets and seating times are available via Tock. Verjus launches a lunchtime deal If you're among the San Francisco locals who eagerly welcomed back Jackson Square wine bar Verjus in November 2024, the team has a fun new offering: prix fixe lunch. From 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m., Thursday through Saturday, diners can relax under the shiny red ceiling to enjoy a starter and main course, plus a glass of wine or dessert, for $50. The launch menu includes a decision between sugar snap peas or pate en croute to begin; for the plat principal, diners can choose the omelette Boursin, saucisse manchego, or le grand aioli. For the dessert route, nosh on profiteroles or pain perdu. Extra dishes to add to the table will be available as well, such as oysters, scallops, or razor clams. Sign up for our newsletter.
San Francisco Chronicle
05-05-2025
- Business
- San Francisco Chronicle
San Francisco's downtown malls are empty. But there's one thing keeping them alive
It's lunch hour in downtown San Francisco. The food court at the troubled San Francisco Centre mall is nearly deserted. Slices of pizza wilt under heat lamps, and some restaurants have their shades rolled down. Outside on Fifth Street, half a dozen men are loading sacks of grease-spattered food onto mopeds and e-bikes, and preparing to haul them across town. They belong to a burgeoning gig work ecosystem that's breathing life into otherwise decrepit downtown shopping malls and their dozens of fast-casual restaurants. 'We couldn't survive without them,' Manuel Ramirez, who operates a burger shop and taqueria in San Francisco Centre, said of DoorDash and Uber Eats. But those apps, in turn, rely on a scrappy workforce of independent contractors who are mostly recent immigrants, gliding through the city on two wheels for what amounts to as little as $8 an hour, including the agonizing waits between orders, by the workers' calculations. Hailing mostly from Nepal, but also Venezuela and Morocco, this small army of couriers awaits their next orders huddled under an alcove outside the former Westfield mall or idled alongside the nearby Metreon shopping center. Clad in puffer jackets and motorcycle helmets they never seem to remove, they seamlessly enter the squall of traffic, dodging Muni buses and muscling cyclists out of bike lanes. They log up to 150 miles a day on their rented, moped-style e-bikes — cheaper than cars, and no driver's license necessary — laden with sushi or burritos in insulated boxes. With the downtown recovery still jagged and office occupancy at a nadir, these delivery orders are a lifeline to restaurant operators like Ramirez. Foot traffic to Izzy and Wooks, his Filipino-inspired burger spot, and Mija Cochinita, his Yucatan-style taqueria, cratered after the departure of Bloomingdale's, the mall's anchor tenant. Now delivery makes up more than a third of his business, though he needs to account for the over 25% fee the platforms charge him. What are fast becoming ghost malls are naturally transforming into something closer to ghost kitchens — centrally located, takeout focused restaurants. At Shake Shack, for instance, bags of burgers and fries piled up at the shop's pickup window during a recent lunch rush, though few, if any customers lined up at the electronic ordering kiosks. And at Chipotle inside the Metreon, online orders now make up about half the sales, said the store's manager, Marvin Ulloa, as he handed off two packages to waiting delivery-app couriers. The value that delivery workers provide comes at personal cost. That's what Manvir Damai was learning as he sat parked outside San Francisco Centre on a Friday afternoon. All around him, other couriers were walking in and out of the mall, gripping crinkly fast food bags and nervously checking their phones. Damai also had his eyes glued to his phone screen, scrutinizing an order for Wetzel's Pretzels. He was already seven minutes late, and in danger of incurring a violation for missing DoorDash's estimated time of arrival. If he accumulates six in a span of 100 deliveries, the company might deactivate his account and pull the plug on his only source of income. 'I'm still figuring out how this works,' Damai said in Hindi, referring to the app that funds his apartment on Geary Street and enables him to send money to a wife and four children in Nepal. In some senses, workers like Damai are the evolutionary descendants of the bike messengers who zipped through SoMa and the Financial District during the first dot-com boom of the 1990s, sweating in cargo shorts as they hauled documents to corporate offices. DoorDash, the largest delivery platform, said 76% of San Francisco deliveries were made on two wheels, which they touted for easing congestion in urban environments. Yet, the rise of food delivery apps has given it new dimensions in a society that expects prompt service. When UC Irvine Law Professor Veena Dubal looks at the moped workforce in San Francisco, she sees exploitation on multiple fronts. 'In what we think of as traditional employment, it would be the job of the company' to provide equipment, safe working conditions and a living wage, Dubal said. She noted that food delivery platforms have bypassed that responsibility by establishing themselves as 'network companies' under California law, meaning they supply the software to facilitate the outsourcing, but don't directly employ the workers. Although voter-approved Proposition 22 guarantees 120% of local minimum wage for every hour that a delivery person spends en route, it does not count the time spent waiting. The San Francisco food delivery market is also particularly competitive. So many people had already created DoorDash delivery accounts in downtown San Francisco and Oakland that, as of late April, some ZIP codes were at capacity. The app promised to send an email notification when space opened for new dashers. (A representative for DoorDash did not provide a figure for its number of Bay Area dashers or its capacity.) A fair number of Bay Area Doordashers treat the platform more as a side hustle, to make extra money or get exercise if they are making deliveries on a bicycle. One casual gig worker who spoke with the Chronicle said he delivers for both DoorDash and UberEats, and concentrates narrowly on grocery orders from Safeway or Target that maximize his earnings. The worker said that since he speaks English, knows how to navigate store aisles to quickly find items and can follow specific directions from customers, he's able to net $30 from a job that takes about 15 minutes — roughly quadruple the amount he would make from delivering fast food. The workers who congregate at San Francisco Centre and Metreon don't have that degree of flexibility. Faced with language barriers, they focus mostly on lower-level fast food orders that are more straightforward, but earn less money. Many, like Damai, treat the gig as a full-time job, routinely clocking 12-hour days to make between $100 and $150. A portion goes toward bike rental, which costs about $330 a month. Slow days are a torment. Instead of zig-zagging along busy roads, a delivery courier might spend hours posted outside the malls, waiting for their phone to buzz. Mehdi Lamari, a recent immigrant from Morocco, was doing just that on a rainy Wednesday. Shaking his head wearily, he flashed the display screen on his phone, with a graph that showed his weekly earnings. On Monday he worked nine hours for $72.28. On Tuesday, he drew $53.29. 'This is not like a real job,' Lamari said. Then there are the brusque or high-maintenance customers, who might snatch food through a door jamb, wander away from a pickup spot or forget to leave the pin number for their apartment buildings. Damai recalled times when someone became incensed that an order was wrong, and dispatched him to fix it. He felt like he couldn't say no. 'I'll drive two or three miles to deliver something worth $5,' he said, convinced that if he rejects any job the app will penalize him. One person who has keenly observed the lives and struggles of delivery-app couriers is Peter Chu, who did gig work for DoorDash as a community college student in Woodland (Yolo County). He realized he could make more profit on a different side of the business. A couple of years ago, Chu and a friend, Benda Zhu, in Davis launched a rental business specializing in electric bikes with cargo racks for food delivery. They expanded HMP bikes to a warehouse in South of Market a few months ago. Located a few blocks from the Metreon and Westfield, it's an anchor point for the growing labor force. Many couriers rent from HMP, at rates ranging from $79 a week to $1,000 for a three-month lease. They also come to the warehouse to fix punctured tires or make other repairs. To reach their largely Nepalese clientele, HMP hired an assistant, Mike Sherpa, who speaks multiple Himalayan languages. When e-bikes are stolen — as they are frequently in downtown San Francisco — Chu might offer the rider a temporary replacement, though if the bike isn't recovered in a week, the renter is responsible for 50% of the loss. This catch, really an outsourcing of risk, strikes Dubal, the law professor, as unsettling. She compares HMP to other businesses that lease cars to ride-hail drivers, entrenching a system of frenetic, underpaid work. 'They are profiting off the desperation of immigrants,' she said of HMP — though Chu instead likened HMP to a business during a gold rush selling shovels. Nonetheless, Dubal went on, 'I don't think they are the primary or only exploiter here. All fingers point towards DoorDash.' Representatives of DoorDash pushed back, insisting that Dashers 'earn what they want, on their own terms' and citing the wage provision in Prop 22. 'Calling that exploitation isn't just wrong, but it's out of touch and offensive,' company spokesperson Julian Crowley said in a statement. A spokesperson for Uber Eats said he could not comment without verifying that the workers 'actually use the Uber Eats platform.' Some delivery workers who spoke to the Chronicle conceded they like the go-it-alone aspect of being an independent contractor. All the same, they were quick to acknowledge the downsides. Work is unpredictable, compensation can swing wildly and the job comes with few protections. Theft is a perennial fear for Damai, who knows that if he leaves his bike unattended with food on it, for as little as two minutes, he'll return to find everything gone. At night he locks it up outside his apartment on Geary Street, hoping for the best. After all, the machine generates his income. It pays the rent, provides a little to send back home and helps Damai live on the margins of a city he can't afford, even as he helps drive its economic recovery.
Yahoo
30-04-2025
- Yahoo
San Diego resident witnesses car speeding into crowd during a Filipino celebration in Vancouver
SAN DIEGO (FOX 5/KUSI) — A day full of celebrating Filipino arts, culture, and food in Vancouver, Canada, at the Lapu Lapu day block party ended in tragedy Saturday. Local San Diegan Maria Donato was there selling her Filipino-inspired jewelry brand, Sunkissed Pinay. 'People were coming out of the performance area and just going home and there were still people shopping by my booth,' said Donato. It was moments later when Donato saw a vehicle speeding down the street. 'It was around 8:15 when I was just helping a customer. We heard a loud bang. The car just sped by really fast. I was kind of just shocked.' She said she felt frozen in time as the car barreled into a large crowd. 'He just ran into them and I literally saw bodies in the air. That was how horrible it was,' said Donato. 11 people were killed and more than two dozen others were injured. The 30-year-old man behind the wheel has been arrested and charged with murder. Police said he has a history of mental illness and they're confident it was not an act of terrorism. With recent attacks mirroring what happened in Vancouver last weekend, Donato says she's hesitant about joining future outdoor events unless there are stricter safety measures in place. At the Lapu Lapu block party there were no significant barriers in place to deter or stop a vehicle. Donato said she still gets emotional thinking about the destruction that unfolded in front of her. 'The images of the bodies in the air. It's in my head still. I try not to think about it, but it just comes into my mind. I think overall I'm doing a lot better, but what I'm going through is nothing compared to the victims,' Donato said. She added that another reason for sharing her experience is to put a spotlight on what happened so that more people can help the victims involved. She is also circulating a link with a roundup of fundraisers for those personally impacted by the tragedy. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Belfast Telegraph
28-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Belfast Telegraph
Hunt has begun to find next top chef in Ireland
Now it has been endorsed by one of the world's top chefs, Heston Blumenthal, who will train the winner. The contest was launched in 2023 by John Trainor, the operational director of the Balmoral Hotel and Stix & Stones Restaurants. Two years on, applications are now open for aspiring culinary experts that fancy their chances at becoming Ireland's Next Top Chef of 2025. Speaking at the launch, John said that the idea for the not-for-profit initiative came about due to 'desperation'. 'There was nobody coming through in the kitchens. We asked government, we asked council [for support], so it was me just putting my money where my mouth is and deciding, if we want to get some attention to this industry, let's do a competition. 'It started off with great ambition and it's grown in the last two years.' The winner of Ireland's Next Top Chef 2025 will receive an all-expenses paid trip to London, to receive a week's worth of mentorship in celebrity chef Blumenthal's two-Michelin star restaurant, Dinner. 'This opportunity has been life-changing for previous winners,' added John. 'Heston believes in what we're doing and is excited to continue supporting our young talent.' Both of the competition's previous winners have been Belfast-based cooks. Last year, the top prize went to Michelle Dela Cruz from the city centre's 2 Taps Winebar, who wowed judges with her Filipino-inspired three-course menu during the live cookery showdown at the Balmoral Hotel. In 2023, Gareth Crawford of Mexican restaurant Cú on the Lisburn Road, became the first ever winner of the accolade. The contest is open to chefs right across the island of Ireland, and in 2024 the other finalists hailed from venues in Strangford and Dublin. John hopes that the competition can inspire younger generations to choose career paths in the hospitality world. 'The whole issue of Brexit didn't help,' he added. 'We used to rely on a lot of Polish chefs, and that's not possible anymore, so we're struggling on that front, trying to get people who are skilled coming into the country to help. 'We have to go out ourselves, and that's what this competition is about.' This year's judging panel includes award-winning chef and restaurateur Niall McKenna from James Street South and Waterman; Danny Millar, the owner and head chef of Stock Kitchen & Bar in Belfast, and Belfast Telegraph food critic, Joris Minne. Economy Minister Caomhe Archibald attended last night's launch and said it has become a key fixture in Northern Ireland's local hospitality calendar. 'I think it's a really good showcase of what we have to offer,' she said. 'Hospitality is really important to our local economy, it supports over 70,000 jobs right across the north. It is one of those sectors that genuinely is reasonably balanced, and as a department, we are working to support the sector in terms of attracting more people in. Minister Caoimhe Archibald: Apology for alleged controversial comments 'a matter for Kneecap' 'Whenever I talk to businesses, organisations, business representatives, they tell me about the challenges they face getting skilled workers and that's true in our hospitality and tourism sector as well. 'It's one of the reasons the department has supported initiatives to try and attract more people into the sectors. Events like this that showcase the talent that we have, will obviously attract people to look at this as a potential career for themselves.'
Yahoo
24-03-2025
- Yahoo
Nay Palad is the ultimate White Lotus swap in the Philippines
White Lotus may have Thailand on all our minds, but I just returned from my first trip to the Philippines, and I think I found the perfect place to go if you want to avoid the crowds. After an exciting week in Manila, we set off on a short 1.5-hour flight via Philippine Airlines to Siargao—an island that looks like the far-flung paradise we have all dreamed of. The island is covered in (almost) exclusively palm trees, making for the most picturesque jungle landscape I have ever seen. While destinations like Thailand have long been at the top of luxury traveler's lists, Nay Palad Hideaway on Siargao offers all the magic of a luxurious island retreat without the crowds or over-commercialization. It's the perfect White Lotus swap, with secluded beaches and world-class hospitality, making this resort a truly well-kept secret. Tucked between the glassy blue Pacific Ocean and an ancient mangrove forest, Nay Palad offers a barefoot luxury experience that feels effortless and immersive. There are no check-in desks, no set itineraries—just pure relaxation at your own pace. Whether you want to spend the day kayaking through untouched waterways, hopping between neighboring islands, or lounging by the picture-perfect pool with a cocktail, everything is tailored to your own version of paradise. Oh and guess what, everything is all inclusive! So there is no need to worry about your wallet once your plane lands on Siargao. Unlike the crowded resorts of Phuket or Koh Samui, Nay Palad is intimate, exclusive, and untouched by mass tourism. It's a place where you won't be competing for a beach chair or waiting for a table come dinner time. Instead, the staff anticipates your every need, ensuring that your stay feels deeply personalized and truly a trip to remember. One of my favorite parts of the trip? The daily massages, which quickly became a non-negotiable part of the day. After a morning of swimming or sailing to deserted beaches, we'd return to the spa for a deep, restorative treatment. The therapists seemed to know exactly what our bodies needed—whether it was a traditional Filipino hilot massage to cure any lingering jetlag or a cooling aloe vera treatment to soothe our sun-drenched day. We also set off on a private island-hopping adventure, where we spent the day snorkeling in crystal-clear waters, feasting on freshly grilled seafood, and relaxing on untouched white-sand beaches. Unlike the packed boat tours I've been on in Thailand's Phi Phi Islands, we had entire islands to ourselves, making the experience feel even more special. At Nay Palad, every meal is an experience. Mornings started with tropical fruits, homemade pastries, and freshly squeezed juices, while evenings featured grilled seafood, vibrant vegetable dishes, and Filipino-inspired specialties. And like the rest of the trip, the service was impeccable by the entire staff ensuring all guests had complete privacy for each meal—every night we dined in a different area of the property, whether in a tree top or ocean view open air studio. From the moment we arrived, we were welcomed like old friends, and by the time we left, we felt like we were saying goodbye to a second home. Every detail was thoughtfully curated, from nightly treehouse dinners under the stars to private island-hopping boat tour to the daily massages. If you've been dreaming of a luxurious island escape but want to skip the crowded hotspots, Nay Palad is the answer. It's the perfect White Lotus alternative—tropical villas, top-tier hospitality, and a sense of privacy that's so rare to find. As we packed our bags to leave, one thing was certain: we were already planning when to return. If you are planning a spring getaway as well, check out our guide to the ultimate spring packing list.
