Since opening Bry’s Filipino Cuisine on State Street in downtown Bellingham in late February, 34-year-old Bryan Matamorosa hasn’t been getting as much sleep as he’d like. On several occasions, in fact, he’s worked as much as 120 hours a week.
“I’ve never worked so hard in my entire life,” he says of owning a restaurant. “There would be, like, three days in a row that I would only have three hours of sleep.”
Matamorosa’s journey to restaurateur has been filled with challenges since he moved to the United States in 2009 from the Philippines. But with each challenge, he’s found the support and inner strength to reach the next stage of success.
“It’s been like a crazy, crazy experience ever since I moved to America,” he says. “It’s never been easy.”
Across the Ocean
Matamorosa’s grandfather was a native Hawaiian who served in the military during World War II. Stationed in the Philippines, he decided to settle there after the war.
During the rule of Philippine leader Ferdinand Marcos — who ruled as a brutal dictator under martial law from 1972 to 1981 — Matamorosa’s grandfather moved back to the United States along with other members of his family.
After Bryan was born, his parents also eventually immigrated to the U.S., but left him behind with other relatives. His mother went through the immigration petition process to have Bryan join them, but it took years. By the time Bryan finally made his way to the U.S., he was 19.
Matamorosa first lived in North Seattle, and then in Federal Way. It was here that his life took a negative turn, finding the area rife with crime and drug use. Eventually, Matamorosa himself began to use methamphetamine. Working at a McDonald’s and surrounded by negative influences, he knew he had to find another place if he was to lead a better life.
Matamorosa then spent three consecutive summers working in Alaska, including on fish processing boats, and was able to regain sobriety. In 2011, he moved to Bellingham and began working wherever he could: seafood processing, electronics assembly, housekeeping at a senior care center, and even at Wal-Mart.
The series of jobs cemented Matamorosa’s need to resume his education (he’d done two years of nursing school in the Philippines and briefly worked as a caregiver’s assistant after immigrating), but his language skills presented another barrier.
“I was not good at speaking English at all,” he says. “I got bullied everywhere I worked because I couldn’t communicate well. I had a rough time, man.”
Matamorosa took entrance exams for Whatcom Community College but scored very poorly. He then began to scour the internet, watching videos on how to be a better student and test taker. His girlfriend at the time also helped better his basic educational skills.
Matamorosa then enrolled at Bellingham Technical College, picking culinary arts — at least partially, he says — because he thought it’d be easy. As a child, he’d enjoyed watching family members cook, and as a young adult, he’d learned to cook Filipino staples like chicken and pork adobo for himself and others.
Honing His Craft
Part-time jobs during Matamorosa’s schooling also helped provide additional learning experiences, including cooking at a senior living facility. He found the dishes uninspiring, but learned about efficient kitchen multi-tasking from a sous chef there. Matamorosa also honed his line cooking skills during a paid internship at Semiahmoo Resort.
The tests of culinary school itself were challenging, he says, but upon passing his first cooking exam, he was ecstatic.
“I was so excited that — for the first time in my entire life — I’d done something I was proud of,” he says. “Before that, there was always a thought of me giving up. I didn’t really want to finish anything because I never really believed in myself.”
Matamorosa graduated from BTC in 2017. He’d already dipped a toe into the Bellingham Farmers Market, collaborating with fellow culinary students on a project called “Local Gourmet.” Finding work at the restaurant and bar inside the Bellingham Four Points Sheraton, Matamorosa moved from breakfast cook to sauté chef, then to raw bar chef. He estimates he shucked more than a hundred thousand oysters in the latter job.
Eventually becoming restaurant chef, Matamorosa saved his money and purchased equipment, trying to figure out when to branch out on his own. He began selling Filipino food at the farmers market, and in 2019 felt he’d been successful enough to quit his job.
But then came the pandemic. Unemployed by his own making, Matamorosa was unable to collect the unemployment so many others sought in the early days of COVID-19. But he still had his equipment, and when his wife saw a food truck on Craigslist, her mother offered Matamorosa a $25,000 loan to buy it.
A Solid Foundation
It took six to eight months to properly prepare the truck, including all necessary regulations, but by 2021 Bry’s Fillipino Cuisine was selling food on the Lummi Nation. Matamorosa expanded to Bellingham, and by 2023, felt he’d maxed out potential sales.
While still sharing a commissary kitchen he was required to have to operate the food truck, he felt the only way to make more money was to have a brick-and-mortar location. When a place in the Herald Building became available, he signed a lease.
Bry’s Filipino Cuisine has garnered solid sales and positive reviews since opening, and employs about 10 people. Matamorosa’s mom can even be found helping prepare food in the restaurant’s kitchen.
Portion sizes of Filipino staples are generous, which Matamorosa says is a direct result of the care-taking aspect of food: he wants nobody to ever leave hungry. Bry’s also caters its food for events like weddings.
“I feed so many people,” he says. “It gives me so much joy, knowing that. People are celebrating [their lives] with my food.”
Though he‘s uncertain how long his restaurant will remain downtown due to financial constraints, Bryan Matamorosa says that never giving up has been the key to his success in life.
“Not everybody has an awesome start [to things],” he says. “But eventually, if you find what you want to do and you pursue it — even though I’m not there yet, I know I will make it.”
Bry’s Filipino Cuisine is located at 1151 N. State St. The restaurant is open Tuesdays to Thursdays from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. and 11 a.m. to midnight on Fridays and Saturdays.
