This April, Chef Caroline Concha will take the helm in the kitchen at Mohawk Bend after two years at DTLA vegan pub, Beelman’s, injecting her signature creativity into a forthcoming new menu at the beloved neighborhood spot.
Born and raised in the Philippines, Chef Concha moved to the United States at 19-years-old and worked as a caregiver before going to culinary school. She started at Tony’s Darts Away (TDA) in 2000, a neighborhood pub & beer bar operated by Artisanal Brewers Collective (ABC), where she worked her way up from busser to Executive Chef over the course of five years. While at TDA, she won Best Chef in Burbank two years in a row and became known for her famous vegan chili, which won TDA’s Vegan Chili Cook-Off in 2015. From there, Caroline moved to her next culinary challenge, becoming Executive Chef at another ABC spot, Beelman’s, where she transformed a meat-heavy menu into a 100 percent plant-based one. Vegans and non-vegans alike quickly fell in love with her incorporation of Asian-pacific flavors and unique use of vegetables. She won Locale Magazine’s Best-Female Chef for her All-star Vegan Menu in 2018, even though she is not a vegan herself. Caroline looks forward to bringing her creative and diverse cooking skills to a third ABC restaurant, Mohawk Bend.
A longstanding Mohawk Bend tradition is the Piece of the Pie program, which features a new pizza each month, with $4 from the sale of each pie benefitting a different local non-profit organization. Chef Caroline’s first Piece of the Pie in April will be the Filipino Pie, made with tomato sauce, aged mozzarella, braised pork with sweet vin & tamari soy, fried egg, fresh chilies, garlic chips & calabrian chili oil (made vegan or non-vegan). The pie will benefit St. Joseph’s Center, an organization near and dear to Caroline’s heart as she is a graduate of its culinary training program.
Established in 2011, Mohawk Bend is a craft beer bar and restaurant situated in a retrofitted 100-year-old Vaudeville theater in Echo Park. Featuring fresh, locally-sourced food and drink, Mohawk Bend is known for its pizzas, seasonal salads, elevated pub food, and delicious desserts that appeal to vegans, vegetarians, and meat-lovers alike. Mohawk Bend serves beer and spirits that are exclusively from California.
