Liberty Public Market welcomes White Rice Shop, the long-anticipated food stall

Pinoy BBQ, a dish a chef Phillip Esteban's White Rice booth, opening June 12 at Liberty Public Market in Point Loma.

San Diego chef Phillip Esteban’s White Rice Shop will open June 12 in Point Loma

San Diego Union-Tribune

May 13, 2021 1:30 PM PT

After a pandemic-extended delay, chef Phillip Esteban’s White Rice food stall at Liberty Public Market in Point Loma will open June 12.

White Rice will specialize in rice bowls based on the traditional Filipino dishes Esteban grew up on. The business was born last year after the pandemic forced the shutdown of his corporate catering company. In its place, he launched a meal prep and delivery service that specialized in Filipino rice bowls. Business was so good that when an opportunity came up at Liberty Station, he decided to turn his temporary business into a permanent one.

White Rice is fashioned after a Filipino “sari-sari,” or corner bodega, with rice bowls that feature lechon kawali (crispy pork belly), pinoy BBQ, mushroom-and-tofu sisig, and Filipino spaghetti with hot dog Bolognese. Side dishes include lumpia (spring rolls) and ube pandesal, a traditional Filipino roll made with purple yam.

Esteban — who has worked for Momofuku Ssäm Bar, Consortium Holdings and appeared on TV’s “Chopped” — continues work on his self-funded nonprofit OpenGym, providing meals, community programs and resources to the community. Visit ricebowlsforall.com.

Kragen writes about San Diego restaurants for The San Diego Union-Tribune.

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Pam Kragen

Pam Kragen is the arts and entertainment editor, as well as the chief theater, dining and opera critic, for the San Diego Union-Tribune. She joined the Union-Tribune staff in October 2012 after 27 years at the North County Times, where she served as the Arts & Features Editor, as well as the paper’s longtime arts writer and theater and opera critic. She is the co-founder of the San Diego Theatre Critics Circle. She holds a bachelor of arts degree in journalism from San Diego State University and completed fellowships in theater criticism at the University of Southern California and opera-classical music criticism at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism. And in 2022, she was chosen as one of the fellows in the prestigious National Critics Institute, run by the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center in Waterf, Conn.