From One Tent to Thousands of Guests — The Street Stix Story and Why We Are Sharing Everything We Learned
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If you found The Street Stix Journal through our Instagram, through a friend, or through a Google search about Bay Area food vending — welcome. We are really glad you are here.
Before we dive into permits, pop-up strategies, party planning guides, and everything else we plan to share on this blog, we want to take a moment to introduce ourselves properly. Because everything you read here is going to mean a lot more once you know where it comes from.
Who We Are
Street Stix is a Bay Area Filipino street food brand founded in 2022 by our family — Von, John, Marissa, and Ronald. We serve Filipino street food at pop-up events, farmers markets, night markets, cultural festivals, and private and corporate events across the Bay Area. We have three sub-brands — Street Stix for our savory street food, Street Sweets for our Filipino desserts, and Street Sips for our Filipino-inspired beverages.
But before all of that — before the branded tent, the catering inquiries, the hundreds of events, and the community that has grown around what we do — we were just a family who loved Filipino food and thought maybe other people would love it too.
How It Actually Started
We did not launch Street Stix with a polished business plan, a marketing strategy, or a clear picture of what we were building. We launched with one tent, a propane burner, a folding table from the garage, and a whole lot of love for the food we grew up eating.
The early days were humbling in the best possible way. We made every mistake you can make as a first-time Bay Area food vendor. We applied for permits in the wrong county. We underpriced our food. We showed up to our first event without half the equipment we needed and figured it out on the fly. We sat across from a health inspector at 7am on a Saturday morning with our hearts pounding — and learned something valuable from every single one of those moments.
What we did not have was a clear, honest resource written by someone who had actually been through it. Someone who could tell us which county to file with, how much to charge, what to bring, what to expect, and what not to do the second time around.
That gap is exactly why The Street Stix Journal exists.
What This Blog Is
The Street Stix Journal is our way of giving back to the Bay Area food community that has supported us since day one.
Every post we publish here comes from real experience — four years of active Bay Area food vending across multiple counties, hundreds of events, real health inspections, real permit applications, real pricing decisions, real equipment failures, and real lessons learned in the field. Not theory. Not generic advice you can find anywhere. Real knowledge from a real Filipino family that has been doing this every weekend since 2022.
We are going to cover everything. How to get your TFF permit in the right county. How to find and apply to Bay Area pop-up events. How to price your food so you actually make money. How to pass your health inspection with confidence. How to plan a Filipino-inspired party that your guests will never forget. And the behind-the-scenes reality of running a food business in the Bay Area as a family — the good, the hard, and everything in between.
Introducing the Street Stix Vendor Journey Series
One of the things we are most excited about is what we are calling the Street Stix Vendor Journey Series — a collection of posts that walk through the complete arc of starting and growing a Bay Area food business from the very beginning.
We are going to share our real story in full — the wins, the losses, the events that went perfectly, and the ones that went sideways in ways we can laugh about now but definitely could not in the moment. We want aspiring Bay Area food vendors to feel like they have a family in their corner who has been where they are trying to go — and who is willing to be completely honest about what that journey actually looks like.
If you are thinking about starting a food business in the Bay Area — or if you are already in it and trying to figure out your next move — this series is built for you.
Street Stix Is Growing — and We Are Looking for People to Grow With Us
Alongside everything else we are building right now we have some exciting news to share. As our event calendar grows and our catering operation expands we are officially opening applications for our pop-up crew.
If you love Filipino food, love being part of a community, and love the energy of a live Bay Area pop-up event — we want to hear from you. Street Stix crew members are the heartbeat of every event we do. They are the ones serving customers, keeping the booth running smoothly, and representing everything Street Stix stands for to every person who walks up to our tent.
We are looking for people who are reliable, enthusiastic, and genuinely excited about being part of something that matters to the Bay Area Filipino community. Experience in food service is helpful but it is not required. What matters most is your energy, your work ethic, and your willingness to show up fully every time.
Applications are open now — you can find the link in the footer of our website at streetstix.com. We review every application personally and will be in touch with anyone who looks like a great fit for our crew.
What to Expect Going Forward
We publish a new post on The Street Stix Journal every week. Here is what we are covering in the coming weeks as part of the Street Stix Vendor Journey Series:
Next week we are publishing our complete guide to getting a Temporary Food Facility permit in the Bay Area — which county to apply to, how much it costs, what documents you need, and the mistake that gets first-time vendors shut down on event day before they even open. If you are planning your first Bay Area pop-up this is the most important post we will ever write for you.
The week after that we are covering Bay Area food pop-up events — where to apply, how to get accepted, and what we learned from our first events across Alameda, Solano, San Francisco, and Santa Clara counties.
And the week after that we are getting into pricing — how to actually price your food at a Bay Area pop-up so you go home with money in your pocket instead of just a long day behind you.
Every post is free. No paywall. No email required to read. Just real knowledge shared freely because we believe the Bay Area Filipino food community is better when we lift each other up.
Subscribe to our email list using the form below to get every new post delivered directly to your inbox the moment it goes live. And follow us on Instagram at @street.stix where we share the real-time behind-the-scenes of Street Stix at Bay Area events every single weekend.
We are genuinely excited to build this with you. The Bay Area Filipino food community has given Street Stix so much over the past four years — this blog is our way of giving something meaningful back.
Maraming salamat for being here. It means everything to us.
— Von, John, Marissa, and Ron The Street Stix Family