Seafood City DJ Brings the Filipino Party Home to Vallejo
One night last September, as JP Breganza stood behind the decks inside Seafood City in Daly City, he saw what felt to him like an unimaginable sight: hundreds of Filipino Americans across generations all crammed inside a Filipino supermarket, ready to get down.
What the Vallejo-raised DJ didn’t realize at the time was his dance party that night would become a viral sensation, sparking a national movement as Seafood City locations across the country began hosting their own late-night DJ parties — massive community gatherings that doubled as heartfelt expressions of Filipino cultural pride.
As the original creator of those Seafood City parties, Breganza remains deeply proud of their cultural impact. “Families were finding each other at Seafood City who hadn’t even talked to each other for years,” he says today.
At the same time, he found himself longing for something a little bit more intimate, where his original vision — born out of nostalgia for the Filipino family parties he grew up attending — wouldn’t be lost. So, for the past several months, Breganza stepped away from the giant supermarket parties to work on a new project: Isa Pa, a series of free Filipino house parties he’ll be hosting on the backyard patio at Village, a new wine bar in his hometown of Vallejo. The first party gets underway this Saturday, Aug. 1.
The name, Isa Pa, means “one more” in Tagalog. It’s a nostalgic phrase for Breganza, who recalls how, as a kid attending Filipino parties with his family, he’d always hear the elders say “isa pa, isa pa” when taking group photos.
“I was so tired of that term,” he says. “I just wanted to keep on playing with my friends!” Now that he’s in his 30s himself, Breganza says he realizes that those elders didn’t just mean they wanted to take one more picture. They also just wanted one more moment to cherish.
Ultimately, that’s the sentiment Breganza wants to share. He recalls how Bay Area Filipinos used to party every week over the smallest things. “I didn’t realize there was less and less of that in the post-pandemic, post-Pacquiao era,” he says, referencing the way Manny Pacquiao fights used to be the “in-between parties” they would throw to bridge the gap between birthdays and graduations. These days, time seems to be moving faster than ever before.
So, Breganza says, “Why don’t we throw one more party and see where it goes from there?”
While Seafood City’s Late-Night Madness parties were largely focused on DJs, Breganza wanted Isa Pa to be a little bit wider in scope in the way they, as he puts it, “celebrate perseverance through Filipino artistry.” He wants to highlight chefs, dancers and all different kinds of musicians, from all over the Bay.
This Saturday’s event, for instance, has a full slate of DJs — including the Peninsula-based Taiwanese Filipino Dailo Mac, the South Bay’s Psychology Department and Breganza himself representing the North Bay. Meanwhile, the headliner will be The Osada 3, a band of teenage siblings that’s built a following for its feel-good, nostalgic Fugees and Tribe Called Quest covers.
Foodwise, chef Jordan Orosco, who cooks at Village, has created a couple of special menu additions for the party: Spam musubi with garlic rice and a sisig silog topped with Thai chilis and the chef’s Tito’s special sauce blend. For that night only, the bar will also be slinging San Miguel lagers — the beer of choice for many old-school Filipinos.
Breganza says he drew inspiration from two existing events: Manila Sound, which has hosted similar backyard parties at a brewpub in Los Angeles since 2022, and Barrio Bounce, a Southeast Asian music collective known for its parties centered on budots, a genre of Filipino electronic dance music. “Those two lay down the blueprint,” he says.
For now, Breganza plans to host Isa Pa parties at Village on a quarterly basis. His hope, in part, is “just for the Bay Area to understand the concept of an OPM (Original Pilipino Music) party,” he says. But his overarching vision for Isa Pa is even more robust. Between parties, he plans to host more intimate gatherings of musicians, chefs and dancers at a bahay kubo (or traditional Filipino hut) that a friend has in his backyard in Vallejo.
Breganza has been filming these smaller gatherings, which are only open to friends and family, and posting the videos on social media — six or seven of them so far. The name he’s taken to calling these sessions? “The Tiny Kubo.”
“It’s basically a Filipino Tiny Desk,” Breganza says.
He isn’t sure yet how this new platform will evolve or whether, like those massively successful Seafood City parties, it’ll turn into a broader national movement embraced by record labels and other Filipino American organizations. “But I hope it turns into something,” he says.
The first Isa Pa party will take place on Saturday, Aug. 1 at Village (1503 Tennessee St.) in Vallejo, from 4–8 p.m., with an all-vinyl after party from 8 p.m. until the bar closes at 11 p.m. Admission is free, though guests should RSVP online.