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I: Alita, your culinary pop-up concept, is over a month old; what would you want to say to your past self when first coming up with the idea?

AP: The biggest thing that I’ve learned over the last month, as boring as it sounds, is understanding the tax stuff. The backend stuff is super important so taking in a little more knowledge about what that looks like before jumping in. Then also relying on people: allowing people to help you. That’s the biggest thing I would’ve said like, “Hey dude, don’t try to do it all by yourself. Have people help you! Ask for help!”

I: Are you still working as a sous chef as well as the pop-up or is the pop-up full-time?

AP: No, so this is full time. The full time gigging has been really good because a lot of people have approached me with collaborative stuff. You know what I mean? Like this last weekend we had a five course tasting dinner at Futuro and it came up like “Hey, would you be down to do this thing?” And I was like, “Yes, totally!”

I: With the menu, do you keep it pretty much the same for specific seasons or do you like to sprinkle in some new dishes?

AP: When we originally started the menu, it was gonna be the wings, a salad, and a dessert. Kind of reminiscent of a candy that me and my sister used to eat a lot as kids, Paleta Payaso, but I do a Pavlova Payaso. I make a chocolate pavlova, fill it with custard, and make little gummies for the face. So that was the original idea of what I thought I was gonna do, but then after the first weekend of us just being super busy, I kind of had to pivot because I was going to run out of wings and I didn’t have time to prep more. So I did another idea that I’ve had, which is an Albóndigas soup sandwich. Albóndigas is a super traditional Mexican meatball soup, and so I had the idea to put the meatballs inside of a sandwich with all the veggies that are typically inside the soup, on the sandwich and then serve the broth on the side, so it’s kind of like a meatball sub French dip situation. We ran that as a special and at the time I was like, “I’ll just do fifteen, because I don’t know if it’s gonna be a thing.” The first fifteen people that came and ordered, ordered that sandwich. It was super popular and sold out, so we were like, “Okay, well, now I guess it is a part of the menu!” We got rid of the dessert just because I don’t think it’s necessary right now, but we’ll definitely pull it out for special events. Right now we have a watermelon salad just because it’s summer, then the wings, and then the French dip sandwich. On top of that–if we have time– we drop the wings to prep something that I’ve been wanting to do for a while, and if the space allows for it we’ll definitely run specials.

I: How is the process of coming up with a recipe? Is it different every single time?

AP: The whole premise of the concept, the whole reason for it is nostalgic dishes that me and my sister used to eat growing up as kids. So a lot of the time, I’ll just go back in the memory bank. Or I’ll hit up my mom and be like, “Hey, what was that one thing that you made for Mother’s Day? That Monday weekend specifically, we called it chicken cake?” We don’t really know what the name of it is but it’s just cornbread with braised chicken on the inside and more cornbread.That’s something that she used to make for us a lot. For the process of that, it was really just looking back and being like, “I remember what that tasted like. Let me try to get as close to what I remember it tasting like, and then from there tweak it a little bit.” That’s definitely been the process. There’s a lot of ideas that, throughout the years I’ve been cooking, that I’ve been wanting to do. I’ve had the privilege of working at restaurants and kitchens where they’ll allow you to cook things on the menu or a component that’ll end up on the menu. There’s still some stuff that I have to test out but I think that’s the beauty of what we do as chefs: continually creating.

I: You’ve spoken about how cooking has been a part of your entire life; through your grandmother and your mother. What was the moment you realized that cooking was a passion more than a pastime or hobby?

AP: One very specific moment in high school, I joined culinary class just so I could eat more. I was doing something and the teacher came up to me and said, “I think you should join the culinary club. There’s some extracurricular stuff we do after school.” So I did. She signed us all up for a competition and each person got a different category, some categories were doubled up–like two of us to a category. The one I was specifically in was for cooking: they said make a composed salad–which instead of a tossed salad is plated in a certain way to be visually appealing–and follow a recipe. The whole time I was also working at Taco Bell, so I sometimes wasn’t able to make the practices for the competition after school because I had to go to work. I remember the teacher being like, “You need to try to make some of these practices.” I said I’d try my best but didn’t make any of the practices. I ended up getting second place.

I: Wow!

AP: After that I was like, “Okay I think I’m onto something.”

I: What has cooking for your own pop-up taught you that is different from being a sous chef in restaurants?

AP: Oh man, a lot! I’m still talking to the chefs like Chef René (Andrade); I ran into TJ (Culp) the other day; and other business owners. It’s honestly crazy, once you’re taken away from cheffing a restaurant: coming in, delegating the work, getting some of the work done yourself, in some ways keeping the morale up, doing the orders, the scheduling. Going from that to now having to do all of the tax stuff. I keep telling Mandy–who is my partner in this–a lot of times the work comes to us: clock in and they’ll come to the door. Now we have to wake up and go find work. We have to make the work happen; setting up collaborative things, setting up the pop-up, the catering, and all of that. The big difference is it doesn’t come to us anymore, we have to find it. We’re super grateful, but we’re also exhausted!

I: I’m sure!

AP: Another thing too that is super important, that I’m struggling a little with but I’m also keeping in the back of my head, is always be present. If a pop-up isn’t doing as well as we wanted or it’s not going how we want, just remember that you’re there and it’s happening. Tomorrow is another day.

I: If you had the world’s attention what would you like to share about Phoenix’s food scene?

AP: We’re coming. I was just talking about this the other day with someone that Michelin is coming to the southwest: Utah, New Mexico, Arizona. I think it is super cool that Phoenix is kind of like–and I don’t know about the other states–being here feels like we’re a bunch of hungry kids going after it. We’re all grinding. Every restaurant you go to–Restaurant Progress, Glai Baan, Long Wongs, Bacanora, Huarachis–there’s no missing. The city is swinging for the fences every chance that they get for it. Every single chance they get, they’re going to go as hard for it as they possibly can. Events like Viva Phoenix, everyone was getting after it with pop-ups and food vendors. It’s up and coming, you know? It’s exciting to be a part of.

I: That is really exciting because the city is growing in a lot of ways with businesses popping up, but it feels like food is at the core of that. More people who aren’t from Arizona or the U.S. are recognizing Phoenix has a huge food culture.

AP: Yeah and it’s super rich too. Even Native American food with the Fry Bread House, that is from here, literally right here! Sonoran food is right here, we’re in the Sonoran Desert. Where else are you going to get Nopales?

I: Exactly! What is something that you’d like for people to take away from eating at Alita?

AP: I think the biggest message we’re trying to relay–especially with me going back into nostalgic dishes–I always tell people the scene in Ratatouille, where he goes back to being a kid. That’s the biggest message I want to relay. We’re all kids at heart in some way shape or form. That’s the impact I want to bring when it comes to a dish. I know the French dip sandwich is innovative and something I turned into for a bar scene, but at the end of the day when you take a bite, I hope it tastes like your grandma’s Albóndigas. Or when I make refried beans, those refried beans taste like your Mom’s refried beans. That’s the kind of impact I want to have with the community, that’s super powerful. It brings a lot of people comfort and warmth, they trust you in that moment.

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Keep up with where you can find Alita next so you can enjoy Padilla’s dishes that’ll bring home to you right here.

I: Congratulations on the release of your first album.

KJ: Thank you so much.

I: What was going through your head the night before releasing?

KJ: The night before the release, I had a listening party that was being set up at Home 44. It’s literally right next to my bestie’s house–my bestie also produced multiple tracks–but we were using his speakers and setting everything up. So I was basically just thinking about managing that and while it was very easy, there’s a little bit of stress that goes into it. So yeah, I was just thinking about that for the most part.

I: The Fader, a highly esteemed publication known for being the authority on what’s next, recognized your debut album at the start of May. How does that feel knowing your music is traveling outside of your direct atmosphere?

KJ: You know what? It’s funny because as long as I’ve been doing music and releasing it online– such a vast place to put anything out into– I know that my music was reaching different corners of the United States without it directly being received in Phoenix. Then when I started actually recording and performing consistently, like super consistently, that’s when I started feeling like, okay, Phoenix is actually forming the trajectory of my career. Then thereafter, it made me consider all of the friends that I was already tapped in with, they ended up being tapped in with somebody in publication or working with those publications for a while. People that I was just following–like their wattpad when I was like 12–they ended up having such a passion for writing and critical thinking that it ended up developing into them working for these publications. I always thought that it could be floating around somewhere because I’d know so many people in different places that could do that, but it was never like such a goal. I remember I was in the airport, in Houston, and I was on my way to New York, that’s when I saw [the post] and I was like, oh, whoa! The guy that wrote about me [in The Fader] or put any recognition towards it, is the manager of my friend who’s from LA. I don’t even think he set that up either; I think the world is just small.

I: What was it like performing in Austin for South by Southwest?

KJ: Oh my gosh. That was so exciting and so fun because I remember for my first release, I was like, I would love to do something like perform for South by Southwest. I started to think about all of the other things–because I had no expectation for my first release, right? – that I could do since now people are paying attention and giving the music a current to coast off of. It didn’t happen the first go around. For my second release, leading up to it, for that to happen, I was like, this is perfect. It felt so satisfying. I had so much fun. It’s interesting because I’m a rapper and I was in a primarily rock venue but still, I think that gave it so much life and contrast because it was so different. South by Southwest turns out to be such a place where it’s like, everybody–no matter what genre you’re looking for–they’re all walking the same street looking for music. You know what I mean? It doesn’t matter what genre it is, that was really interesting and fun to experience.

I: It was amazing, seriously. Okay, so you have three features [on On Everything I Love]: what is a pro in doing a track with a feature?

KJ: I love that question because, I don’t even know if I’m so particular about my features, whereas they just happen and I’m like, this is literally perfect. Aside from one person–which was my friend Marcel, I was like, I really want a feature with you because you’re my buddy, we talk about music all the time, and that just makes sense. I’ve collaborated with rappers, but there are other artists, you know, that sing and composers where I’m like, the way that they conduct themselves, the shape of that I relate to so much. I think that’s really what it is. When you see yourself and what the artist is doing, you want to be able to come together and build the world off of that.

I: That’s so cool! Going back to South by Southwest–you were surrounded by all these different artists, were you able to learn different things from them?

KJ: Yes, yes, absolutely! You learn so much. Also the pointers that you get along the way, I think is literally just in the execution of making music. That’s just how you learn so much. You see what feels right and how it makes you feel and how they respond. That’s probably one of the biggest learning experiences too.

I: One of my favorite lines in the album is ‘study my closeness because I embody my opponent.’ Can you deep dive into the inspiration behind that lyric?

KJ: Yeah, absolutely. I love that line because I’m really just addressing the fact that the only thing that ever gets in my way, the only person ever stopping me, is really me. Sometimes the only obstacle I can really feel is probably something that’s stemming from myself. I feel like I give the world itself, and the fact that I can’t control it, a lot of grace. I feel like it’s not what’s happening around me or to me, it’s how I react to it and if I have an issue with that, that’s totally personal. So that’s kind of what I meant by that.

I: That’s also a pretty big thing that a lot of people can relate to. Even when we feel that we don’t like someone, it’s often just a projection of how we feel about ourselves: is it because I don’t like that about myself or is it because I would like to have that within myself? So I really like that line.

KJ: Thank you!

I: You’re kind of bopping in between Phoenix and New York: what is the difference in the music scene for both of those [cities]? At least from your experience?

KJ: I’ll start by saying one thing that I think is similar because it sets the tone for what’s completely different. Phoenix and New York are the most ambitious places, creatively, that I’ve ever lived. Phoenix feels like a clean slate, we’re one of the youngest states, and everyone feels inspired to develop a culture and take the bull by the horns and really decide what is to come for an artistic Renaissance. Whereas New York is so developed; it already has so much history and culture to it. It’s nothing where anyone can say, I’m going to go to New York, it’s going to be my city! It’s going to eat you up. It’s nothing that you can control and that’s kind of the fun thing about it. It’s like a filing cabinet: you get familiar with it and you study it and it’s all consuming. I feel like those differences even for something that is so vast like New York and then also the vastness that we experience in Phoenix is considered and it’s decided, what we provide, the differences. A lot of people who live in Phoenix are not directly from Phoenix. You might be the first generation to be here or maybe by a couple, and New York is kind of similar, too. It’s very interesting how that works.

I: That is interesting! The creativity here is really huge; I feel like more people than not are feeling that they can go between places and not have to be moving in order to find success. What would be your take on people feeling as if they have to move to a place in order to reach success?

KJ: It’s good to be familiar with what you’re doing and, if it is in a niche pocket, see where there is a market for it or there’s a collective of people that come together dedicatedly to support it. I will say though, especially for a place like Phoenix, it’s not even directly that I would have to move in order to amount to anything or do anything meaningful, because obviously I’ve found so much meaning and support here. I really feel like the biggest thing was being able to access people who really create time to support the values of hip hop and stuff. You know what I mean? Like to be able to live a life where they eat, sleep, live, breathe, shit hip hop and rap. That’s such a developed thing out here. So I guess it’s kind of 50-50 for me, being able to make something off the skin of your own teeth–you need to be able to do that–that’s going to be the most inspiring time. If I wasn’t able to sustain here [in Phoenix], I wouldn’t be able to do anything in New York. I’d probably be so lost in my identity because being here has been able to make me show up as myself, so consistently, that I wouldn’t be able to really manage New York. Both are super important: a place where you have been–you don’t necessarily have to flee–that’s actually going to be the most important thing for you to know yourself. But if you do go directly to a market where you feel like you’re getting the most support, it’s definitely important so you know that there are people who are creating space and time for you to have that.

I: I love that so much. What has been a big lesson that you’ve learned releasing an album, in regards to everything that’s followed?

KJ: I think the rollout process is so highly anticipated for the consumer and the creator alike. The way that you want things to reach people and touch people: is it just about the music? Is it about visually being represented? Is it about who you’re working with? Some people–depending on how developed in the industry they are–line up brand deals in accordance with the release of something. Everything counts. What really, really matters at the end of the day–if you don’t have the resources–is about the music. If you have enough strength in your music to be able to develop conversations or a community to support, that is going to speak volumes. I don’t think I’ve ever given myself a proper roll out; I think I’m really good at making a sequenced and a well condensed body of work. What is a rollout really going to look like for me? Where it’s like, boom, single, video, single, video. Whatever structure it might be, it doesn’t even have to be that, you know? That’s one thing that I’ve learned and I think about a lot and all artists–in our own way–do. Always ground yourself in the fact that it’s about the music.

I: I was going to say, the first album is what people know you from, people are going to discover you from it. Rather than this grand rollout that might not match the vibe of the music. Thank you so much for sitting down with me!

KJ: Of course, thank you!

The practice of casting an actor who is of a different race than a character’s original portrayal in a book, movie, or show is considered colorblind casting. The reason casting directors do this is because race does not impact the character’s story, so they cast the best actor for the role. The movie, The Odyssey, is set to release this summer and people—exhaustingly—are up in arms about Lupita Nyong’o and Zendaya playing Greek goddesses.

Greek goddesses.

Despite a movie that is based on mythical beings, people have all of a sudden become insistent that the actors must be Greek. However, there hasn’t been any push back with Tom Holland (English), Charlize Theron (South African), and Anne Hathaway (American) playing these characters. Which, as we all suspected, is just another case of racism disguised as a want for “story accuracy”. We’ve seen this commentary over and over now, which has become incredibly boring. The negativity surrounding Halle Bailey playing the little mermaid and the casting choices of Bridgerton characters, amongst others.

So what is the takeaway? Casting based on the talent of the actor and their portrayal of the character should be the standard. It allows for excellent performances while also increasing representation. However, the term ‘colorblind casting’ perpetuates the belief that people ‘can’t see color’ which completely negates the cultural background and hardships people of color go through. Additionally, it should not be seen as progressive to turn an originally-white character to a person of color. Rather we should be creating and championing stories that are originally created for people of color. In the meantime, we’ll be enjoying the perfomances of the incredibly talented Nyong’o and Zendaya.

The behemoth that is Shein is a Chinese company that sells a multitude of items including clothing, beauty, home, electronics, and so much more, all for an average price of $10 per item. The company boomed during the pandemic at the same time Chinese-owned company, TikTok took over the U.S. and Europe. It is said that the social media platform had a huge influence on spreading the awareness of Shein to the masses. Shein is similar to Amazon in that it partners with thousands of third-party suppliers—much of them in Brazil, China, and Turkey—to make its products and then ship them to a large, centralized warehouse. At the start of 2025, BBC released an article about the inside of the Chinese factories fueling Shein’s success. Key points they found were:

• The employees that sit behind sewing machines for Shein work an average of 75 hours a week in violation of Chinese labour laws; that’s 15 hours a day for a five day work week or 10.7 hours a day with no days off in a week.

• The factories (there’s thousands of them) that are home to Shein are full of sewing machines, rolls of fabric, and bags of cloth scraps. The doors to the basements are always open for the endless cycle of deliveries and collections.

• Employees are paid per piece, the wage is dependent on how difficult the item is, a simple t-shirt is around $0.18. An employee said that she can make around a dozen of those t-shirts in an hour which calculates to $2.16/hour.

Now to Everlane and what they have said to “stand for” according to their website. Their slogan has been and still is “We’re on a mission to clean up the industry. It’s a movement we’re calling Cleaner Fashion.” They talk about their priority being putting their principles into practice, these principles include:

• Keep Earth Clean: Their focus is to reduce natural resource consumption, minimize waste and pollution, and prioritize safer chemicals being used.

• Keep Earth Cool: They commit to climate reduction targets approved by the Science Based Targets Initiative, to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by more than 50% per-product by 2030, and achieve Net-Zero emissions by (or before!) 2050.

• Do Right By People: They work consistently to enhance their worker’s livelihood, achieve gender equality, and promote fair living wages (hmmmm).

After taking a look at both of these companies, it’s wild to know that these companies are now somewhat synonymous. So let’s direct our attention to vintage shops around the U.S. that you should visit:

1. Phoenix, Arizona: Newell Vintage

2. Los Angeles, California: Happy Isles

3. Atlanta, Georgia: The Clothing Warehouse

4. Chicago, Illinois: Everything Store

5. New Orleans, Louisiana: Century Girl

6. Detroit, Michigan: BORO

7. Minneapolis, Minnesota: Hermine

8. New York, New York: BEFORE NY

9. Austin, Texas: Prototype Vintage

10. Salt Lake City, Utah: Chielo Vintage

11. Seattle, Washington: Lucky Vintage