Johneric Concordia

 
 

Johneric Concordia is the Chef and Founder of The Park’s Finest, a Los Angeles-based restaurant in Echo Park, Historic Filipinotown, Downtown Los Angeles. 

In his youth, he participated in neighborhood non-profit programs and projects designed to prevent at-risk behavior and substance abuse in the aftermath of the Los Angeles riots. Through continued involvement including various intergenerational community organizing efforts for community development in Los Angeles, Johneric garnered distinct perspectives on the Filipino American experience and Philippine culture as it related to its deep history with its relations with its colonial past and how it relates to the diaspora. This deepened understanding acquired through decades of community involvement has been motivation for delving into small business entrepreneurship to build towards meaningful community development.

With the assistance of Search to Involve Pilipino Americans (SIPA) and the Asian Pacific Islander Small Business Program, he started The Park’s Finest, a catering company, with family and friends. The continued growing support of family and community allowed for the opening of The Park's Finest brick and mortar in 2012. A year later, the restaurant was featured on the “L.A. Eats” episode of The Food Network’s Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives. During the Fall season of 2015, the Cooking Channel’s show “The Grill Iron” highlighted Johneric and The Park’s Finest in its episode entitled “Filipinotown Surf and Turf.”

In 2017, Johneric hosted episodes of the Discovery Channel Asia’s “Prison Food”, a series that takes a chef into some of the world’s most notorious prisons to cook a meal behind bars, accompanied by volunteer kitchen staff who are inmates themselves. 

Through a collaborative partnership, he served as the Executive Chef of Thunderbolt, a neighborhood restaurant offering Southern-inspired food and thoughtfully-crafted cocktails on Temple Street adjacent to The Park’s Finest in 2019. Thunderbolt won the Los Angeles Times, “Best Bar 2021” and World’s Best #61 and continued a back-to-back streak of Best in the West 2022-2023.

During the pandemic, Johneric engaged with The Park’s Finest’s Feed the Frontliners Project daily operations feeding over 100,000 healthcare workers and fire station personnel throughout Los Angeles County. Next door, Thunderbolt executed a program offering over 1,500 free sponsored meals for out-of-work hospitality personnel.

Reopening The Park’s Finest to the public in the Fall of 2021, Johneric continues to serve American cuts of BBQ with a Filipino flavor and maintains a commitment to community engagement and empowerment. In Fall of 2023, Johneric and The Park’s Finest will be appearing in an upcoming show on A&E called “BBQ Kings” with Cedric the Entertainer and Anthony Anderson.

For 22 years, Johneric has served as host of Tuesday Night Projects, one of the longest-running free arts and performance series in Downtown Los Angeles and is the oldest currently running Asian American open mic space in the nation that features a curated program of multidisciplinary visual and performing arts. “Through the vibrations of our voices, words combine to paint images of experiences and emotions through the lens of those vocalizing it and vulnerably sharing to audiences’ ears.”

Johneric Concordia’s notable speaking topics:

  • Filipino American experience

  • Small business entrepreneurship

  • Filipino culture

  • Philippine diaspora cuisine

  • The experience of cooking with inmates in South East Asian penitentiaries

  • Community development

  • Youth engagement and leadership development

  • Community Organizing

  • Asian Pacific Islander community coalition building

  • Family history and personal discovery

  • Los Angeles history

  • Storytelling for marginalized communities

 

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