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Chef AC Boral has long been a champion of the Long Beach Filipino food scene. Now the former Rice & Shine pop-up star has officially gone permanent with the opening of Bebot on 4th Street in the former Mr. Makoto ramen shop.
Bebot is a casual counter service newcomer focused on what Boral and his team are calling modern Filipino soul food. The small, open space, with its colorful chairs and exposed ceiling, currently works a menu from traditional dishes like sinigang lumpia to plates of glazed barbecue chicken and twice-cooked pork belly adobo over rice and greens. There’s also lechon kawali, crispy pork, and a vegetarian-friendly pancit with rice and wheat noodles. “Our goal is to uphold the legacy of Filipino food tradition,” Boral tells Eater by email, “not to stray too far away from the source material. It should be something familiar and novel at the same time.”
Meanwhile, Boral is planning changes for his Downtown Los Angeles restaurant Baon as well. Boral took over the closed RiceBar space from chef Charles Olalia (who is now doing Filipino food at Ma’am Sir in Silver Lake) earlier this summer, but because of the Long Beach opening he is no longer doing lunch from the minuscule space on 7th Street. Instead, Boral says that he wants to “convert the restaurant into a flex space” that will allow for other chefs to pop up for lunch and dinner, just as he originally did with Rice & Shine. More on that front as it comes.
In the meantime, Bebot is open now in Long Beach, keeping evening-only hours to start.
Bebot. 2741 E. 4th St., Long Beach, CA.
