Filipino Family Owned Restaurant Turned Community Kitchen Now Needs Your Help

At the heart and soul of every community, you’ll usually find a place where people gather to feel at home, at peace or whole.  A lot of times that place is around a table — a kitchen table, where loved ones gather to do more than just break bread. 

Since late 2019, Bebot has set that table as Long Beach, California’s first modern Filipino Soul Food restaurant.  But when a worldwide pandemic forces you to shut your doors and re-strategize, chef and owner, A.C. Boral, and his team realized that the only way to get through the pandemic was together with the community that supported them.  

In true Filipino fashion, A.C. and his team asked their community: “Have you eaten yet?” and added “Community Kitchen” to their title; then partnered with various community organizations to help feed the most affected families and frontline workers in their neighborhood.  Over the course of six months since the COVID lockdowns and closures began, Bebot Community Kitchen has provided over 5,000 meals to those in need.

Unfortunately, an accidental electrical fire ripped through the restaurant in the middle of the night on August 18th, leaving irreparable damage to their kitchen, their home.  For a new restaurant that has not even had its first anniversary, having to face a worldwide pandemic and a fire within the same year, most others would fold — but not Bebot.  A.C. is optimistic for the future and realistically hopes to have a place to reopen in the Spring of 2021.  

With all they’ve done for people in need, they are the ones who now need our help — so they can get back to being great ambassadors for the community.  

A GoFundMe page has been set up in hopes of recouping some of their losses, going towards a temporary space to continue their community kitchen operations, and subsidizing lost wages.