Celebrating Culture, History, and Hops With Kaiju Cut and Sew

Kaiju Cut and Sew’s Chris Gomez at Meanwhile Brewing (Courtesy of Chris Gomez)

In the 1970s, the idea was first proposed to designate May as a celebration of Asian American culture and history. Fast-forward some years – and federal administrations – later, and we’re here in Austin 2025, where half-Taiwanese, half-Hispanic Texan Chris Gomez continues that celebratory work through a love of beer, markets, and mahjong.

Gomez owns and operates accessory brand Kaiju Cut and Sew, which should sound familiar to anyone who’s shopped the Blue Genie Art Bazaar. He describes his fabric arts future coming to him at a transition time between a 20-plus year engineering career and not-so-successful attempts to open his own brewery. “I taught myself how to sew,” Gomez recalls, “and then that just clicked. As I started making stuff, it kind of caught wind from a couple other people ... it started to build some steam pretty early on.”

Since then, his work has extended past just Kaiju’s catalog of cute dice bags, wallets, and more. Previous shuttered plans to open a brewery matured instead into collabs with local beermakers like Austin Beerworks, where Gomez is able to bring Asian flavors into the Austin brews. Examples include this year’s ABW Lunar New Year seasonal Fierce Benevolence, which featured a snake coiled around the fruit tea-infused sour’s can, as well as an upcoming May release from Holdout Brewing that’ll benefit the Austin Asian American Film Festival. While he always likes to tie in local nonprofits, Gomez admits he’s an easy sell on brewery collabs. “You don’t have to twist my arm when it comes to asking me if I want to brew a beer,” he says. “I’ll say yes to that every time.”

The upcoming AANHPI Month market Gomez has planned with Meanwhile Brewing doesn’t center on a beer release – though he did partner with them this past February on Lucky Leaves, a LNY-themed rice lager. Instead, the Southside brewery plays host to an all-AANHPI vendor market this Sunday, May 18, featuring jewelry designer Prachi Bhise, printmaker Paper Molas, and illustrator Lisa Crawford, among many others. Having moved to Austin from Victoria, Gomez says he’s always loved the city’s art community where everyone seemed happy to highlight each other’s works – which he says is his motive with each curated market. “I always like to give the community the ability to buy direct from these small businesses that they may not know about,” he adds. “And I hope [the market] puts it on their radar to where these businesses then become some favorite businesses that they love to support.”

But vendors aren’t the only attraction for the Sunday shindig, as Gomez’s club Mahjong Mafia sets up their tiles on Meanwhile’s lawn, too. Started by a semi-joking conversation over McDonald’s Hello Kitty themed tiles, Gomez realized that he and many other friends of Asian descent didn’t know how to play the game despite how many older family members partook in it. “I would watch my mom play,” he remembers, “and they would play, speak in three different dialects, and I didn’t understand any of them. They did not want to teach this kid that was asking these annoying questions.” Making up for that lost mahjong knowledge, the now 50-plus-member group meets up regularly with beginners and experts alike playing together. And now, after first testing the waters at the ABW Lunar New Year market, Mahjong Mafia has been popping up at many Asian American events to introduce the game to everyone.

“It’s been fun to see people not only just learn something new,” Gomez says, “but learn a part of our culture, and then get excited. At the end of it, they immediately ask 'When’s the next one? I want to join the next one.’”

AAPI Heritage Month Pop-up Market

Sunday 18, Meanwhile Brewing

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