We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Khris Astudillo. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Khris below.

Khris, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. What was it like going from idea to execution? Can you share some of the backstory and some of the major steps or milestones?

The idea of SERBESA, Filipino Kitchen started when my grandmother passed away in 2012. While we were celebrating her life; my brother, 3 of my cousins, and myself started talking about opening our own brewpub with craft beer and Filipino food inspired by our grandmother’s cooking. We wanted to call our brewpub “Cousins”. Over the years, we kept talking about it but didn’t really take the idea seriously. In January 2018, I decided to take the risk on my own. With my cousins not involved, I decided to think of a different name. I chose SERBESA, which means beer in Tagalog (Filipino).

In the next few months, I took the necessary steps to get this business started. Many of my friends are business owners or are veterans of the food and beer industry, so I picked all of their brains on how to get this adventure started. One of those friends was my friend Nate Soroko. He told me as soon as I was ready, I could pop-up with my Filipino food at Toronado in North Park. It was a huge success, selling out within an hour. A month later I did a second pop-up at Toronado, this time the beer component was added, we had Filipino food and SERBESA Calamansi IPA on tap. The Calamansi IPA was brewed by my friend George Thornton at his shop Home Brewing Co. also in North Park.

From there, SERBESA took off. We started popping up regularly at different bars and breweries all over San Diego County. The Filipino food was so well received that in 2019 I decided to create a new brand for the beer. The beer brand became Paradise Hills Brewing Company, in honor of the neighborhood that I grew up in, and the food brand continued to be SERBESA, Filipino Kitchen.

Soon after, I found an opportunity in a new food hall getting built in National City called “Market on 8th”. I signed the lease and began building out my first storefront. This new storefront brought on new challenges, I had to figure out payroll, permits from the city and county, food deliveries, finding employees, kitchen equipment, and many other things. With the storefront now having been open for 6 months, the challenges keep coming but I continue to meet them head on.

The next phase is to get Paradise Hills Brewing Company operations going again, which were forced to pause at the onset of the pandemic. I am actually in the middle of the PHBC beer relaunch, with my Calamansi IPA on tap at 5 different locations in the South Bay. With the SERBESA storefront and PHBC operations getting started again, I’m hoping this will eventually lead to original idea of a brewpub with Filipino food.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

Before I decided to start my business, I was a high school chemistry teacher. I worked in education for 10 years, loved it, and I was pretty great at it too. I’m glad I took the risk to start my own business but I do miss being a teacher every day. I literally got into the restaurant and beer industry by drinking beer all the time. I was a regular at Toronado in North Park and became friends with many of the employees and other regulars of that bar. Many of those regulars were also brewers and restaurant bar owners as well, so when I decided to do a Filipino food pop-up, my friends were more than willing to support my new project and let me pop-up at their locations.

In terms of my business/brand, I have two; SERBESA, Filipino Kitchen and Paradise Hills Brewing Company.

With SERBESA, Filipino Kitchen, I wanted to honor my family by bringing our family recipes to the public. One of my proudest moments was in the first week of the SERBESA storefront being open, my mom was just watching all the customers enjoying the food that she taught me how to cook. I’m particularly proud of my pancit palabok and pork belly sisig, which many of my customers particularly enjoy. I also have surf & turf lumpia, which we won the Sumo Award for best Non-Poke Dish at the 2019 “I Love Poke Festival”.

With Paradise Hills Brewing Company, I wanted to honor my community; Paradise Hills and all of the other surrounding communities in South Bay San Diego. I know that there is an untapped market of of potential craft beer enthusiasts in Paradise Hills. I want the people in my community to not only enjoy PHBC beer but also be proud that a quality brewery is named after our hood.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

By the end of 2019 and start of 2020, both of my brands had a lot of momentum. SERBESA, Filipino Kitchen was doing pop-up events twice a month. Our food was being recognized and people waiting for our storefront to open in National City, which was scheduled for April 2020. Paradise Hills Brewing Company operations launched and we had our beer at 5 different locations all over San Diego. But then the pandemic hit and delayed the storefront opening and put a pause on all PHBC operations.

The pandemic brought on new challenges. I paused operations with both brands so that I can keep myself and my family safe. In the meantime, while we were all quarantined, I honed in on getting the administrative side of my businesses to become more streamlined and efficient in anticipation for the eventual SERBESA storefront opening. I also used that time to build more capital and build closer relationships with people in the industry. It was especially important for me to build these relationships, even if it had to be virtual for that moment, because I knew that I was going to need all the help I can get to make my restaurant operations successful.

The SERBESA stroefront ended up getting delayed almost two years, with the storefront not opening until October of 2021. But my resilience, patience, and the work I put it in during the delay paid off. The storefront has now been open for 6 months and PHBC beer is back again at bars all over South Bay San Diego.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

As I mentioned in previous responses, I used to be a high school chemistry teacher. By 2019, a year into my SERBESA pop-events, things were going really well and I was getting really busy. It came to a point where I needed to make a choice. Do I give 100% effort as a teacher and a business and burn myself out in the process? Do I give half the effort for both? I knew half the effort was not an option, it would not be fair to my students or to my burgeoning business. I chose to quit teaching to give all my focus to my projects. It was a very difficult decision, I left a career in which I was well respected and was really great at. But the move had to be made if I wanted to take SERBESA, Filipino Kitchen and Paradise Hills Brewing Company to the heights that I believe each can reach.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://serbesasd.com/
• Instagram: @serbesasd and @phbrewco
• Facebook: Serbesa