A New Filipino Pop-Up Has Dishes Dedicated to Jollibee

There’s a new Filipino pop-up in Austin that is paying tribute to the ever-popular international Filipino restaurant chain Jollibee. Former Uchiko chef Dan Castro’s next Manila Ice event takes place on Tuesday, July 12 at commissary kitchen Wingman Kitchens at Springdale General at 1023 Springdale Road, Building 1 in the MLK-183 neighborhood from 4:30 to 7:30 p.m.

The Jollibee-inspired event will feature bowls with fried chicken, rice, and brown gravy; spaghetti made with red sauce, cheddar cheese, and hot dogs; a burger patty with a mushroom Madeira sauce; pancit palabok; and port lumpia paired with rice and banana ketchup. Each item is $15.

Castro wanted to honor Jollibee because it’s his favorite childhood restaurant, as he told Eater, “much like the Filipino Whataburger/In-N-Out,” as he says. It’s important to note that the chain still doesn’t have an Austin location yet.

Through Manila Ice, Casto aims at bringing “my own version of Filipino food here in Austin,” he says. “I’ve always felt that Filipino food always had a place in the food scene. So childhood classics like lumpia, pancit, chicken adobo, and Jollibee are things that I’ve always wanted to share or introduce.”

The location at Wingman came to be because Castro had been looking for an affordable location and when the company announced they were looking for pop-up chefs, Castro submitted himself. He had held his first pop-up in late June at Wingman.

Castro graduated from the Culinary Institue of America in Hyde Park in 2013, worked at Colorado resort the Broadmoor, where he apprenticed in various kitchen areas, and then moved to Austin to work at Uchiko first as a pantry cook in 2016 and eventually as a sushi chef in 2020. Then he opened his private dinner party/catering service Eversoul Culinary.