Raquel Dang wanted to pull from her roots when coming up with the offerings at Baby's Kusina and Market, which is opening soon in Brewerytown, but the first-generation Filipino American also wanted the food to reflect her personal experience.
"There are Filipino flavors in the food, but my experience is different from someone who grew up in the Philippines," Dang said.
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The origin of Baby's goes back to a pop-up restaurant and supper club called Tita Emmie's — Emmie being Dang's mother's name and "tita" the Tagalog word for aunt, either literally by blood or affectionately, i.e. a friend of the family.
Tita Emmie's started in late 2018, and Dang, who was working a corporate job at the time, began contemplating a brick-and-mortar location in early 2022. Dang put in her two weeks at work and took a trip to the Philippines, after which she decided to pursue the idea and look for a space.
"I think at that time, I realized there was something more," Dang said. "If I wanted to take a risk, this is the perfect time to try to open a space and try to make it work."
Dang and her husband, Tam Dang, a first-generation Vietnamese American, secured a location at 2816 West Girard Avenue, gutting the commercial space at the beginning of 2023 and beginning construction in the months that followed. The name "Baby's" comes from Emmie's nickname of "Tita Baby."
Brewerytown has been Raquel and Tam's home for at least five years.
"I really love that the majority of the businesses that sit on Girard are owned by minorities or women," Dang said. "It’s great to be part of this community where there are so many diverse entrepreneurs. It's a huge melting pot in terms of culture and socioeconomic status."
Dang's family immigrated in the 1980s, and she grew up in a predominantly white community in North Jersey.
"I hear similar stories from other Fil-Am (Filipino American) kids. You feel like a third culture kid," Dang said. "You’re Fil and Fil-Am but also the first to be raised as an American. You sit in that hyphenated identity."
The idea for Tita Emmie's, and subsequently Baby's, stemmed from how her family would show love through food.
"We weren’t always saying 'I love you.' We were like, 'What do you want to eat?'" said Dang, adding that eating her favorite foods was a way of finding comfort when she was away from home during periods of her life, such as college.
"Tita Emmie’s was a way of showing love through food — the most intimate way of showing love," Dang said.
Baby's will have some dishes from Tita Emmie's, like the "Not Your Mama's Adobo Wings," a big example of how Dang incorporates new elements into traditional Filipino cuisine. While the adobo maintains its familiar vinegary taste, there's a sweetness and spice added to it, with bird's eye chili.
"It's an interesting challenge because you're paying homage to your culture in a way that’s thoughtful and share history, but you're also letting people know that the Philippines is made of so many islands, and there are different ways food can be represented," Dang said.
Baby's doesn't have a set opening date, but the doors will open soon, according to Dang. The restaurant will have a counter service to make the food more accessible and not restrict everyone to sit-down dining. The space will have a coffee bar, a pastry display, a mezzanine, seating upstairs and downstairs, and a couch lounge.
To the right will be rows of shelving with Filipino-centric market goods. The market will highlight first-generation Filipino American brands, such as South Jersey-based Fila Manila and Sanzo seltzer water. The space is designed so that should customers enjoy any aspect of their food, they can buy something from the market to take home.
The Baby's Kusina and Market staff has people with Filipino backgrounds, with the head chef hailing from Quezon City. It will be open for breakfast to dinner on the weekdays, with brunch service on the weekends. Dang wants to eventually introduce supper club format seated dinners on the weekends.
"We call dinners at our house a 'supper club' because people don’t order: they set the menu," Dang said. "It’s an intimate setting where you share a meal with strangers. Getting to know someone over food is probably the easiest way."
Filipinos make up the third-largest Asian American demographic in the United States, yet Filipino food doesn't have the same popularity of Thai or Vietnamese, which represent smaller populations. The disparity is something that Dang mused about.
"Personally, I think it goes back to assimilation," Dang said. "Many Filipinos already speak English, so the assimilation compared to other Asians was much more seamless." As a result, Dang said, Filipinos didn’t need to immigrate to populations densely populated with Filipinos.
Other Asian communities shared their food to make a living and start businesses, while many Filipinos went into the health-care industry, Dang said.
And while there are other Filipino restaurants in Philly, Dang said the sparse number of these establishments might add some pressure to Baby's to "properly" represent Filipino culture.
"There are so many eyes on you, there’s a specter of having to do things 'the right way,'" she said. "But we're excited to open people’s perspectives on what Filipino food can be."