18 Mar Springing to it with Hidden Hi Fi’s Halo-Halo Series

For the last few months we’ve been in full-on production mode for a couple of projects, including the inimitable Hidden Hi Fi.

Our collaboration with Pilipino Workers Center brought to life the Halo-Halo Series, which includes close collaborations with Filipino American craft barkeepers and chefs and the introduction of a new food justice tour of the neighborhood (with thoughtful tour design coming from the project’s Fellow Xochilt Sanchez).

Our first featured Craft Barkeeper, and all-around-amazing-person, is Darwin Manahan.  Read on to get a sense of what we’re concocting…

Or, visit and like the Hidden Hi Fi Facebook page to catch all the images from the Halo-Halo Series and other Hi Fi events.

Mix it up in 2016 with The Hidden Hi Fi Halo-Halo Series, an immersive experience of Los Angeles’ Historic Filipinotown (Hi Fi) that brings to life the neighborhood’s vibrant identity through food, history, and culture by pairing a sweet ride in a vintage Jeepney with a hands-on workshop led by one of LA’s most inventive Filipino American craft barkeepers and chefs. Sure to delight aficionados of adult beverages, Angeleno culture, urban adventures. Filipino- and Filipino-American-curious welcome.

The expedition starts with an unforgettable ride across Hi Fi in a 1944 Sarao Motor Company Jeepney. Mint. Condition. A flaming orange wonder on wheels. From the Pilipino Workers’ Center, you’ll take in the local landscape –the sights, sounds, people and places that give the neighborhood its personality.  You’ll uncover hidden stories, discover curiosities in plain sight and come to appreciate what’s Filipino (and what’s not) about Historic Filipinotown. By the time you return to Pilipino Workers Center, you’ll be primed to absorb some locally inspired craft mixology and a delicious lunch provided to you by our neighbors at The Park’s Finest and  Tribal Cafe.

You can’t get more local than Darwin Manahan. Before he was one of Zagat’s 2015 30 Under 30, years before the profiles on Vice Munchies and  LA Magazine, this LA native used to frequently visit Hi Fi as a kid. For this workshop, he revisits his Hi Fi roots and reimagines an old school genre (punch, the adult version with alcohol), imbuing it with the contemporary spirit and flavors of Hi Fi. This custom concoction you will learn to make (and of course taste). You will apply your newly acquired knowledge at your next party and wow your friends. Guaranteed. In the process, you will understand how punch epitomizes community and why it is a most appropriate beverage for a neighborhood like Hi Fi.

Hidden Hi Fi events are listed on PWC’s Hidden Hi Fi page and on Facebook.

Episode 1: Punch – February 6, 2016

Episode 2: Punchier – March 19, 2016