We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Ross Pangilinan a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Ross, appreciate you joining us today. We’d love to go back in time and hear the story of how you came up with the name of your brand?
I named my restaurant Mix Mix for several reasons. I am Filipino American and my favorite Filipino dessert growing up was Halo Halo. In English it means Mix Mix. The menu is a literal mix of cuisines. From Filipino to French and Italian. We serve a lot of small plates and share plates, we encourage guests to order for the table and share to get. a mixed menu experience. I also like having the MM initials, same as my kids Madeleine and Maddex. Of course we serve a version of Halo Halo as well.
Ross, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
I have been in the restaurant industry for over 20 years and have had my own business for almost 10 years. I have worked in Michelin star restaurants in Los Angeles and France. I was opening sous chef at Sinatra Restaurant in The Encore Wynn Resort in Las Vegas in 2009. After Las Vegas I was the Executive Chef at the Segerstrom Center for Performing Arts and Leatherby’s Cafe Rouge in Costa Mesa. I made the 30 under 30 Hottest Up and Coming list for Zagat in 2012. In 2016 I opened Mix Mix Kitchen Bar and it received several best new restaurant awards and was awarded by the Michelin Guide with a Bib Gourmand. I opened my second restaurant Terrace by Mix Mix in South Coast Plaza in 2018. In 2022 I sold Mix Mix Kitchen Bar and opened several new businesses with new business partners. First, Populaire Modern Bistro in South Coast Plaza and second, Verdant Cafe / Catering by Mix Mix in the brand new Orange County Museum of Art. Today I am focusing on making Mix Mix Hospitality operate consistently, with a great product and grow our onsite and offsite catering.
Can you open up about how you funded your business?
My first partner Oscar was a long time friend of my oldest brother John. He is an entrepreneur and small business owner. He told me if I ever wanted to start a restaurant that he can help but I wasn’t sure how serious he was.
When I was ready and I started looking into opening my own business and researching ways to generate capital I ran into him by chance one day. My brothers and I needed to get some personal documents notarized because our father passed away. John remembered Oscar’s Family had a notary and we ended up there, Oscar told me he was still interested in investing and I told him I was looking for an investor.
We looked for close to a year for the right space for a restaurant. We were close to several other locations before we found our space in DTSA. But when we opened we had less than $10k in operating capital and the restaurant was not very busy. Luckily we had an amazing client who to this day is still our favorite client. She had an important client in town and wanted us to cater for his entire party for an entire week at the villa he was staying in. It gave us a good amount of cash flow to get us going.
How’d you meet your business partner?
Nick and Alyssa are my business partners for Populaire Modern Bistro and Catering by Mix Mix. I worked with them and have known them since 2004. We worked at a restaurant together call Pinot Provence in Costa Mesa. Nick was the sous chef and Alyssa was the AGM. In 2004 I recently got back from working in Versailles France and doing a quick stint at sushi restaurant. My mentor Jean Pierre Lemannsier recommended I go to Pinot Provence and work for Florent Marneau. I met Chef Nick and became good friends with him. I started as a cook and he taught me how to cook for volume while still having finesse. Alyssa was back then and still is like the mother of the restaurant. After working together at Pinot Provence for couple years we all eventually left to work at other places. I worked with Nick at another restaurant we opened but it didn’t work out because the owners didn’t know what they were doing. Nick and Alyssa worked together again for several years in another Orange County Restaurant as well.
Our partnership was created during COVID. During COVID and doing events for my landlord, she asked if I had any new concepts. I also knew Nick wanted to open a restaurant. So we put Populaire Modern Bistro together and pitched it. At the same time the brand new Orange County Museum of Art asked if I was interested in catering and running the food and beverage when the museum opens. If so they said they want a pitch in 3 days. I met with Nick and told him we need a solid FOH GM and Alyssa was the perfect fit and also interested. My brother helped put the pitch together while he was on vacation. Nick and Alyssa both left their jobs in May of 2022. We opened Populaire in June of 2022 and the Museum in October of 2022.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.terracebymixmix.com / www.populairepc.com / www.cateringbymixmix.com
- Instagram: terracebymixmix / populaireoc / cateringbymixmix / mixmixhospitality
