Here’s a Place for Us
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Everything is spaced and marked with line stickers because safety is important at the Filled Market. (Photo by Rayson Esquejo: Manila District)
Filled Market was founded by Lauren Delgado, a public affairs consultant, and her high school classmate Rayson Esqejo, special events consultant. It opened in July 2020 in the parking lot of an office building owned by James Santa Maria. Lauren, Rayson, and James are Fil-Ams.
The weekly marketplace anchors the evolving Manila District. “It’s a culmination of Lauren’s and my vision of a space where business owners involved in Filipino commerce can congregate and customers can get behind,” says Rayson, whose digital prowess enlivens the ManiLAdistrict.com website.
A maximum of 14 vendors fill slots each weekend with a four to one split between food businesses and retailers. “Vendors don’t have to be Filipino. We only ask that they highlight at least one Filipino item,” Lauren says. For example, “We had an Armenian vendor who made ube baklava.”
To find the entrance of the Filled Market, just look for the sign. (Photo by Rayson Esquejo: Manila District)
Donia Begonia Kitchen
Donia Begonia Kitchen (Photo courtesy of Donia Begonia Kitchen)
RJ Reyes and his wife, Bego Reyes, run Donia Begonia Kitchen from home. Before Covid, they took orders for their specialty pork rinds from business offices. They became a familiar popup in October 2020. They’re known for a variety of flavored pork rinds prepackaged to go. Their signature item is Chicharrón Nachos.
“Filled Market is a personal market with repeat customers,” RJ observes. “When there are new faces, we make new friends. The environment is family oriented with a positive vibe.”
After a pound of Garlic Sriracha Pork Rinds, douse the palette with Chocolate Crinkles.
Not●Cho Rinds: It has our plain pork rinds as the base and topped with cheese, chili, pico de gallo, sour cream, guacamole, and green onions. (Photo courtesy of Donia Begonia Kitchen)
The Flyplant Shop
Plant and pot pairings at the Flyplant Shop (Photo by Melissa Limbago)
Before March 2020, Americans relied heavily on the proverbial midlife crisis for motivation to reinvent themselves in the career of their dreams. Covid-19 made self-realization an endeavor for all ages with Filled Market as a defining platform. Oakland native Janessa Molina Maquindang turned a downturn in her daytime profession into Flyplant Shop, which reimagines house and garden plants as what she calls “live art pieces.”
Any of the millions of Angelenos who’ve danced at the popular Santa Monica Twilight Series on Santa Monica Pier or Echo Park Rising have enjoyed Janessa’s gift for curating massive entertainment events. The pandemic froze these and other events that employed her.
“I lost all my events,” recalls Janessa. “Throughout this stressful period, my therapy was being with my plants. They kept me at peace with my own sanity.”
Flyplant Shop began in the Long Beach backyard of her business partner. When her partner bought a one-way ticket to the Philippines, she moved the business to Filled Market.
Flyplant Shop (@Theflyplantshop) is building a reputation for creating “plant and pot pairings” that match a customer’s personality. Since she launched the business in June 2020, she’s expanded her merchandise to shears, water cans, and other gardening accoutrements she designs herself, as well as distinctive apparel.
Jenessa describes the common theme permeating her inventory. “Our merchandise helps customers enhance their urban jungle.”
Flyplant merchandize includes Pot It Like It’s Hot Gardening Mat, Fly Gold Watering Can, Flyplant LA Bandana, Plant Head Bucket Hat, and a custom Flyplant Pairing. (Photo by Janessa Molina Maquindang)
In addition to all manner of shrubs and herbs, the shop carries taro root plants, which are key ingredients in ube, and different species of hoya (ornamental plants) from the Philippines. As for certain citrus synonymous with the Philippine Islands, Janessa adds, “We’re looking into bringing calamansi trees.”
But first, Flyplant Shop will be expanding from its weekly spot on the parking lot into a daily operation in a store space within the Manila District commercial building. Soon after its August 14, 2021 grand opening, the store’s permanent headquarters will host gardening classes.
“Our workshops will educate the plant community. We’ll teach them how to care for plants and how to make new plants through propagation.”
She takes a not-so-subtle dig at rocket ship billionaires who espouse colonization of the moon and Mars. “We’ve met lots of people who want to make the Earth a better place. We want to bring that community together.”
Clockwise from top left: Left to Right: Melissa Limbago, Janessa Molina Maquindang, and Sheryl Calipusan Ung (Photo by Josh Maquindang)
Along with an occasional free meal from a featured restaurateur, one of the chief benefits for a Positively Filipino Staff Correspondent is the opportunity to interact with people who are not only talented, risk takers, and brainy, but also caring and on a lifelong path that bonds them with their Filipino heritage. Considering that rare combination of attributes, Janessa checks all the boxes. One advantage of Filled Market is there’s no need of a press pass to meet high-quality people like Janessa and RJ in person.
Anthony Maddela
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