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Thursday, July 03, 2025Little 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
Wednesday, July 02, 2025Chicago’s Filipino Food Scene Is Thriving. Meet The Man Making It Happen Behind The Scenes
Block Club Chicago / by Lisa Shames / June 30, 2025 RAVENSWOOD — If you’ve had a Filipino-inspired dish or drink in Chicago lately, odds are Francis Almeda had something to do with it. Almeda is the driving force behind Ravenwood’s Side Practice Coffee, 5139 N. Damen Ave., where specialty drinks at the 5-year-old cafe often include some form of ube, the purple yam native to the Philippines. At Drip Collective, 172 N. Racine Ave. in the West Loop, where Almeda is a partner, the signature turon latte mimics
Wednesday, May 28, 2025Fathers have a friend in Chicago’s 'Broskis,' a club linking dads with other dads and their children
Chicago Sun Times / by Lisa Shames / May 27, 2025 It’s 10:30 on a breezy Saturday morning in April and Ravenswood’s Side Practice Coffee is filling up with small groups of twentysomethings and solo customers with laptops. In the corner, a pop-up from a local baker has attracted a small line. Closer to the hour, the vibe starts to change with guys entering the indie coffee shop carefully maneuvering their child-filled strollers down the short flight of stairs. Outside, it’s a similar scene with kids, and
Tuesday, April 01, 2025Indulge Upon the Fabulous Filipino Pastries at This New Lincoln Square Bakery
Eater Chicago / by Lisa Shames / March 27, 2025 While most don’t spend high school meticulously planning the future, that’s exactly what Justin Lerias did and he has the handwritten journal entries to show for it. Almost a year to the day after signing the lease and eight years since putting pen to paper, Lerias has finally opened Del Sur. The 1,200-square-foot space in Lincoln Square is located next to the CTA’s Brown Line Damen stop. Lerias’s creative Filipino American baked goods — calamansi chamomile
