Chicago’s Filipino Chefs Are Back For Chi-ibigan Food Fest: ‘For Us, It’s Brotherhood’
Block Club Chicago / by Lisa Shames / March 23, 2026 RAVENSWOOD — Around this time last year, Lawrence Letrero began thinking of ways to honor April’s Filipino Food Month. The chef, who is Filipino, thought of hosting a few small dinners at Bayan Ko and Bayan Ko Diner, the Ravenswood restaurants he owns with his wife, Raquel Quadreny. Letrero asked a handful of his fellow Chicago Filipino chefs to collaborate. As word spread, others chefs and purveyors quickly reached out to get involved. Read More
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
