Little Manila, Chicago’s newest food boom, is a sign of hope for indie restaurants

Chicago Sun Times / by Maggie Hennessey / July 2, 2025

Technically, Chicago doesn’t have a Filipino neighborhood. But Julius Tacadena, the chef and owner of Kanin, thinks a gastronomic Little Manila could be brewing in a small pocket in and around Ravenswood, where he opened his buzzy Filipino-Hawaiian bodega in March.

The sunny Kanin storefront sits next door to Side Practice Coffee, a Filipino cafe and startup incubator that helped launch it. This coffee shop is also where the idea percolated for Del Sur, Justin Lerias’ three-month-old creative Filipino-Midwestern pastry shop a few blocks south on Damen Avenue, known for regular lines down the block. Read More Here.