Each of San Francisco’s neighborhoods is unique, and many offer a central cultural focus: Chinatown and Japantown are the most obvious, North Beach is filled with Italian-American cuisine, and the Mission is traditionally Latino. Now, there’s a new, officially designated cultural district in the city dedicated to Filipino culture and a monthly event, Undiscovered SF, dedicated to showcasing it.

“It’s the lineup of what our community has been working on and fighting for for generations,” Desi Danganan told Eater. Danganan is the executive director of Undiscovered SF, the night market set to launch in the SF Mint on August 18. It’s a multifaceted event with food vendors, dance and music performances, and retail, as well as large goals: to create public awareness for the new cultural district and drive economic development of the district with Filipino businesses.

The district, SOMA Pilipinas, is located within a huge swath of the city from Second Street on the east to 11th Street on the west and Market to Brannan Street. It, along with 13 other districts across California, was certified in July 2017 as one of its first state-level cultural districts. The Mission’s Calle 24 Latino District and Rotten City-Emeryville Cultural Arts District also made the cut, beating out a large pool of applicants statewide. Even so, most people aren’t yet aware of SOMA Pilipinas’s existence. “There are not a lot of physical markings in place for people to identify it,” says Danganan. “It doesn’t look like Chinatown or Japantown — the hallmarks of those districts are businesses from those communities.”

“Right now we have no pagoda, no gates, no buildings that scream Filipino, but our cuisine is one of our strongest strengths.”

Undiscovered SF, which is also a nonprofit and an incubator for Filipino businesses, is driving the effort to populate the district. At the market’s launch, 13 food vendors will serve Filipino dishes, from classics like sisig to nontraditional mash-ups like bacon-cheeseburger lumpia. Many of the vendors are what Undiscovered calls the “third wave” of Filipino entrepreneurs: the younger generation of Filipino-Americans who are branching on their own, experimenting with Filipino food, and creating a community of their own beyond the older generation’s mom-and-pop shops.

When Danganan, along with chef Tim Luym of Buffalo Theory, opened Poleng Lounge in 2006 (it closed in 2010), he says there were not all that many Filipino restaurants in the city “except a couple here and there from the older generation.” It felt like a difficult time to open a successful restaurant, because the food Danganan wanted to serve wasn’t as familiar to enough San Francisco diners. “We were afraid to label ourselves as Filipino because there was no market for it,” he says. “Fast-forward to now, and there’s a much more receptive audience of people who want to try Filipino food. A lot of the flavor profiles deemed off-putting are something we celebrate, like the sour flavors. Salty and sweet suited the American palate before, and now use of vinegars and stuff are a lot more prevalent.” That shift in palate and perception has since paved the way for other Filipino entrepreneurs, as demonstrated by the growing number of Filipino food businesses in SF.

“Our involvement in the night market has been for a few different reasons,” says Kristen Brillantes of the Sarap Shop, a food truck. “One is community building. The older generation [of Filipinos] is very cutthroat in business because of their past experiences, growing up in poverty. The new generation of entrepreneurs wants to support one another.” She and partner JP Reyes consider the market an opportunity to celebrate the progress they’ve made in business, and as a community. The menu at the Sarap Shop is about half vegan, and offers many options for diners with dietary restrictions — Reyes, who is the chef, was formerly a sous chef at Google, where he saw many vegans getting lost in the lunch shuffle.

“The business is a mixed bag of emotions from my parents, who mostly grew up in the Philippines and immigrated here in their 20s,” says Brillantes. “They hold on a lot to traditional culture, and they’re proud to be included in the American narrative in an intentional, proactive way.”

The night market will take place in the Old SF Mint at Mint Plaza, located on the edge of the new cultural district. Outside in the plaza, food vendors will serve dishes like lumpia, sisig, pansit, and pork adobo. Inside, clothing, jewelry, stationery, and other goods from Filipino vendors will be on display, alongside two open bars, a dance floor, and a stage where DJs, hip-hop artists, and dancers will perform.

“Food is for everybody, music is for everybody, old and young,” says Alex Retodo of the Lumpia Company. “It’s more about bringing back culture than doing something that’s cool today.” Many of the organizers, including Retodo and Danganan, have been involved with the music and dance scene in the past, throwing weekly parties with Filipino DJs like QBert and dance crews like the Jabbawockeez; local hip hop artist Lyrics Born will perform at the first Undiscovered SF. “The big communities events have been lost,” Retodo says. “This is bringing everything back together.”

Retodo is bringing his lumpia to Undiscovered, a prime example of mixing Filipino and American experiences. He’s known for his bacon-cheeseburger lumpia, something he created “because we wanted something all-American inside something so Filipino.”

“Learning about Filipino culture was hard to do back when I was young,” says Retodo, who grew up in the U.S. with Filipino parents. “Parents wanted you to acclimate into American culture faster, and they didn’t teach us the language. We can’t speak the same tongue and there is a lack of culture being transferred over. We’re still growing and we’re still discovering; we’ll be discovering the culture along with people who aren’t Filipino.”

The gap in understanding Filipino culture between generations is a common theme, compounded by lack of immersion, the chef thinks. “Probably about 80 percent of us have not been back to the Philippines,” he estimates. “A lot of us didn’t learn those things through living it.” With the Lumpia Company, he’s trying to bridge that gap.

Francis Ang, an acclaimed pastry chef at the now-closed Fifth Floor restaurant, will bring his pop-up, Pinoy Heritage, to the market next month, offering skewers and pansit, a noodle dish. His journey to the pop-up started during a family visit in the Philippines, when he and his wife were caught in the crosshairs of Typhoon Haiyan in 2013. In the aftermath, Ang found himself off the grid, cooking for family and neighbors with whatever he could source. When the lights came back on, the couple returned to SF for a fundraiser at Fifth Floor. The response to Ang’s food was overwhelming, and the seed for Pinoy Heritage was planted. Now he’s working on building his brand, with an eye toward a brick-and-mortar restaurant — possibly in the cultural district.

“In Filipino culture, food is so important for hospitality,” says Danganan. “A Filipino family is always trying to feed you.” That’s also, at least partially, the approach to guests at Undiscovered SF. “We want to lead with our food culture to bring the community together.”

The Night Market

There’s a lot going on at the market, but here are some key details to help navigate it:

When: 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. on Friday, August 18, and every third Friday of the month going forward.

Where: SF Mint, 88 Fifth Street.

Who: Everyone. The event is all-ages.

What: Food, drinks, music, art, retail vendors, dance performances; eventually organizers hope to expand to include martial arts demonstrations, film screenings, health and wellness, and more.

Culinary Purveyors and Featured Dishes

Jeepney Guy

Kettle-Smoked Pork (Lechon Kawali)

Smoked, fried pork belly with crispy skin, served with Filipino gravy

Inay’s Kitchen

Good Boy Fried Rice

Fried rice filled with Filipino crab paste, kimchi, barbecue eel, Portuguese longanisa sausage, and lechon, topped with a fried egg

Lumpia Company

Kare-Kare Lumpia

Braised oxtail stuffed in a wrapper, deep-fried, and served with peanut dipping sauce

Mestiza

Adobo Nachos

Nachos topped with pork butt that has been smoked, braised, and pulled in a vinegar reduction, topped with epazote and roasted-pepper crema

No Worries

Afritada

A tomato-based stew with soy chicken, peas, and sweet basil

Sarap Shop

I Love My Adob(R)o Rice Bowl

Tangy, marinated pork belly and fried okra on rice

Wooden Table

Arroz Caldo

A thick rice porridge topped with lemon-ginger dressing, fried garlic, egg, salmon roe, and choice of chicken, spam, or bacon-wrapped hot dog skewer

Mohinga House

Mohinga

Spicy, fish-based noodle soup served in a palm leaf bowl, topped with fried lentils, onions, garlic, shallots, lemon juice, boiled egg, and cilantro

Satayisfied

Classic Indonesian Chicken Kabobs

Skewers of chicken that have been marinated with sweet soy, sesame, scallions, and spices, served with peanut dipping sauce

Senor Sisig

A menu of sisig-based specialties including tacos, burritos, fries, and nachos

Hookt

Ube-flavored mini donuts (purple yam)

Frozen Kuhsterd

West Coast-style frozen custard bars with dips and sweet toppings

Sugar & Spun

Gourmet cotton candy with dry toppings and powders in two featured flavors: mango suman and polvoron (“Manila shortbread”), a sweet mixture of toasted flour, milk, butter, and sugar cookie, made with organic cane sugar